Movies 101: Special Effects Firsts

Stills from The Horse in Motion

Special effects have long been the magic that creates the most important parts of the movies. From generating CGI fantasy characters to explosions to new camera effects and innovations such as sound and color, it is easy to say that modern film wouldn't exist without the special effects department. To this day, they still are responsible for color, sound, and some of the great technological innovations that have brought us movies like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the upcoming Avatar. Of course, most special effects started simply enough. Without everything from stop-motion animation to technicolor to 3D and even Smell-O-Vision, film would not be what it is today.

The first new technology to change the course of film was the advent of film itself. The first film ever created is widely regarded to be 1878's The Horse in Motion, created by film pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, who used his zoopraxiscope and multiple cameras to capture a moving horse then put the pictures together in a sort of flip-book style, giving the illusion of movement. At 19 seconds long, you can watch the racehorse named "Occident" in this first motion picture here.

The first in-camera special effect is credited by being The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots made in 1895, which you can watch here. This film is often credited as being the first film to use special effects. The film used a freeze frame to create the illusion that the actress's head was actually cut off, stopping the action then replacing the actress with a dummy. When the film was released, this shot was so convincing, many film-goers praised the actress for giving up her life for the sake of her film.

The first film to combine animation with live-action was Georges Méliès' film The Voyage to the Moon, which is also considered to be the first sci-fi movie. Méliès' is often credited as the father of film editing and during this film, he combined live-action acting with animation, matte paintings, miniature models, and invented the techniques of double exposure, substitution shots, actors performing with themselves during split screens, and stop-motion techniques. An honorable mention goes to the film The Enchanted Drawing, in which an artist's drawings come to life off the page. That film can be found here.

The film credited as being the first stop-motion animation is Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton 1898 production of The Humpty Dumpty Circus. The two filmmakers used one of their daughter's toy sets to create the animated film, which is now believed lost.

Still shot from Becky Sharpe

Of course, most people know that the first full length talking picture was The Jazz Singer, the 1927 film staring Al Jolson as a Jewish cantor who defies his father to become a jazz singer. What many do not know is the first color film is widely considered to be the short film Cupid Angling, which was a silent film released in 1918, which was produced by Leon F. Douglass. However, some credit the 1914 British short film The World, The Flesh and the Devil as being the first use of color on film. The first full length color feature is usually credited to Becky Sharpe, which was released in 1935, starring Miriam Hopkins and Billie Burke. Becky Sharpe is also the first film released in Technicolor.

The first full length animated features were El apóstol (1917) and Sin dejar rastros (1918) by Quirino Cristiani, though both films are considered lost. Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) is the oldest animated feature that can still be seen. The first American animated feature was Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937. Most of Hollywood at the time thought a full-length animated feature would fail at the box office and often referred to the film as "Disney's Folly." Following true Disney entrepreneurship, this was also the first film to have a soundtrack album released along with it and to have merchandise available for consumers in conjunction with the premier of the film. Disney also has a first when it comes to the use of surround sound. Fantasia(1940) was the first film that was shown using this sound technique.

Of course, not all new film technologies are as celebrated as others. The first ever 3-D film was Bwana Devil, which was released in 1953. Starring Robert Stack, the film is based on the Tsavo Lion attacks in East Africa and the film is not usually found at the top of many top ten lists. A big fad in the early 1960s was Smell-O-Vision and the first film to use this technology was Scent of Mystery from 1960. Peter Lorre starred in this film, which was shown in theatres that coordinated the release of smells with what was happening on screen.

Original poster from Scent of Mystery

Even in more modern times, we continue to develop new film techniques. IMAX technology might seem new, but the first IMAX film ever released was in 1970, the film Tiger Child. The premier of the IMAX film was in Osaka, Japan. The first use of steadicam was in the 1976 boxing blockbuster Rocky.

The first use of Dolby Digital Sound came with 1993's Jurassic Park, a film which is credited with pioneering the technology that creates mythical and surreal characters and creatures like the ones we see in The Lord of the Rings, Eragon, and the Harry Potter series. Further developments in animation came with 1995's Toy Story, the first full length CGI film. The first film shot entirely on digital film was Attack of the Clones and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is credited as being the first film shot entirely against a blue screen.

Perhaps the one franchise that has brought more innovation and invention to movie special effects is the Star Wars series. A New Hope was the first film screened in Dolby Stereo and was one of the first films to incorporate computer technology. It also invented the technique known as motion control. This technique allows scenes to pe perfectly planned and synchornized, allowing rapid-paced battle or action scenes to be shot, without which Star Wars would not have been as much of a success. The Phantom Menace was the first time a fully computer-generated speaking character was used in high resolution. That character was Jar Jar Binks, voiced by Ahmed Best

Below is a great short film showing the advancements film special effects have made over the past 100 years, which is really a marvel to watch. If you want more information on movie special effects, check out the Science and Technology section of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or this great articleabout special effects.