Living in an era where AI is slowly taking over filmmaking, I cannot stop thinking about the time when filmmakers were literally creating special effects manually. From cosmic battles to dystopian worlds, everything was created without any digital aid, i.e. no CGI, no VFX…heck… no computer!
Filmmaking techniques such as stop motion, set-design and construction, and practical effects were the only option at hand to bring even the most fantastical and bizarre ideas to life on screen. Yet, it was during this era that sci-fi and other visual effects-heavy genres made significant growth, rendering movies that are still critical milestones in global cinema.
In this article, we’re looking at some of the most iconic films that nailed visual effects without any CGI.
Movies That Featured Iconic Visual Effects Without Any CGI
1. A Trip to The Moon (1902)
Georges Méliès’ A Trip To The Moon follows a group of scientists who manage to successfully launch themselves into space in a huge space cannon, determined to go to the moon. Before they can head back, they are met with a stream of obstacles that need to be overcome for a way back home. Making a space adventure film in 1902 was no child’s play. We’re talking about a time when even animation meant hand-drawing thousands of frames, just to create a few seconds of film footage.
Méliès built elaborate sets, seamlessly integrating them with practical effects to bring his vision to life. Every set is meticulously designed to blend quirk with logic, and despite being black and white, it doesn’t take away from the experience in any way. It is not only immersive but also memorable. Méliès is known to be the pioneer in special effects.
2. Metropolis (1927)
Would you believe it if I told you that the film that pioneered cyberpunk didn’t use any CGI? Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is set in a futuristic dystopian world where the society is distinctly divided between the wealthy and the lower class, with the latter being exploited in broad daylight to meet the needs of the former. The narrative follows the love story between a privileged man and a working-class woman, exploring complex social issues including exploitation of the working class, dehumanization, revolution, and capitalism.
Lang brought the city of Metropolis to life solely by the use of miniatures, using the mirror technique in practical effects, to juxtapose every background and setup against the actors. In the mirror technique, a mirror is placed at 45 degrees in front of the camera in a way that it reflects the miniature model in frame. Then, the glass is lifted a little bit so that the actors on the constructed set are now visible. Their alignment and lighting are matched, and by adjusting the perspective, the two layers are juxtaposed over one another to create a single composition. Metropolis is one of the finest examples of the use of miniatures in world-building.
3. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz is not only a widely popular fantasy film, following the iconic Dorothy Gale, as she mysteriously reaches The Land of Oz and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to find her way back home. The movie is notable for its use of color, namely when Dorothy leaves her home in Kansas, which was filmed in black and white, and enters The Land of Oz, which was filmed in Technicolor.
It also continues to be one of the finest specimens of matte painting, a technique where the entire world is hand-painted to create matte backgrounds, against which the actors perform. Interestingly, matte painting is still widely used in filmmaking, only now, the paintings are created digitally.
4. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
Stop motion is one of the most traditional forms of animation and director Don Chaffey used the same technique to bring his mythical tale to life. Stop motion was already around for quite some time, with Stuart Burton’s The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) being the first ever to use the technique. Since then, there has been no looking back.
From Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr Fox to King Kong (1933) to even some of the latest music videos of our time, stop motion has only expanded our creative horizons.
5. King Kong (1933)
Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s King Kong is critically acclaimed for its bold fantasy-monster horror. Sure, it isn’t as stylized as the movies that followed in the franchise, but King Kong, with its first-of-its-kind practical effects, continues to be a crowd favorite.
The narrative follows a film crew on an isolated island where they encounter a giant ape, who eventually develops serious emotions for the leading lady of the film and abducts her. Truth be told, King Kong’s practical effects are far from perfect (some portions are even a clear giveaway), yet the efforts to create a spectacle are commendable.
6. Alien (1979)
Ridley Scott heavily relied on practical effects for most parts of Alien. One of the most iconic scenes, the “chestburster” scene, was completely shot with practical effects. Reportedly, Scott informed no one other than the department in charge that an alien would be exploding out of Kane’s chest. Real organs sourced from a butcher shop were fixed on a prosthetic body with tiny explosions.
Underneath the setup, Hurt was placed with his head sticking out. When the actors came back on set for the shoot, they saw the crew wearing raincoats and the camera wrapped in plastic, but they were still kept in the dark. As the cameras rolled and the actors leaned in to perform the scene, the prosthetic setup burst open like a tiny explosion, capturing real horror and gore in real time.
7. Jaws (1975)
Filming Steven Spielberg’s Jaws would have been much easier if Spielberg could have used CGI for the shark scenes, but it wasn’t quite developed yet. Spielberg shot Jaws right at the ocean instead of a tank, believing that “If I [Spielberg] made the movie in a tank, it would have had that same mythological feel that the Spencer Tracy film, The Old Man and the Sea, has.”
But then, the saline water led to regular failures of the mechanical sharks made by Robert A. Matey, forcing Spielberg to reduce the overall screen time of the shark. Honestly, I am in complete agreement with Spielberg, “Had the shark been working, perhaps the film would have made half the money and been half as scary.”
8. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London literally flipped the practical effects scene in cinema after showing the full-fledged gradual transformation of a man to a werewolf in real time with intricate details. Widely considered to be the best work with makeup and prosthetics back in the ‘80s, the film won the Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 1982. Even four decades later, the transformation sequence continues to inspire films in the genre of body horror.
Which of these movies have you watched? Let us know your favorite.
