Milestones in Film History: Greatest Visual and Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) Part 1

Introduction: From even its earliest days, films have used visual magic ("smoke and mirrors") to produce illusions and trick effects that have startled audiences. In fact, the phenomenon of persistence of vision is the reason why the human eye sees individual frames of a movie as smooth, flowing action when projected. Cel animation, scale modeling, claymation, digital compositing, animatronics, use of prosthetic makeup, morphing, and modern computer-generated or computer graphics imagery (CGI) are just some of the more modern techniques that are widely used for creating incredible special or visual effects. (See this site's film terms glossary for definitions and examples, the History of Film by Decade, and an extensive timeline of other Milestones and Turning Points in Film History.) Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.
Milestones in Visual/Special Effects and Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) - Part 1 (chronological) Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Film Title and Description of Visual-Special Effects	Example
Monkeyshines No. 1 (1889 or 1890) Thomas Edison's assistant William K.L. Dickson filmed his first experimental Kinetoscope trial film, Monkeyshines No. 1, the only surviving film from the cylinder kinetoscope, and apparently the first motion picture ever produced on photographic film in the United States. It featured the fuzzy movements of laboratory assistant Sacco Albanese, filmed with a system using tiny images that rotated around the cylinder.
Dickson Greeting (1891) The first public demonstration of motion pictures in the US using the Kinetoscope occurred at the Edison Laboratories to the Federation of Women’s Clubs on May 20, 1891. The very short film’s subject in the test footage was William K.L. Dickson himself, bowing, smiling and ceremoniously taking off his hat.
Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) aka Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze One of Thomas Edison's first film strips on celluloid, filmed to be viewed on his invention called the kinetoscope, a device for viewing moving pictures without sound, and patented in 1887. It remains as one of the earliest surviving copyrighted motion pictures (or "flicker"), lasting a duration of five seconds and filmed at sixteen frames per second (80 frames), composed of an optical record of Fred Ott, an Edison employee, sneezing comically for the camera. In a few short years, Edison was producing between 200 and 300 films at the Black Maria, the first movie studio established in 1893.
Annabelle (Whitford) Moore's Dance Routines (mid 1890s) Many of the earliest nickelodeon films featured the dancing of vaudeville performer Annabelle Whitford (known as Peerless Annabelle) Moore, whose routines were filmed at Edison's studio in NJ - Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894), Annabelle Sun Dance (1894), Annabelle Serpentine Dance (1895) - the first publically-released color film (pictured) - hand-tinted, Serpentine Dance by Annabelle (1896), Annabelle in Flag Dance (1896), Skirt Dance by Annabelle (1896), Tambourine Dance by Annabelle (1896), Sun Dance - Annabelle (1897), etc.; male audiences were enthralled watching these early depictions of a clothed female dancer (sometimes color-tinted) on a Kinetoscope - an early peep-show device for projecting short films.
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1895) The first known (and only surviving) film with live-recorded sound made to test Edison's Kinetophone (with a cylinder-playing phonograph and connected earphone tubes) was this 17-second short film. It was noted as the first film combining both sound and motion. The projector was connected to the phonograph with a pulley system, but it didn't work very well and was difficult to synchronize. It was formally introduced in 1895, but soon proved to be unsuccessful since competitive, better synchronized devices were also beginning to appear at the time.
The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1895), aka The Execution of Mary Stuart This was the first special effect (in-camera), reportedly, of the controversial execution (decapitation) of Mary, Queen of Scots (Robert Thomae) on the execution block, using a dummy and a trick camera shot (substitution shot or "stop trick"). In the short sequence, Mary knelt down, and put her head on the block as the executioner raised a large axe. When the axe was brought down, her head rolled off the chopping block to the left - where the executioner picked it up in the final frame and held it up.
A Railway Collision (1900) Director R. W. Booth and producer Robert W. Paul (Paul's Animatograph Works) made this short 22-second film - one of the earliest attempts to realistically re-create a large-scale railroad disaster by using miniature scale models; the film depicted two trains speeding toward each other on the same track, and colliding on the embankment.
La Voyage Dans la Lune (1902, Fr.), aka A Trip to the Moon Frenchman George Melies developed the art of magical special effects in earlier films and then perfected them and used them in later films, such as in this classic - a 14 minute masterpiece (nearly one reel in length (about 825 feet)), with live-action, animation, and the use of matte paintings and miniature models. He made up and invented the film medium as he directed, including double exposure, the substitution shot, actors performing with themselves over split screens, miniatures, stop-motion, and use of the dissolve. He also pioneered the art of film editing.
The Great Train Robbery (1903) In Edwin S. Porter's landmark film, a primitive one-reeler action picture about 10 minutes long with 14-scenes, he incorporated parallel editing, innovative camera movements, location shooting, jump-cuts or cross-cuts - and this early special effect - a composite made of two separate images. The in-camera matte effect was of two separately filmed segments: the interior of a train station and the window (where a shot of a passing train was matted). It was filmed in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which would remain virtually unchanged for half a century.
Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) Historically and technically, this was the first animated film short. It was made by newspaper cartoonist J. Stuart Blackton, one of the co-founders of the Vitagraph Company. It was the earliest surviving example of an animated film. It was the first cartoon to use the single frame method, and was projected at 20 frames per second. A cartoonist's line drawings of two faces were 'animated' (or came to life) on a blackboard. The two faces smiled and winked, and the cigar-smoking man blew smoke in the lady's face; also, a circus clown led a small dog to jump through a hoop.
Rescued From an Eagle's Nest (1907) Richard Murphy created a mechanical eagle for this early Edwin Porter film (an Edison production with director D. W. Griffith in his first major screen role) - in the scene, a stuffed eagle with movable wings kidnapped a baby and battled the heroic father.
The "Teddy" Bears (1907) Edwin Porter directed this short 13-minute film (a variation on the Goldilocks and the three bears story) - it was one of the earliest all stop-motion or stop-frame animation films and took approximately 56 hours to animate just one minute of film; the narrative portion of the film told about how three anthropomorphic bears pursued Goldilocks across snowy terrain until a hunter (a satire on "Teddy" Roosevelt - the nation's President at the time) killed the two larger bears, but captured the third baby bear (based upon a true story about how TR refused to shoot a bear cub); there was also an opening animated sequence of six stuffed 'dancing' teddy bears of varying sizes coming to life.
Fantasmagorie (1908, Fr.) Emile Cohl's animated short film was considered the first fully animated film, although it consisted solely of simple line drawings that blended, transformed or morphed from one image into another; in one early live-action sequence, the animator's hand entered the scene to draw a clown-like stick figure. The film was created by placing each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then tracing the next drawing - with variations - on top of it until the animator had about 700 drawings. The black lines on white paper were printed in negative reverse, making it appear as if the action was on a blackboard.
Cabiria (1914, It.) This box-office success was a black/white 180-minute silent epic directed by Giovanni Pastrone. It was a landmark film - an early example of monumental epic film-making with thousands of extras, large sets and spectacular stunts. It laid the pattern and groundwork for future big-budget feature-length films (by the likes of D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille). The film inspired D.W. Griffith to make his own epic Intolerance (1916). Its story of 3rd century BC Ancient Rome included sequences of the eruption of Mt. Etna, and Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with elephants (with an early example of tracking shots). The landmark film was shot on location in North Africa, Sicily and the Italian Alps, and reportedly contained the first use of trucking shots (which became known as 'Cabiria' movements).
Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) Gertie was originally part of a vaudeville stage show (called a "chalk talk") in early 1914 in which newspaper cartoonist/animator Winsor McCay introduced the brontosaurus dinosaur, who then walked out onto the screen. McCay directed his creation from stage right - directing Gertie to raise her foot, to the audience's astonishment. By late 1914, McCay created a theatrical release version of the cartoon that included a "live action" segment that book-ended the cartoon, in which he 'walked into' the animation by disappearing behind the screen, and then appeared in cartoon form on the screen to ride on the back of the dinosaur into the distance. The film's advertisement called it the "Greatest Animal Act in the World". It was the earliest example of combined 'live action' and animation -- and the first "interactive" animated cartoon.
Intolerance (1915) D. W. Griffith's pacifistic epic contained some of the earliest in camera or make-up/special effects - such as the sword beheading of one Babylonian soldier, and the realistic chest-stabbing of another opponent.
The Gulf Between (1917-18) This film was the first feature-length motion picture in two-strip Technicolor produced in the US. It was also the third feature-length color movie. It is considered a lost film, with only a few frames surviving.
The Sinking of the Lusitania (1918) Early cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay's 12-minute propagandistic, documentary-style The Sinking of the Lusitania, an animation landmark, was the first serious re-enactment of an historical event - the torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, resulting in the loss of almost 2,000 passengers. It was one of the earliest films to utilize cel animation.
The Debut of Thomas Cat (1920) Producer John Randolph Bray's (and Bray Picture Corporation's) The Debut of Thomas Cat was the first color (2-color process) cartoon, using the expensive Brewster Natural Color Process (a 2-emulsion color process), an unsuccessful precursor of Technicolor. This was the first animated short genuinely made in color using color film. However, some sources have claimed that the Natural Colour Kinematograph Company's In Gollywog Land (1912, UK) was the earliest, using Kinemacolor.
The Toll of the Sea (1922) This five-reel film (approx. 54 minutes) debuted as the first general release (widely-distributed or commercial) Hollywood feature film to be projected in color and to use the improved two-tone Technicolor process. The leading lady in the film was Anna May Wong -- the first big-name Chinese-American actress - who played the role of Lotus Flower.
The Power of Love (1922) This was the first 3-D feature film shown to a paying film audience (not Bwana Devil (1952)). It was projected dual-strip in the red/green anaglyph format, making it both the earliest known film that utilized dual strip projection and the earliest known film in which anaglyph glasses were used. The film utilized and may have been the only commercial film produced in the dual-camera, dual-projector system developed by Harry K. Fairhall and Robert F. Elder. The film is now considered lost.
The Ten Commandments (1923) This early Cecil B. DeMille epic used primitive special effects techniques - the parting of the Red Sea was accomplished by filming water as it poured down two sides of a U-shaped tank, and then running the film backwards - to make the water appear to divide. The illusion of keeping the walls of water separated was accomplished by slicing a slab of jello in two and filming it in closeup - and then combining (or double-exposing) it with live-action footage of the Israelites walking into the distance and the Egyptian chariots in pursuit.
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924, Ger.) Director Fritz Lang's two-part fantasy epic film was based on German legends - it was noted for its special effects creation of a giant, 50-foot fire-breathing dragon named Fafnir. The slow-moving mechanical creature required seventeen technicians to operate.
Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes (1924-27) The Fleischer Brothers made the first animated films (cartoons) that featured a soundtrack, a series of 36 films released in the mid-1920s that were the precursors to karaoke. The first sound cartoon was one of the Song Car-Tunes -- Mother Pin a Rose on Me. They were also the first audience participation films, with sing-along lyrics and a 'bouncing-ball' helper. They included Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1926), When The Midnight Choo-Choo Leaves For Alabam' (1926), Comin' Tho' The Rye (1926), Margie (1926), My Old Kentucky Home (1926), Tramp, Tramp, Tramp-The Boys Are Marching (1927), By The Light Of The Silvery Moon (1927). In My Old Kentucky Home, Bimbo said to the audience: “Follow the ball and join in everybody." Twelve of the 36 Car-Tunes films were produced with the actual DeForest sound on film process.
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) This classic Arabian nights tale by director Raoul Walsh used state of the art, revolutionary visual effects (for its smoke-belching dragon and underwater spider, to the flying horse, the famed flying carpet, and magic armies arising from the dust) and displayed legendary production design.
Battleship Potemkin (1925, USSR) Sergei Eisenstein's Russian film was famous for its pioneering, revolutionary and innovative use of montage - a rhythmic juxtaposition of unrelated, cross-cut images that created associations in the audience's mind of a violent massacre - although mostly unseen. The famed Odessa Steps sequence contained 155 separate shots, using editing and cutting to convey heightened emotion and dramatic meaning, with close ups (some extreme), long shots, camera pans in every direction and subtle time shifts.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) This expensive sword-and-sandal epic (costing between $4-6 million, making it one of the most expensive silent films ever made) was notable for its use of a hanging miniature - to fill in the upper tier portion of the coliseum (with fake spectators) for the famed chariot race sequence. It was filmed with some two-color Technicolor sequences (e.g., the triumphant processional sequence).
The Lost World (1925) This was a notable, ground-breaking film in establishing its genre - 'live' and life-like giant monsters-dinosaurs, later replicated in Gojira (1954, Jp.), Jurassic Park (1993) and Godzilla (1998). It was the first feature-length dinosaur-oriented science-fiction film to be released. The 'creature feature' story was based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 adventure/romance fantasy. Willis O'Brien, later famed for King Kong (1933), was responsible for this pioneering film's first major use (primitive) of stop-motion animation in a feature film - especially the sight of a brontosaurus running wild in the streets of London, and knocking down people with its tail. O'Brien used small-scale puppet models that were filmed frame-by-frame on miniature sets and landscapes. Live action and stop-motion animation would be combined by putting the two negatives together using split-screens. This film also used the technique of a traveling matte (the process of adding a moving element to a frame so that it could be separated as an element and combined with a different background) - for example, in one sequence (top image), actress Bessie Love was matted into the frame as she cowered below the Tyrannosaurus.
The Black Pirate (1926) Actor-producer-star Douglas Fairbanks' ultimate pirate film (silent) was historically significant - the adventure swashbuckler was the first full-length blockbuster color film. (The two-color process was first introduced in The Toll of the Sea (1922) - see above, and in some sequences of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) - also see above.) It boasted the use of an experimental early Technicolor (two-color) process, although it was also filmed in black and white.
Don Juan (1926) Using its newly developed Vitaphone (sound-on-disk) process, Warners Studios added a score and sound effects to this John Barrymore silent already in production, beginning a revolution in sound. It was the first mainstream film that replaced the traditional use of a live orchestra or organ for the soundtrack (a recorded musical score of the New York Philharmonic), and successfully coordinated audio sound on a recorded disc synchronized to play in conjunction with a projected motion picture. The sounds in the film consisted of some sound effects and music, but no dialogue.
The Jazz Singer (1927) Although this film was not the first sound film, nor the first 'talkie' film or the first movie musical, it was the first feature-length Hollywood "talkie" film in which spoken dialogue (synchronized) was used as part of the dramatic action. Audiences were wildly enthusiastic when America's favorite jazz singer and superstar Al Jolson broke into song, ad-libbed extemporaneously with his mother at the piano while singing "Blue Skies", and proclaimed the famous line to introduce a musical number: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"
Metropolis (1927, Ger.) Fritz Lang significantly advanced the art of using elaborate model miniatures to create vast cityscapes. In the film's opening, animated airplanes fly above the futuristic city filled with more animated automobiles. Other perspective techniques created the illusion of distance and size. The film also employed matte paintings, complex compositing, back or rear projection (the scene of Fredersen (Alfred Abel) speaking to his foreman on a TV screen), and the Schufftan process -- an optical special effect that used mirrors to create the illusion of actors in huge sets (that were actually miniatures), such as the scene set in the sports stadium. This early process was soon replaced by the simpler, more efficient matte method.
Napoleon (1927, Fr.) This milestone film from Abel Gance was the first in stereo sound. Two years after its release, it was first shown on triple screens using three projectors in Paris in January of 1929 - a foreshadowing of Cinerama or 'widescreen' films. The finale is a spectacular triptych played on three screens that, together, measure about 90 feet wide. Three different images were projected in synchronization by three separate cameras, a technique known as Polyvision. It was a remarkable masterpiece, innovatively overlaying double exposures and dissolves, and composing multiple images in the same frame. It was also famous for its use of split screens, ultra-wide scenes, a moving camera (Gance mounted cameras on horses, elevators--even guillotines--to achieve unusual effects), and color tinting to illustrate setting or mood: blue tones for night and red-orange for the battle of Toulon.