E: cinema with effects
The most shared definition of special effects was provided by the winner of two Academy Awards Eustace Lycett: it is “any technique or trick that is used to create an illusion of reality in a situation where it is not possible, economical or safe to use the real thing”.
Otherwise called "tricks", they were used for the first time in France in 1895 when, to simulate a decapitation, filming was interrupted and, in the meantime, the actress was replaced with a mannequin. Since then and throughout the black and white period countless special effects were invented in order to make the film more dynamic: at the beginning they were simple scenic artifices, obtained by moving the camera from different angles, backdrops or parts of the scenography in movement; subsequently we moved on to the manipulation of the film with the use of cardboard masks placed to protect a part of the same, then replaced with smoked slides (in this way it was possible to differentiate the impression of the acetate and carry out alternating processes). The inventor of special effects in cinema was the Frenchman Georges Mélies, of which the famous is remembered Journey to the moon, from 1902, the first film of great international success to fully enter the iconography of cinema (from to review)
The masterpieces of those years, made using different techniques (from drawing to the use of particular optics on the lenses of the cameras or sophisticated filming equipment) to remember are - in our opinion - absolutely Metropolis by Fritz Lang from 1927 and King Kong from 1933 by Merian Cooper. Also in those years, the films of Buster Keaton deserve to be remembered, who made extensive use of special effects.
With the introduction of color and the progress of technology in all production sectors, special effects profoundly marked the development of contemporary cinema. The milestones of that period at the turn of the 50s are represented by The Forbidden Planet of 1956 (the unforgettable image of the robot) and The 10 Commandments of 1956 (the grandiose scene of the parting of the waters of the Red Sea). From that moment we enter the modern era which officially begins in 1968 with 2001: Odissea nello spazio directed by Stanley Kubrick. Immediately afterwards the Copernican revolution of special effects will begin with the introduction of shooting in digital technology, where all the previously used optical and mechanical tricks are completely replaced with the creation of images obtained through the use of the computer (CGI: computer-generated imagery). This innovation heralded a new era of cinema with films that made history. We mention a few: Blade Runner of 1982 by Ridley Scxott, then the entire Star Wars saga, the Jurassik Park series by Steven Spielberg, the legendary Matrix by the Wachowsky brothers.
Finally, it is necessary to remember the sound effects which, although less flashy, often contribute in a decisive way to the making of a film: they are all that which is not part of the dialogues or the soundtrack. The reading of a professional in this sector is of considerable interest: http://www.mirkoperri.com/?p=386 where one can well understand the fundamental function that even sound effects can have in cinematographic grammar.
Eisenstein Sergey Mikhailovich it's the cinema. We owe him the fundamentals of editing and the aesthetics of the images. With him the use of the close-up close-up is formalized, aimed at enhancing the drama of the image: The battleship Potemkin of 1926, although strongly inspired by political propaganda values, remains the pillar of the big screen (the scene of the wheelchair rolling down the stairs is fundamental). Of montage, in particular, he becomes the first absolute theorist with the first conceptualization of the so-called "montage of attractions" where the images flow in an often non-sequential manner, aimed at leaving the viewer with the task of recomposing them and then giving a complete meaning. On this topic he has published numerous texts, including Il Montage, General Theory of Montage and Beyond the shot. At the end of his career, he also became interested in sound editing as a fundamental part of filmmaking. We owe him other films such as October of 1928, Lampi sul Mexico of 1933 and Aleksandr Nevskij from 1938. This last film introduces a fundamental step in shooting techniques: the "sequence shot" which a few years later will be fully developed by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane.
