University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

A lost art: a history of miniatures in motion pictures. Do practical effects still have a place in Hollywood?

(USC Thesis Other)

A lost art: a history of miniatures in motion pictures. Do practical effects still have a place in Hollywood?

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content Copyright 2024 Elise Hernke
A LOST ART: A HISTORY OF MINIATURES IN MOTION PICTURES
DO PRACTICAL EFFECTS STILL HAVE A PLACE IN HOLLYWOOD?
by
Elise Hernke
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND
JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM OF ARTS AND CULTURE)
May 2024

Dedication
I would like to dedicate this to all the underappreciated artists who have worked behind the
scenes on our favorite films over the past 120 years.
ii

Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge my program director and first chair Oscar Garza, as well as Rebecca
Haggerty and Holly Willis for committing to my project and helping me bring it to the finish
line. I would also like to thank the numerous artists and film historians who spoke with me for
the piece, especially Olivia Ramirez and Greg Pinsoneault whose presence made an impact.
I would also like to acknowledge my grandpa, David “Papa Dave” Wakely, who always believed
in my work and made it possible for me to pursue my dreams. My family has been so supportive
throughout this year and I am grateful to my mom, my dad and my brother for being my biggest
fans.
Finally, I would like to give special thanks to my classmates who allowed me to lean on them
during the tougher times and forged friendships that I will have forever. I am thankful for all my
friends who put up with me during this whirlwind of a year.
iii

iv
Table of Contents
Dedication……………………………………………………………………………………….…i
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………...…………………...ii
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….iii
Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………………......iv
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………v
Introduction……………………………………………………………………...…..…………….1
Chapter One: A Broad History of Special Effects……………………………………..…..……...7
Chapter Two: 1920s – The Early Years…………………………………………..……….…..…12
Chapter Three: 1930s – Special Effects Become King………………..………………….……...15
Chapter Four: 1940s – Hollywood Goes to War……………………….…..………..…..……….24
Chapter Five: 1950s – Out of this World…………….…………….…….……...…………...…..26
Chapter Six: 1960s – The Space Race………………………………………………………..…..28
Chapter Seven: 1970s – CGI is Born…………………………..…………………………...…….30
Chapter Eight: 1980s –Box Office Smash Hits……….………………………….………….……33
Chapter Nine: 1990s – The Golden Age of Miniatures……………..……...…………….....…….34
Chapter Ten: 2000s – Unrivaled Effects…………………………..…………………….....…..…36
Chapter Eleven: The Changing Financial Landscape of the Film Industry…………..……......….39
Chapter Twelve: A Return to Miniature…………………………...………….………………….45
Epilogue: The Films We Love………………………………..……………………………….….48

List of Figures
Table 1: “Barbie” miniatures breakdown…………………………….…………………………...4
Table 2: “Asteroid City” miniature effects breakdown………………..…………………………..5
Table 3: “Arrival of the Train” scene…………………………………………………..………….7
Table 4: Film studios infographic……………………………………………..…………………..8
Table 5: Photo of Cameraman F.A. Dobson…..…………………………………………………..9
Table 6: “A Trip to the Moon” full movie still image and link…..………………………...…….11
Table 7: Timeline infographic………………………..…………………………………………..12
Table 8: Rear projection used for King Kong (1933) image………...…………………………..16
Table 9: Rear projection used for King Kong (1933) image. ..……………………………...…..16
Table 10: “King Kong” (1933) trailer still image and link…………………………………..…..17
Table 11. “2001: A Space Odyssey” still image and link...………………………………………27
Table 12: “Lord of the Rings” special effects breakdown……………..………………………...34
Table 13: Screenshot from Twitter………………………...……………………………………..41
Table 14: Greg Pinsoneault interview……………………...…………………………………….44
v

Abbreviations
Abbreviation Meaning Page
G.I. Government Issue 2
C.G.I. Computer Generated Imagery 2
E.T. Extra Terrestrial 3
M.G.M. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 8
R.K.O. Radio-Keith Orpheum 8
C.F.I. Consolidated Film Industries 21
U.K. United Kingdom 25
T.V. Television 26
N.B.C. National Broadcasting
Company
28
3.D. Three Dimensional 30
I.L.M. Industrial Light and Magic 30
V.F.X. Visual Special Effects 35
D.V.D. Digital Video Disc 36
I.P. Intellectual Property 41
A.I. Artificial Intelligence 41
R&H Rhythm and Hughes 41
vi

Abstract
This magazine article examines the broad history of miniatures as they were used in the film
industry to generate special effects. It further seeks to understand the ways in which the
advancement of technology changed the role that special effects artists played in the filmmaking
process and the way that computer generated visual effects impacted the film business. In the
process of researching the history of special effects, this article discusses the themes that
occurred within Hollywood for each decade since its inception and how visual effects were used
to carry out films that fit those themes. In the early years of the industry, this article illuminates
some of the most innovative artists that contributed to the development of special effects. As we
move through the 1900’s, we see those patterns of the types of films being made reflected a
cultural narrative, from escapist fantasy films in the 1930’s to war centered films of the 1940’s.
We see how the space race impacted the public’s desire for films exploring the cosmos and then
how the emergence of the summer blockbuster set the expectations higher for action sequences
in films of the 1980’s and 1990’s. By the turn of the 21st century, the development of computergenerated imagery changed both the way that films were being made and the financial landscape
of the industry. Through interviews with artists and filmmakers, this article seeks to shed light on
the artistry of miniaturists in the film industry and reflect on their work thus far.
vii

1
Model maker Olivia Ramirez giddily walks around the studio where she has worked for
decades, pointing to the chalkboard by her desk that lists all the supplies contained there: acid
brushes, black paper tape, popsicle sticks. “Kittens” is written next to an assortment of other
tools. “John lets me have cats here,” Ramirez explains. “I am always fostering.”
“John” would be John Merritt, owner of Merritt Productions. Located in an industrial
warehouse in Burbank, Merritt Productions was established in 1985 and hit the ground running.
In the decades since its inception, the skilled artists at Merritt have worked on some of the most
beloved special effects-heavy films such as “The Abyss” (1989), “Total Recall” (1990), “Batman
Forever” (1995), and “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (2003). The studio feels like a large garage, with
cubicle-style workstations adorned with any and all instruments an artist could dream of using.
The high ceilings are lined with shelves that display dollhouse-sized storefronts and there is a
massive table at the center of the room covered with tiny greenery, including palm trees that
stand no more than a foot tall.
The place is full of miniatures both on display and pulled apart, in the process of being
rebuilt into something new: A glass case that held an assortment of food items including bacon,
French fries, a block of cheddar cheese, as well as miscellaneous props used for various
commercials; tiny wooden stools; a 10-inch retro sign for a “Ben’s Diner”; cans of Mountain
Dew, Coca Cola and a sippy cup from Sonic. When I visited, they were working on a secret
project that included pink cotton-candy paint and trees with removable tops, so they can be
shortened if needed.

2
As children, many of us played with tiny versions of larger things, practicing for the real
world: G.I. Joes, Barbie dolls, Polly Pockets. These toys are not isolated purchases. You can buy
houses, cars, shopping malls, pools, buses, and tanks. You can build entire worlds for your dolls
to live in where they might go to work or throw a beach party. All of my Polly Pockets had
cardboard laptops they would take to the “office” in hot pink rubber briefcases.
At some point, though, we stop thinking about these miniature worlds. We grow up and
these lands of make-believe become a distant memory, at best collecting dust in the attics of our
parents’ homes waiting to be passed on to the next generation or, at worst, ending up in a
landfill. That is, unless you find yourself working in the movies.
Miniatures have been an integral part of cinema since it began. When executed well, you
wouldn’t recognize them. The artists go to great lengths to disguise these tiny worlds as life-size,
which requires a great deal of engineering and architectural skills, the creative use of materials,
an unbelievable amount of patience, and attention to lighting, detail, camera movements and
even the surrounding atmosphere.
Many of the most groundbreaking special effects throughout cinematic history were born
as miniatures, used by creators to bring entire universes to life and make them look lived-in and
conceivable.
Before computer-generated imagery, typically referred to as CGI, filmmakers relied on
these types of handmade sets and skillful camera tricks to make audiences believe they were

3
actually watching a space shuttle in orbit or a giant gorilla stomp through New York City. In the
past few decades, practical effects, such as miniatures, began to take a back seat to the magic of
CGI, which was often more cost effective and less dangerous. Blowing up a building on a
computer is less risky than generating a small-scale explosion on a set with a bunch of crew
members standing around. But in recent years, it has become apparent that audiences are
increasingly turned off by films that feel too heavily reliant on CGI. And far too many movies
have been panned for their jarringly unrealistic special effects.
Further, there are important limits to the technology. “Everything is CGI and audiences
can tell,” complained Steven Spielberg to BBC Breakfast. The director responsible for many of
the most cutting-edge films of the past 50 years, including “Jaws,” “E.T.,” and “Jurassic Park,”
has himself relied on CGI. But he observed: “Audiences are so used to digital enhancements or
replacements that they don't trust cinema anymore.” Spielberg recognized this as a problem in
2012, his insights always ahead of the curve.
Overexposure to computer-generated art, including pieces made by artificially intelligent
computers, has created a phenomenon in the human brain that can immediately perceive when
something is digitized rather than tangible.
But despite the film industry’s general embrace of CGI, there are still filmmakers and
artists who are committed to practical effects. In “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig instructed her team to
create Barbieland using practical sets to pay homage to the actual vintage Barbie houses sold by
Mattel. There were at least 20 credited miniaturists and model makers who worked on the film,

4
led by artist Kirby Allen-D'Cruze, who worked on models for recent films such as “Morbius”
and “Wonder Woman.” In 2023, Wes Anderson, who famously uses miniatures in most of his
projects, released “Asteroid City,” in which model maker Gali Blay worked with at least six
other miniaturists on the set, including Simon Weisse, whose work is included in the Musée
Cinéma et Miniature in Lyon, France. Blay also recently created models for Anderson’s Oscarwinning short, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”
“Barbie” miniatures breakdown. Click to view on YouTube.

5
“Asteroid City” miniature effects breakdown. Click to view on YouTube.
When Olivia Ramirez got started in the late 1980s, she was working in advertising and all
the print materials were done by hand. “I was an art student,” she said, “so I was making things
from scratch.”
In the Merritt studio, she shows the abundance of specific tools and supplies required to
bring the miniatures to life, explaining that when they are given a project, the first step is to
figure out which materials will be needed. “When you’re building props and miniatures, you get
a plan and start working it out. Sometimes we know that in the long haul one material would
work better [than another].” She takes me to a station that has rubber-looking shapes laid out on
a large countertop. “So, this gives you a better idea of what goes on behind what we make. This

6
table is a level, so we can pour molds and do castings and we don’t have to worry about it being
uneven. Here’s all the casting materials.” She picks up one of the shapes, which looks like a 3D
stamp. “Here is our rubber and the scale for weighing … Say we need a part for something: we
take a mold, then create a dam around it. [Then] we take our casting materials and pour it in
here.”
After the shape comes out and dries, she explains that different artists each have their
own responsibilities in bringing that shape to the finish line. “Someone will clean them up, then
someone will assemble them, then someone will paint them.”
These artists are keeping alive an art form that has existed since the earliest days of
filmmaking.

7
Chapter One: A Broad History of Special Effects
Movies really began as an exercise in creating magic. Many early filmmakers set out to
create images that people had never seen before. Georges Méliès, known today as one of the first
great directors, was a magician who utilized clever camera tricks to depict adventures including a
journey into space, with aliens and even an emotive moon.
Moviegoers reacted enthusiastically to these images, often unable to discern between
what was real and what existed only within the confines of the screen, as immortalized in 1896
with the French film, “The Arrival of a Train,” where the locomotive raced toward the camera
and audiences famously screamed in terror, running from their seats.

8
“Arrival of the Train” scene. Click to view on YouTube.
A lot of change took place over the course of roughly 100 years of movie magic, which
propelled us from point A to point B.
The film industry has only been around for about 120 years and, in the early decades, it
was largely led by a handful of major studios referred to as “The Big Five”: Paramount,
Universal, MGM, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. Vitagraph, Republic and RKO were
medium-sized studios that managed to hold their own against the mega-companies in the early
days of Hollywood, especially when it came to special effects. Ufa was a German film company
that dominated the film industry in Deutschland from 1917-1945 and its contributions heavily
influenced American cinema. British and Spanish companies nurtured some game-changing
artists who developed their skills at lesser-known studios before making their way into the
Hollywood system.

9
Infographic created by Elise Hernke.
At the turn of the 20th Century, celluloid became an escape for viewers and an outlet for
creators, allowing for infinite possibilities to advance storytelling, magic shows, historical
reenactments, and the human imagination.
In 1898, artist E.H. Amet created miniatures for a visual reenactment of the sinking of
Spain’s fleet during the Spanish-American war. Renderings of historical events for news or
educational purposes were relatively common during this time. In 1906, F.A. Dobson used
shoeboxes to make a re-creation of the hugely destructive San Francisco earthquake.

10
Cameraman F.A. Dobson tends to a miniature cityscape for the Biograph newsreel of the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake. Photo from The International Photographer, Sept. 1933.
But 1902 was when Georges Méliès brought “A Trip to the Moon” to audiences, which is
marked in history as the first feature film created for the purpose of entertainment. Méliès, a
magician and theatrical performer, quickly understood that he could use a camera and the
manipulation of film to visualize things previously unseen. Between 1896 and 1913, he directed
more than 500 films, ranging in length from just one minute up to 40 minutes. Many of these
films were distributed under the company Star Films, which was under the monopoly created by
Thomas Edison, called the Motion Picture Patents Company.
Devastatingly, during World War I, the French army confiscated most of Méliès’ films
and melted the celluloid to extract the silver and use the proceeds for supplies. “A Trip to the

11
Moon” had made it to the U.S. and was met with enthusiasm by audiences. It was rediscovered
by film lovers in 1930, inspiring filmmakers of a new generation to adopt his techniques.
In “A Trip to the Moon,” Méliès shows a rocket ship crash landing on an
anthropomorphized moon, which has a big clownish smile and a cratered face (seemingly made
of dollops of textured whipped cream).
Méliès was ahead of the game in creating “trick films,” displaying mind-boggling
adventures, colorful characters (from hand-painting the film) and satirical commentary.
“A Trip to the Moon” full movie. Click to view on YouTube.

12
Chapter Two: 1920s – The Early Years

13
By 1922, many other filmmakers began to understand the capabilities of cinema, and one
of the first horror movies was made — F.W. Murnau’s German Expressionist film, “Nosferatu,”
distributed by the Ufa company. He used stop-motion animation, double exposure, in-camera
effects, lighting manipulation, miniatures and practical effects to accomplish the task of bringing
to life this spooky tale. Another key player in the German Expressionism movement was Fritz
Lang, who created “Metropolis” in 1927, with stunning miniature artwork.
During this era of filmmaking, Murnau and Lang wouldn’t have considered themselves
miniaturists or model makers — it was simply the only way to bring their stories to life. By
specializing in fantastical films, they made history through these innovations.
When filmmaker Charles Cleon Baker hit the scene with “The Lost World” in 1924, he
realized he could have a career as a full-time artist rather than be the director. He became the
chief model maker at Universal Studios, a job he held for nearly 50 years.
Around the same time, A. Arnold Gillespie began working in Hollywood, but before he
settled into his career as a visual effects artist, he worked dressing sets for some classic titles at
Paramount. He switched studios just in time for the original “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ” in
1925. Gillespie was at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from just one year after its launch in 1925 until
1962, which meant that he worked on the first “Ben-Hur” and the award-winning remake of the
historical drama in 1959. During his run at MGM, Gillespie worked in various capacities, but
established himself as an expert of special effects and, by 1936, became the head of the
department.

14
No one predicted the impact “talkies” would have on the industry, but John P. Fulton
changed all of that. Fulton moved to California from Nebraska in 1914, when he was 12 years
old. His father was adamant that he pursue a career in something other than the film industry, so
Fulton began studying electrical engineering and eventually began a career as a surveyor. But he
would frequently take time off from work to catch a peep of the sets where a new, popular
director, D.W. Griffith was shooting.
By the 1920s, Fulton managed to break into the business as an assistant cameraman for
just $25 a week (close to $400 by today’s standards). Fulton worked his way up so that once
“talkies” took over the industry, he was a cinematographer.

15
Chapter Three: 1930s – Special Effects Become King
The film industry was rapidly expanding. The number of films being made from the
1910s to the 1930s increased by about 50% over the course of two decades and special effects
artists were leading the way for innovations on behalf of their studios. “King Kong” was on the
horizon, which film historian Stephen Jay Schneider referred to as the film that “set Hollywood’s
special effects fetish on fast forward.”
“King Kong” astounded the world when it arrived in theaters in 1933.
Willis H. O’Brien was born in Oakland, California, raised on ranches as a farmhand and
doing other odd jobs. On the side, he sculpted models, which he would illustrate for the local
newspaper. In 1915, the Edison Company commissioned his first film, “The Dinosaur and the
Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy,” a comedy that sparked the interest of famed inventor
Thomas Edison, who was heavily involved in the motion picture industry. Edison distributed
O’Brien’s film through Conquest Pictures in 1917. This led to a decade of projects, some
successful and others canceled, leaving unused models by the wayside, until RKO found a use
for them in what would become O’Brien’s most memorable film, “King Kong.”
He was brought on to the exciting project by producer Ernest B. Schoedsack, since
O’Brien had worked on some prehistoric-inspired movies in his career, such as his first film, as
well as “R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.” (1917) and “The Ghost of Slumber Mountain” (1919). Schoedsack

16
was ready to capitalize on O’Brien’s special interest in the jungle and wanted to bring that
excitement to the screen for audiences.
O’Brien, with his assistant animator Buzz Gibson, worked to create countless prehistoric
creatures to inhabit a place called Skull Island for “King Kong.” O’Brien faced the challenge of
mixing real-life actors with the oversized gorilla that his team of artists created in miniature. He
used the visual effects process called “rear projection,” which involves actors standing in front of
a screen while a projector is strategically positioned behind that screen with a reverse image
filling the background.
Rear projection used for King Kong (1933). Diagram sourced from Francis McGowan on blog.

17
Rear projection used for King Kong (1933). Image sourced from Videoartlex in blog.
O’Brien and his team worked to perfect the art of rear-projection, eventually discovering
that if they built small jungle sets, leaving space where images could be projected onto miniature
screens, the outcome felt realistic as long as the lighting was right. The animals would interact
with the environment using stop-motion animation.

18
“King Kong” (1933) trailer. Click to view on YouTube.
“King Kong” astounded the world when it arrived in theaters. According to Beverly
Heisner’s book, “Hollywood Art,” art director Al Herman, who was working for O’Brien,
described the creation of Skull Island as “an eerie swamp, man-made cliffs, a waterfall and a
ravine bridged by a fallen tree … dressed with authentic tropical trees and undergrowth.” He
added that the sets “could be rearranged to create a variety of different settings. With the addition
of glass art by [Mario] Larrinaga and [Byron] Crabbe and atmospheric effects by Harry
Redmond, Jr., the total set became, as far as the camera could discern, a vast jungle.”
The film’s groundbreaking special effects relied almost exclusively on miniatures. Along
with the jungle, they created the ship the characters traveled on to arrive there, as well as the

19
New York Elevated Railway system. Though RKO’s art department wasn’t as sizable as those of
other studios, its impressive work on “Kong” ensured that its projects never went
unnoticed. (O’Brien and his team revisited the ape genre with “Mighty Joe Young” in 1949 and
“King Kong vs. Godzilla” in 1962.)
From animated apes to thrilling dramas, all of the studios found key players who would
go on to push the field of special effects forward in different ways.
Gordon Jennings came to Hollywood from Salt Lake City in 1919 and started working as
a camera assistant after being an engineer. He managed to combine his technical skills and
passion for cinema to get into special effects in the 1930s. It wasn’t long before he was leading
the special effects department at Paramount. He earned the studio seven Academy Awards and
was nominated for eight more, a run that began with his work on the 1938 film, “Spawn of the
North.”
There were two other studios seeing success that wouldn’t become part of Hollywood’s
“Big 5” until they merged in 1935 — Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation,
which became Twentieth Century-Fox. (Disney bought the company in 2019, which is now
known as 20th Century Studios.)
But long before that, young Czech-born painter Fred Sersen was making his way to the
United States. Sersen moved to America in 1907, landing in Los Angeles by 1920. By the time
the Twentieth Century-Fox merger happened, Sersen had worked his way up and became the top

20
guy for special effects at the studio in the 1930s, a position he held until the 1950s. He has
credits in more than 200 movies and won two Academy Awards, being nominated for eight,
specializing in adventure films and natural disasters, such as “Suez” (1938) and “The Rains
Came” (1939).
Byron “Bunny” Haskin was born right before the turn of the century in Portland, Oregon.
Twenty years later, after attending the University of California where he worked as a newspaper
cartoonist, he got a job as a commercial-industrial movie photographer. While working at
Selznick Pictures, Haskin, like many of the filmmakers of the silent film era, worked on special
effects and he helped create the technology that brought sound to the film industry. By the 1930s,
he was appointed head of Warner Brothers’ special effects department. Haskin’s work at Warner
Brothers was nominated for Academy Awards five times, winning the now-extinct “Scientific or
Technical Award” for the studio for pioneering the development and first practical application of
a triple head background projector to a motion picture production. This device essentially made
it possible to superimpose three background images onto a single screen.
As all these major studios were employing artists with various talents, the most soughtafter duo for special effects was a pair of brothers known as the Lydecker twins, though they
were actually three years apart. Theodore Lydecker and Howard “Babe” Lydecker were born in
Cuba in 1908 and 1911, respectively. By 1935, they were heading Republic Pictures’ special
effects department, a role they held from the time the studio was founded until its demise in the
1950s. Republic (formerly Mascot Pictures) came from a merger between Monogram Pictures
and Liberty Pictures. After the fusion, the brothers got unlimited access to the optical effects

21
owned by Consolidated Film Industries’ (CFI), which was a laboratory and processing company,
and they led a team of 20 technicians. Referred to as the “Kings of Miniatures” by many fans
even today, the Lydecker brothers made their mark by creating larger miniatures with more
detail and shooting them in natural light, while filming in slow-motion, which made their
projects look more realistic than other studios at the time.
The 1930s were marked by the inspired use of miniatures, stop-motion and clever camera
work to improve the newfangled special effects, including the work of Alfred Hitchcock, the
auteur director known for his clever narrative choices and thrilling dramas. He came onto the
scene in the U.K. in the early ’20s and in 1934 he released “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” a
spy thriller that is remembered as one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of
Hitchcock’s British period, the film that jump started his career. He hired artist Albert Whitlock
to complete the miniatures for the film and they collaborated a second time the following year
for “The 39 Steps.”
“The 39 Steps” was the first film of the renowned miniaturist Phillippo (sometimes
spelled Filippo) Guidobaldi, who worked for about 30 years at British studios including
Gainsborough Pictures, Gaumont and Rank. Peter Cook, the film historian behind the website
Matte Shot, explained that “Guido’s work was held in high regard among his peers and some
might say he was the kingpin of British special visual effects.”
Over at Paramount, Gordon Jennings was forming his team, including Art Smith and Ivyl
Burks, and working on monkey movies of his own, such as the 1933 Tarzan-esque “King of the

22
Jungle.” For “Spawn of the North” (1938), they had to construct a steel-and-concrete tank on the
studio lot, which held 375,000 gallons of water to depict an Alaskan salmon fishing village, and
for “Her Jungle Love” (1938) they executed a volcanic eruption.
Rather than hop on the “Kong” train, MGM focused on dramatic epics based on classic
literature (“Anna Karenina,” “David Copperfield,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” and “Romeo and
Juliet”), but by 1935, under the supervision of Cedric Gibbons, Gillespie and his peers
constructed ship replicas to bring to life the seafaring adventure, “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
Fred Sersen at Twentieth Century Fox focused on mastering impressive destruction
sequences, as those created for “In Old Chicago” (1937) and building out the canals for “Suez”
(1938). To replicate the sirocco in “Suez,” they used 34 wind machines, which ended up
propelling five unlucky stunt women across a 20-acre fake desert.
L.B. Abbott (Lenwood Ballard or “Bill”) began working under Sersen at Twentieth
Century Fox, and by the end of the 1930s, the team scored an Academy Award for Best Visual
Effects for their work on “The Rains Came.” For that film, they managed to stage a literally
groundbreaking earthquake and flood scene, which destroyed a set of 24 buildings using 2.25
million gallons of water. They beat out Byron Haskin’s nominated work for “The Private Lives
of Elizabeth and Essex” and Arnold Gillespie’s memorable effects work on “The Wizard of Oz.”
By 1940, Gordon Jennings scored his own art direction Oscar nomination for Paramount when
he made waves with “Typhoon.”

23
As the craft grew, so did its influence and prestige. The new decade was also the
inaugural year for rewarding this work by putting Visual Effects in its own category (separate
from Art Direction) at the Academy Awards, resulting in the studios going head-to-head each
year with all the major miniaturists and special effects artists.
Against the backdrop of a devastating world war, the flashiness of the popular sci-fi
movies started to feel silly, and studios changed their tune to better reflect the cultural shift.

24
Chapter Four: 1940s – Hollywood Goes to War
By 1941, Howard Lydecker (Republic), Byron Haskin (Warner Bros), Gordon Jennings
and John Fulton (Paramount), Arnold Gillespie (MGM), and Fred Sersen (Twentieth Century
Fox) were all nominated at the Academy Awards for their special effects work. By the end of the
decade, Sersen had won twice and so had Gillespie; for Paramount, Jennings took home two
Oscars and Fulton got them one; and O’Brien won on behalf of RKO.
There was a new appreciation for special effects, but in the same way that mythical onscreen adventures had provided an escape for audiences from the devastation of the Great
Depression, the 1940s were characterized by World War II and the films leaned heavily on prowar propaganda and heavy patriotism. The special effects that were previously used to create
dinosaur-sized monkeys were transferred into battle sequences, explosions and elaborate sets.
In 1940, Gillespie put his efforts into the armored vehicle chase in “Comrade X.” Created
in miniature, the tanks rolled on sets that took over the MGM backlot, with cable mechanisms to
pull each vehicle along. The system was so intricate that it appeared as though the tanks were
driving through rivers and some of the tanks were even remote controlled.
For the British film, “The Lady Hamilton” (1941), Phillippo Guidobaldi used small
explosive charges on miniature war ships to portray the destruction of the French fleet in one
sequence.

25
In an interview with Matte Shot, Guidobaldi’s grandson, David Coker, said he wanted to
follow in his grandfather’s footsteps: “As a young boy, I'd experiment with his supply of black
powder and other chemicals including electric detonators that he kept in an old cigarette packet. I
was forever blowing things up in miniature, be it models I'd made, found or bought." Coker went
into a different aspect of the film industry, currently working as a voiceover artist in the tv.
“Flying Tigers” (1942), a film about a group of American fighter pilots, secured the
Lydecker brothers’ place in history when they won the Academy Award for creating remarkable
aircraft battle sequences. They were so realistic that many on the board of the Academy
questioned whether the brothers were telling the truth about not shooting real-life aerial
dogfights.
Donald Jahraus, under the supervision of Gillespie, won the 1944 Oscar for his miniature
work in “Thirty Seconds over Tokyo,” another World War II film. Jahraus also worked on the
miniatures for the beloved film, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” that same year.

26
Chapter Five: 1950s – Out of this World
By mid-century, people were fatigued by the war. In the film world, there was a
resurgence of science fiction fantasy propelled by films such as “War of the Worlds” (1953),
“Godzilla” (1954) and “Forbidden Planet” (1956).
In the latter, Gillespie and the MGM team created a giant mock-up of a starship, which
was surrounded by a huge, painted cyclorama of the desert landscape on Altair IV, the titular
distant planet. This set was so large that it took up several sound stages at the Culver City lot.
This return to escapist storytelling allowed for new artists to realize their unique visions
for worlds unseen, but many directors pushed back against the overuse of visual effects for fear it
would isolate audiences by not seeming realistic enough.
This was happening during the time when television entered the homes of many
Americans. With film studios competing with the convenience of at-home viewing, they were
forced to step up their game and provide viewers with a memorable theatrical experience.
This also meant that the remains of some of the more elaborate sets could be reused for
TV, as was the case when the “Forbidden Planet” costumes and props were repurposed for
different episodes of the “The Twilight Zone” (“To Serve Man” and “On Thursday We Leave for
Home”), including Robby the Robot and some of the spaceship models.

27
By 1959, Gillespie ended up working for art director Cedric Gibbons on a water tank
where the miniature ships would float for the Biblical film, “Ben Hur,” which was a remake of
the original “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ” (1925).
According to the book “Hollywood Art,” film historian Kevin Brownlow described the
“mammoth set” that cost $30,000 (just over $300,000 today) and included “fake galleries with
thousands of tiny moveable people who could wave and stand or sit.” The team photographed the
miniature and full-sized sets together. Brownlow added, “Since the motion picture is not threedimensional, the perspective is destroyed, and the model appears to be an integral part of the
main set. But most extraordinary of all, [Cedric] Gibbons and Gillespie designed the miniatures
so that the camera could pan over them and not lose register … This gave the cameraman
complete freedom and saved MGM hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

28
Chapter Six: 1960s – The Space Race
When the 1960s rolled around, the film industry reflected the cultural shifts happening in
American society. The country was under the leadership of John F. Kennedy and the space race
was in the public’s mind. During this era, we see an emergence of films that depicted various
interpretations of the cosmos.
In 1966, TV screenwriter Gene Roddenberry introduced a pop-culture phenomenon when
he brought “Star Trek” to NBC. The intro made use of blue screen technology, which is similar
to the projection system used in “King Kong,” but the images are superimposed later through
computer technology rather than projected on-set. The series also showcased the Starship
Enterprise model, a miniature conceived by set designer and art director Walter "Matt" Jefferies,
whose career started in the late 1950s, but really took off when he got involved with “Star Trek.”
His Starship Enterprise model was used throughout many of the series’ special effects
sequences.
In 1968, when “Planet of the Apes” was released by Twentieth Century Fox, L.B. Abbott
was head of the art department. When the Statue of Liberty is seen half-buried, according to the
documentary, “Behind the Planet of the Apes,” the special effects team under Abbott created a
half-scale papier-mache model of the statue, which was then set against existing cliffs and
blended seamlessly with matte painting, shot from a 70-foot scaffold. Some historians would say
that this was the film that revived the use of experimental visual effects.

29
That eventful year also saw the release of MGM’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Arnold
Gillespie had retired in 1967 and a young artist who had been on the scene for about a decade,
John Hoesli, took over as head of the art department, leading a team of about 40 engineers and
artists for Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking film. The legacy of “2001: A Space Odyssey” has
far surpassed the “futuristic” year of its title. In 2023, the billion-dollar box office hit “Barbie”
opened with an homage to “Odyssey,” replacing the apes with young girls and the monolith with
the iconic doll.
Miniatures were used in the building of the modern spaceships and unique interior sets,
which were detailed by repurposing Airfix model kits.
National Film and Television School recreated the processes for pulling off the visual effects from “2001: A
Space Odyssey.” Click to view on YouTube.

30
Chapter Seven: 1970s – CGI is Born
As a decade, the 1960s were defined by the advent of counterculture and space
exploration, but the ‘70s ushered in significant changes that would turn the film industry on its
head.
In 1973, Michael Crichton’s “Westworld” pioneered the use of two-dimensional
computer-generated imagery (CGI) to articulate the point of view of a robot being programmed
to challenge human beings. It wasn’t perfect, but it paved the way for progressing this medium,
and by 1976, for “Futureworld,” 3D CGI was used.
It was around this time that visual effects legend and revolutionary filmmaker George
Lucas came onto the scene. Lucas debuted a sensation when in 1977 he delivered the first
installment of what would become an ever-growing billion-dollar franchise: “Star Wars.”
Lucas’ contributions to the special effects industry are significant, as he was a director
who intimately understood the landscape of special effects and made masterful use of both
practical resources, such as miniatures, as well as the novel technology that was CGI. Under
Twentieth Century Fox, Lucas hired computer programmer and artist John Dykstra and a team of
recent film school graduates and established a small special effects studio called Industrial Light
and Magic (ILM) to work on the film.

31
L.B. Abbott was still at the studio, but he was working on other projects, so the special
effects fell into the hands of seasoned artists Richard Edlund and Brian Johnson. As the
technology progressed, the special effects teams continued to grow, and “Star Wars” had such a
large crew that just the computer graphics team consisted of about 100 people.
Though Lone Ranger-style space odysseys remained popular throughout the ‘70s, “Planet
of the Apes” inspired a new trend — the disaster movie. The cultural revolution of the late ‘60s
had brought with it a cynicism about the state of the world, and apocalyptic movies seemed to be
the answer.
Irwin Allen became the director known as the “Master of Disaster” when he released
“The Poseidon Adventure” (1972), “The Towering Inferno” (1974) and “The Swarm” (1978).
There were also effects-heavy films such as “Earthquake” (1974) and “The Hindenburg” (1975),
which drew audiences by embracing 70mm film, making the theatrical experience more
immersive. This also meant that a greater level of detail was required to pull off certain visual
elements.
In “Earthquake,” the special effects team at Universal Studios was led by designer E.
Preston Ames, who had been in the industry for a long time, art directing for projects that
required fewer extreme visuals (see: “Meet Me in St. Louis”). The ability to use miniatures for
films such as “Earthquake” meant you could wreak havoc on landscapes and entire towns for
real, but just on a small scale. The only good miniatures created for the film were burned,
deluged in water or collapsed to achieve the impact of the quake, and that purposeful damage of

32
the models became common practice from then on. This also meant that model makers were
asked to make multiple versions of each item as backup in case the shot was not effectively
captured when the first model was destroyed.
A film that married the cultural interest in other galaxies and affinity for disaster came in
1977 when Steven Spielberg released “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” after the success of
his major blockbuster hit, “Jaws.” “Close Encounters” was shot on 70 mm and the greater
resolution meant that when the miniature effects were combined with the full-scale elements
through an optical printer, the footage still remained sharp, which proved this was a viable
process for future use. At the time, Spielberg considered the use of CGI, but it was still in its
infancy, so it was more costly than he was willing to pay.

33
Chapter Eight: 1980s – Box Office Smash Hits
By the time we reached the 1980s, the studios had morphed significantly: RKO, Republic
and Vitagraph and other old school production houses had closed; Paramount, MGM, Universal,
Warner Bros and Twentieth Century Fox were still kicking; and two other studios were in the
picture, Disney and Columbia. CGI was being more rapidly integrated into the filmmaking
process and the success of Universal’s “Jaws” made the other studios hungry for their own big
summer blockbusters.
This decade brought us “Indiana Jones,” “The Terminator,” “Back to the Future,”
“Ghostbusters,” “Top Gun,” “Die Hard,” “Robo Cop,” “Predator,” and “Blade Runner,” films
that made use of both practical effects with miniatures as well as the novel CGI.
For “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Spielberg used miniatures to design the
layout for what would become full-scale sets, a practice that is still common today. “Blade
Runner” was heavily inspired by Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” so much so that the special effects
supervisor, David Dryer, hung photos of the 1927 film when designing his own urban landscape.

34
Chapter Nine: 1990’s – The Golden Age of Miniatures
The use of explosive and edgy special effects in film continued into the 1990s, which
many of the working artists today refer to as the Golden Age of miniatures. At that point, CGI
was still too expensive to be used exclusively and the art of constructing and filming miniature
sets was perfected, so it was during this decade that model makers were at the top of their game.
Modern day stop-motion fabricator, Greg Pinsoneault, mentioned to me that one of the
films that comes to mind when he thinks of the “golden age” of minis was “The Fifth Element,”
from 1997. With its elaborate avant-garde cityscapes and electric costuming, the art department
had a lot on its plate. Olivia Ramirez was on that set: “The reason that I chose that movie was
because Mark Stetson was the visual arts director” — and he was someone in the industry whom
she had admired.
Ramirez got her start while she was working at an advertising agency in the late ‘80s,
when someone came to her and said, “I have a job for you.” That job was building a miniature,
which she did part-time while still working her day job. After that first gig, more miniature work
started to roll in until 1995, when she landed her first full-length feature film, “Apollo 13.”
Soon, Ramirez was given a rare opportunity for someone with relatively little experience:
she was allowed to pick her next film to work on. One of the options was “Titanic,” but “The
Fifth Element” gave her the chance to work with Stetson. He had previously helmed the model
shop for “Die Hard,” “Total Recall” and “Edward Scissorhands,” demonstrating a range of visual

35
literacy that combines realistic destruction and aesthetic sophistication. When speaking about her
experience on the iconic picture, Ramirez said: “My main miniature that I worked on was the
Brooklyn scene with the restaurant. That was my job with my crew and that was the longest shot
in the movie.” She gushed, “To see it done was really rewarding, but it was a stressful job
because of how much that had to be done, one model after another [in a short amount of time].”
Over the course of several months, the team regularly worked 12-hour days, which ended up
being closer to 15 hours by the time they commuted in Los Angeles traffic.
“There was a period of time where a vehicle was built and then it was the wrong scale,”
Ramirez recalled. “We needed it done in five days, which can’t be done. So, then they did two
12-hour crews. Those things happened, and that is just too much. You are not efficient, and
mistakes sometimes happen. I enjoy films, but it is easier to do commercials.”
This kind of strain unfortunately became par for the course when it came to visual special
effects (VFX) work in Hollywood. As filmmakers continued to innovate, moviegoing became
hugely popular and movies were being released at a rapid rate. Computer technology became
more accessible, so the VFX industry peaked, but eventually the practice of studios overworking
their artists would lead to a decline in quality by the mid-2010s.

36
Chapter Ten: 2000s – Unrivaled Effects
If the ‘90s marked the Golden Age of miniatures, the early 2000s were the best years for
CGI. After seeing the impressive effects in Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” in 1993, miniatures artist
Fon Davis said in an interview that “Jurassic Park” “changed everything for us and our industry.
Immediately everyone panicked and thought, We’ve gotta stop doing this for a living. We’ve
gotta find something else to do. We’ve gotta study computers.” And that’s what many working
artists began to do.
When the second “Pirates of the Caribbean'' came to theaters in 2006, the world was
startled by the incredible detail seen in the tentacles of Davy Jones, how the expressions of the
actor playing him (Bill Nighy) were evident despite his octopus face. The barnacles growing off
the pirates of the Black Pearl and the underwater sequences were mesmerizing and still hold up
today.
James Cameron followed up his massively successful “Titanic,” which made use of
practical effects, including miniatures and CGI, with his fully computerized world, “Avatar.”
But Peter Jackson stands out as one of the most prolific filmmakers when it comes to
modern-day special effects. When he debuted the adapted-for-screen franchise, “The Lord of the
Rings,” many fans were quick to watch the behind-the-scenes DVD extras when they heard of
his use of “bigatures,” which were massive miniatures depicting the Middle-Earth rolling lands
and castles seen in the film. His team in New Zealand, under the company now called Wētā

37
FX, effectively blended the use of practical and digital when creating Middle-Earth for “The
Fellowship of the Ring,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King.” The team won the
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for all three films, allowing Jim Rygiel, Randall
William Cook, Richard Taylor, Joe Letteri, Alex Funke and “Fifth Element” artist Mark Stetson
to take home the statues.
Special Effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Essence of Movie Magic. Click to view on YouTube.
Riding the “Rings” high, Taylor, Letteri and Funke were all brought on to return to a
different king. Journalist Jenny Wake explored the ins-and-outs of the making of Jackson’s other
notable project in her book, “The Making of King Kong: The Official Guide to the Motion
Picture.” The world was being given a new “King Kong,” about 80 years after the original.

38
Using tons of miniatures to recreate Skull Island and 1930s New York City, Jackson and his
crew created some of the most impressive sets with supreme detail. Wake broke down some of
the unique challenges that were faced with the miniatures and which processes were engineered
to problem solve.
In one story, the team had designed three different scale sets of Skull Island to create
depth in the foreground, middle and background of each shot. But, when they applied wind, the
trees in each set swayed differently, immediately giving away the minis. To correct this, they
added wire to the branches and weights to the ends of the smaller branches, which allowed them
to sway with the same movement as their larger versions.
These intricate procedures require copious amounts of time to let ideas and solutions
percolate, time that is often difficult to come by in an ever-demanding industry.

39
Chapter Eleven: The Changing Financial Landscape of the Film Industry
In the book “Creativity Inc.” by Ed Catmull, he writes about the painstaking processes
that Pixar committed to in order to ensure that the stories maintained a high level of quality,
despite the difficulties presented with the rapidly growing company. When Catmull took over the
animation department at Disney in 2006, he expressed some frustrations that came from the
company not prioritizing the internal structures that allowed creativity to flourish in the first
place.
“The success of each new Disney film also did something else: It created a hunger for
more,” he wrote. “As the infrastructure of the studio grew to service, market, and promote each
successful film, the need for more product in the pipeline only expanded. The stakes were simply
too high to let all those employees … sit idle.”
He elaborated: “Sometimes within Pixar, production tries to protect processes that are
comfortable and familiar but that don’t make sense; legal departments are famous for being
overly cautious in the name of protecting their companies from possible external threats; people
in bureaucracies often seek to protect the status quo. As a business becomes successful,
inordinate energy is directed toward protecting what has worked so far.”
Hollywood struggled to keep up with itself. Each superhero franchise movie set out to
one-up its predecessors, which caused studios to spend more money on production and
marketing, raising the stakes for box office success.

40
It was only in the past few years that audiences began to push back on this approach,
tiring of the same plotlines and digitized effects. And it wasn’t until the studios began to
hemorrhage money that discussions around making changes came back into play. This was likely
expedited by the ever-changing market, which started when streaming services such as Netflix
made it possible for new releases to be viewed within weeks of theatrical release in the comfort
of one's home. Prior to that, the public relied on rental stores to view movies at home, renting
each title for an average cost of $5 for a new release and $2-$3 for older films.
Netflix emerged in 1998, which marked the beginning of the end for Blockbuster and
other major rental companies, as it initially set out to attract customers by shipping DVDs in the
mail. In 2007, Netflix introduced the streaming service on a small scale, bringing DVD rental
customers access to roughly 1,000 titles through its website. (Today, Netflix offers around
20,000 titles.) By 2011, for the set price of $7.99 per month, you could access the entire catalog,
and this was the unprecedented business model that no one saw coming, wiping out a significant
portion of the industry’s box office and distribution revenue. From that point on, studios had to
deliver spectacles that would drive people to theaters, something that they simply didn’t want to
watch from home.
The mid-2000s spawned the Marvel franchise with the release of “Iron Man.” In just over
a decade, there would grow to be 33 Marvel releases, including the beloved “Captain America:
The First Avenger,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Black Panther.” There would also be

41
several crossovers, such as the most popular, “Avengers: Endgame,” which earned almost $2.8
billion globally.
Amid the surge of popularity around superhero and other similarly action-packed
franchise movies (“The Hunger Games” and “Twilight,” for example), society faced another
unprecedented event: the global pandemic. The 2020 forced quarantine took a toll on the
exhibitor industry, solidifying the idea that only massive, action-packed previous IP movies
would make enough money to sustain studios at the box office.
By 2023, studios were under fire for trying to underpay writers and actors, replacing their
efforts with AI shortcuts, and strikes halted production for several months.
With all this happening externally, studios have been forced to change priorities and cut
costs, even at the expense of more artistic projects, to make ends meet. However, it turns out that
studios have been cutting costs and taking advantage of their special effects teams long before
the introduction of AI.
When the CGI-heavy “Life of Pi” was released in 2012, it was celebrated for its stunning
visual effects, especially when it came to the tiger centered in the story. While the VFX team
took home the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, there was a sinister story behind the
scenes that was festering, which went largely unnoticed by the general public. The VFX team, a
company called Rhythm & Hughes (R&H), was faced with unbelievable challenges during the
project, which eventually led to a lawsuit after its release. Midway through production, the

42
director Ang Lee called an audible that required a substantial amount of work on the tiger to be
revised, and yet the deadlines for the project remained unchanged. To meet the previously agreed
upon timelines while taking on tons of new work, the team was putting in 100-hour work weeks
and R&H was forced to shoulder the costs itself. Upon its November 2012 release, the film
grossed more than $600 million, but somehow none of that money was funneled into the studio
that did all the heavy lifting to make the film so beloved. Less than three months later, R&H filed
for bankruptcy and was forced to lay off more than 250 of its employees. As the YouTube
history channel The Royal Films Society explained in its comprehensive breakdown of the
crisis, “[The film’s] unsung star was on its deathbed, while the film was in profit mode.”
To make matters worse, when the film was awarded the coveted Oscar for its
effects, around 500 disgruntled artists, many of whom had worked on the film, lined the red
carpet in protest. But when the team members who accepted the award attempted to shine light
on the pressing difficulties that the company was facing, the orchestra started up and they were
unceremoniously played off stage.
The catastrophe of “Life of Pi” showcases two problems that are facing visual effects
artists on both the practical and computer side of things: a general lack of respect for the artists;
and filmmakers who lack an appreciation for what is required to make effects look good.
When visiting Olivia Ramirez at Merritt Productions, she and many of her peers spoke
about how exhausting and stressful it was to work on film sets. When recalling her work on
“Apollo 13” in the mid-’90s, she spoke disappointedly about the experience. A wrap party took

43
place at the end of filming, and she said none of the model makers were invited. “As much as
people enjoy miniatures in film, we were often considered the dirty workers, blue collar, often
not given the credit and almost shunned in some ways,” she said. “But still, the models are what
people want to see.” The CG artists for the 1995 Tom Hanks movie were invited to the wrap
party, at which a photograph was taken that featured the crew proudly posing with the spaceship
models, yet none of the makers were present. This indirectly discredited their impressive work.
Ramirez said the same thing nearly happened on “The Fifth Element,” but Mark Stetson
announced that a crew shot would not be taken unless the model makers were there.
When the 2019 film “Cats” premiered to endless chiding over the atrocious CG, the
Internet was ablaze with memes. At the Academy Awards, two of the film's stars, while
presenting that Visual Effects award, even did a bit about how bad the movie’s effects were. The
filmmakers were able to shift blame onto their artists rather than account for the fact that their
lack of understanding about what is required to achieve the imagined effects, in cost and time
spent, caused their VFX house, TBF Studios, go bankrupt.

44
Screenshot of a Tweet (now X) from an artist who worked on the “Cats” film and lost his job, witnessing the
jokes made at the Oscars at their expense.

45
Chapter Twelve: A Return to Miniature
In recent years, filmmakers have made an intentional return to miniatures, but
incorporated them in unique and interesting ways.
For the making of “Barbie,” the effects team created miniatures that were scanned using
photogrammetry, with the goal of retaining the feel of the miniatures as a way of paying homage
to an older era of film production. Rather than the film requiring miniatures, the inclusion of this
effect was a visual reference to some of Gerwig’s inspirations: “The Wizard of Oz” (1939;
miniatures by Arnold Gillespie); “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977); “The Truman
Show” (1998); and, of course, “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968).
Wes Anderson and Christopher Nolan, for “Asteroid City” and “Oppenheimer,”
respectively, both spoke openly about their preference for practical effects, including miniatures,
when possible. For an interview with Empire, Nolan said, “I find CG rarely is able to grab you. It
tends to feel safe. Even if it’s impressive and beautiful, it’s difficult to make you feel danger.”
For the key atomic blast scene in the film, they left CG out of the process.
Another current director with an affection for miniatures is Yorgos Lanthimos. For “Poor
Things” (2023), Lanthimos wanted the film to specifically look like miniatures were used, so
Simon Hughes, who led the VFX team, said that they would frequently evaluate their work to see
how they could make it look “more miniature.”

46
To return to an era where films are producing quality visual effects that actually appeal to
audiences and make use of the capabilities and expertise of artists who take pride in their work, it
is imperative that major studios and the filmmakers they employ have a more comprehensive
understanding of what is required in all aspects of the behind-the-scenes process.
Historian Peter Cook elaborated on this with me: “Honestly, I feel that fresh generations
of filmmakers have very poor command and knowledge of the 'art and technique of cinema' and
all that which made the movies what they are,” he said. “The basic concepts of film as a celluloid
photo-chemical process is completely 'lost' on the modern auteur, with 100% digital
cinematography and entirely non-tactile means of post-production (editing, etc.) being the
standard. Very few have even seen 35mm film, let alone the camera that it runs through. I know
personally from established and highly talented traditional matte painters whom I've interviewed
that certain jobs were 'pulled' by producers when they realized a perfectly good shot was being
rendered as 'paint on glass,' whereas, in their mind, only a computer could (or should) be used.
They simply had no understanding. The traditional miniature was a completely 100% 3-
dimensional tactile artifact. It could be lit, photographed and staged any way the director chose.”
After Netflix announced in 2018 that it was going to release 80 original movies a year,
company chairman Scott Stuber announced in 2023 that it would be pairing back to between 25
to 30 movies a year instead, likely after facing the less than desirable numbers coming from their
quantity-over-quality approach.

47
Perhaps this could lead to a domino effect, with other studios reminding themselves that
good things take time.
Click to view full interview with Greg Pinsoneault on Vimeo. Property of Elise Hernke.

48
Epilogue: The Films We Love
The film industry has a rich history of making magic. Hollywood took the world by
storm. Its innovators saw what celluloid could do, combining the creative forces behind many
different industries, from engineers to matte painters, architects to cinematographers, and
allowed human beings to see the impossible.
For Olivia Ramirez and the Merritt Productions crew, the best projects come down to the
team. As they enjoy the shorter days when working on commercials, they get to do what they
love, making art for a living, but without the stress of long hours and months-long shoots that
come with making feature films.
“I don’t go out that much to movies anymore for practical reasons,” Ramirez said.
“Things have changed, you end up watching a lot of TV. But I come from old school
filmmaking. To me, digital is like a tool. It is still not the same as a digital building.” CGI, she
admitted, “can be really impressive, but there is a sterility.”
John Merritt is excited to continue to work on commercials. “I’ve worked on a lot of fun
projects. That’s one main reason I have loved this career, no project is ever exactly the same.
There’s always something new and challenging most every time. It keeps it interesting!”
Cook remembered “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1944) for its “absolutely awesome
miniature sequences that still to this day look breathtaking.” He continued: “MGM were

49
probably at the top of the game when it came to miniatures, especially in war pictures, with this
film deserving its special effects Academy Award, hands down.”
Executive producer Michael Zoumas spoke with me over the phone about “Days of
Heaven” (1978) being his Golden Age of practical effects, raving: “There's this scene where the
field of wheat catches fire. And that field was really on fire. That was not pretend. There's a
difference. There is a difference. You can feel it in the performances because they're out there in
and around fire. It's going to have an effect on you, you know? So, I love the reality of it.”
Fon Davis, a miniatures artist who now owns his own company, spoke in an interview
about the interplay between CGI and miniatures in the modern landscape, saying: “A lot of
people don’t even realize when we use miniatures in a movie now because they just look real,
people don’t question it. That’s kind of the unfortunate side of computer graphics: you can tell its
computer graphics when you look at it. When we do miniatures for film now, you don’t actually
know it’s there, so there’s a lot of people who believe there’s not miniatures being used. That’s
what we’re achieving, that’s what we’re trying to maintain in film — that quality of work.
“The best visual effects are the ones that you don’t notice. That’s always been our
philosophy.”

References
Citations:
(G. Pinsoneault, personal interview, March 10, 2024).
(O. Ramirez, personal interview, March 12, 2024).
(O. Ramirez, personal interview, March 14, 2024).
(M. Zoumas, personal interview, March 15, 2024).
(P. Cook, personal interview, March 13, 2024).
Bibliography:
B, Mike. (2011, December 9). Miniature Effects Geniuses Howard & Theodore Lydecker
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. https://www.vttbots.com/page20.html
Befores & afters. (2022, July 11). NFTS - Model Making for Animation - '2001: A Space
Odyssey' set build. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iix_KAhMAnA
Catmull, Ed. (2014). Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way True
Inspiration. Generic; original edition.
Cook, P. (2014, December 11). Magicians of the Miniature. Matte Shot - a tribute to Golden Era
special fx. https://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2014/12/magicians-of-miniature.html
Dinadangdong. (2007, July 23). Star Trek Original Series Intro (HQ). YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI
Drate, S. Salavetz, J. (2009). VFX Artistry: A Visual Tour of How the Studios Create Their
Magic. Focal Press.
Farley, L. (2023, March 5). How 'King Kong' (1933) Brought Stop-Motion Animation to the Big
League. Collider. https://collider.com/king-kong-1933-stop-motion-animation/
Firthisaword. (2019). Blockbuster Video movie rental prices/late fees from the early 2000s?
Reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/cwtsyk/blockbuster_video_movie_rental_pri
pricesl_fees/

Gross, C. (Publishing date unknown). The Lost World 100th Anniversary: Willis O’Brien StopMotion Pioneer. Silent Movie Monsters.
https://silentmoviemonsters.tripod.com/TheLostWorld/LWOBIE.html
Goodacre, K. and Nissim, M. (2012, January 9). Steven Spielberg: 'CGI is artificial and
audiences can tell.' DigitalSpy.
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a359087/steven-spielberg-cgi-is-artificial-andaudiences-can-tell/
Hardwick, B. (2021, December 2). How Lord of the Rings Perfectly Blends CGI With Practical
Effects. CBR. https://www.cbr.com/lord-rings-blends-cgi-practical-effects/
Heisner, B. (1990). Hollywood Art. McFarland Publishing.
Jacobson, J. (2021, August 17). Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935. Jay’s Classic Movie Blog.
https://www.jaysclassicmovieblog.com/post/66-mutiny-on-the-bounty-1935
Kekatos, K. J. (2002). Edward H. Amet and the Spanish-American War film. Film History.
Sydney. Vol. 14, Iss. 3/4, 405-417.
Make. (2012, December 5). Make: Believe // Making Movie Miniatures with Fon Davis.
YouTube.
Makuch, E. (2023, November 8). Netflix Won't Release As Many Movies Each Year Going
Forward. Gamespot.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/netflix-wont-release-as-many-movies-each-year-
goingforward/11006518999/#:~:text=For%20a%20long%20time%2C%20Netflix,
50%20annually%20in%20the%20past
Matrix Life. (2020, February 5). Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, Lumière Brothers, 1896.
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7laguPTT-Q
Netzel, D. (2018, May 16). Special Effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Essence of Movie
Magic. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6M8Yem5j0s
Novak, M. (2012, July 19). 1927 Magazine Looks at Metropolis, “A Movie Based On Science.
Smithsonian Magazine.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1927-magazine-looks-at-metropolis-a-moviebased-onscience-4328353/
O'Callaghan, L. (2023, December 6). Marvel movies in order: chronological & release order.
Space. https://www.space.com/marvel-movies-in-order
Rogers, P. (1999). The Art of Visual Effects. Focal Press; 1st edition.

Schneider, S. J. (2019). 1001 Movies to See Before You Die. B.E.S. Publishing.
Shaggylocks. (2013, March 21). Le Voyage Dans la Lun (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès
(1902). YouTube. https://youtu.be/BNLZntSdyKE.
The Royal Ocean Film Society. (2022, September 30). The Visual Effects Crisis. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eALwDyS7rB0
Wake, J. (2005). The Making of King Kong: The Official Guide to the Motion Picture. Pocket.
Author Unknown. (2024). The 12th Academy Awards | 1940. Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences A.Frame Digital Magazine of the Academy.
https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1940
Author Unknown. (2023, December 12). What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.
Netflix.
https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-a-netflix-engagement-report

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This magazine article examines the broad history of miniatures as they were used in the film industry to generate special effects. It further seeks to understand the ways in which the advancement of technology changed the role that special effects artists played in the filmmaking process and the way that computer generated visual effects impacted the film business. In the process of researching the history of special effects, this article discusses the themes that occurred within Hollywood for each decade since its inception and how visual effects were used to carry out films that fit those themes. In the early years of the industry, this article illuminates some of the most innovative artists that contributed to the development of special effects. As we move through the 1900’s, we see those patterns of the types of films being made reflected a cultural narrative, from escapist fantasy films in the 1930’s to war centered films of the 1940’s. We see how the space race impacted the public’s desire for films exploring the cosmos and then how the emergence of the summer blockbuster set the expectations higher for action sequences in films of the 1980’s and 1990’s. By the turn of the 21st century, the development of computer-generated imagery changed both the way that films were being made and the financial landscape of the industry. Through interviews with artists and filmmakers, this article seeks to shed light on the artistry of miniaturists in the film industry and reflect on their work thus far.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

One of us: exploring the relationship between Hollywood and disability

PDF

Dance careers in flux: seeking the middle ground between art and commerce

PDF

Head, heart, and hustle: exploring the value of independent filmmakers

PDF

The art of the piñata

PDF

When representation isn't enough: calling for Indian multiplicity in Hollywood films

PDF

A feminist update for a Mexican folk music tradition

PDF

Navigating ethics in travel public relations: responsible tourism practices in the age of digital media

PDF

The perils of Black Excellence for Black women

PDF

Porridge people: the heirloom grains of the past are fueling the porridge revolution of the present

PDF

Coding.Care: guidebooks for intersectional AI

PDF

The effectiveness of nonfiction storytelling through live performance

PDF

The toll of touring

PDF

Re-crafting criticism in an algorithmic world

PDF

How to suppress women’s filmmaking

PDF

Crafted in fire: a sizzling look at southern California barbecue culture

PDF

More than a pretty piece of paper: photocard collecting as a means to make sense of the K-pop fan experience

PDF

The effects of poor practice in public relations: the Pennsylvania State football scandal

PDF

Tacit anticipation among film students: an ethnography of making movies in film school

PDF

Finding my own moveable feast

PDF

Genome-scale insights into the underlying genetics of background effects

Asset Metadata

Creator Hernke, Elise (author)

Core Title A lost art: a history of miniatures in motion pictures. Do practical effects still have a place in Hollywood?

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Degree Conferral Date 2024-05

Publication Date 05/23/2024

Defense Date 05/22/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Film,film artists,film history,Hollywood history,miniatures,model makers,OAI-PMH Harvest,practical effects,special effects,visual effects

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Garza, Oscar (committee chair), Haggerty, Rebecca (committee member), Willis, Holly (committee member)

Creator Email elisehernke@gmail.com,hernke@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113956485

Unique identifier UC113956485

Identifier etd-HernkeElis-13018.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-HernkeElis-13018

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Hernke, Elise

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20240524-usctheses-batch-1161 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu