INTERESTING FACTS FROM THE WORLD OF SPECIAL EFFECTS

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• First known special effect in the history of film is so called stop trick, which was used by Alfred Clark in 1895 in his movie „The Execution of Mary Stuart”. Clark stopped the camera in moment, when the executor lifted his axe and placed a doll in place ofthe actress, which resulted in realistic event of decapitating the Queen of Scotland.

• More advanced special effects were introduced to movie theaters in 90’s and presented in movies: „The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) and „A Trip to the Moon” (1902). They were models of puppets, whuch were moved by people.

• Later years up to 90’s was an golden era for models, painted pictures on the glass, mirror reflections and green/blue screens. Thanks to those tricks it was possible to create movies like „Star Wars” by George Lucas.

• First fully digitally created character is „Knight coming down from the stained glass window” in movie „Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985) directed by Barry Levinson.

• Real era of CGI, however, began in the early 90’s, when Steven Spielberg’s „Jurassic Park” (1993), in which computer effects were used extensively, was released in cinemas. Production itself isn’t the youngest, but it survived the test of time and it does not differ visually from the latest productions.

• Today’s market for the special effects industry is worth bilions of dollars and CGI/VFX is found in virtually every movie.