Week 3

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

• Slurpasaur - Optically enlarged reptiles that are presented as dinosaurs
• Had iguanas playing the Dimetrodons - Fins stuck to their backs
• Rear projection was used to combine the live action plate along with the optically enlarged iguanas
• As well as rear projection for the actors to react to the 'dimetrodons' in the background
• Quite often the scenes had been made using matte paintings
• Miniature sets

The pre-digital era film I intend to research is Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and for the most part I'm going to use the scene where the Dimetrodons first appear.

Dimetrodons Scene

Just from observing the scene it is quite clear what visual effect techniques have been used. Matte paintings, miniature sets, rear projection and optically enlarged lizards are all techniques used in this one scene.

Using real world animals, especially lizards, and passing them off as extinct dinosaurs is technique known as Slurpasaur, first used in Brute Force (1914).

The Dimetrodons were created by first sticking a fin to the backs of iguanas and then optically enlarging them. The optical enlarging of the iguanas was created by joining two films clips together via a travelling matte. However, this wasn't the only technique used to combine both films. Rear projection was frequently used in this film, which was a projection of a live-action plate onto a screen and then the actors would act in front of the screen. Had this been made a decade later, instead of using rear projection, front projection would have most likely been used.

You can see this is rear projection as, firstly, the colour is a lot better in the foreground compared to the background, and seconldy, you can see a bit of noise around the edges of the woman.

There was a few scenes throughout the movie that used rear projection, another being the scene when they are on a raft in the middle of an ocean.

A set-up of the rear projection used in the Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Alternitively, rear projection may not have been used when the Dimetrodons were in the foreground (as seen in the image below). Rear projection would have been an option but it is possible that it was shot with the Dimetrodon in front of the camera and the actors are quite far away to give off the size comparison. If it was done via rear projection then they would have had to project the live action plate onto a small screen and place the Dimetrodon in front. A third technique, but also the least likely would have been the usage of miniatures

Miniature sets were also an occurrence during the movie. Combined with negative matte paintings, a lot of the scenery was created using miniature sets. The example below shows a combination of two live action scenes, a miniature set and matte paintings. The rocks in the foreground are placed in front of the camera. Using a travelling matte both of the live action scenes are brought together and the rocks in the background are matte paintings. It's quite a complex set-up which in todays cinema would be incredibly easier to recreate.

A couple of other examples of the usage of matte paintings.