Thursday, February 4, 2010

We just recently watched the original King Kong that was produced in 1933 in our film study class. This movie was very interesting in ways but in other ways it was not as exciting and entertaining to me. I feel by watching this older film I gained much more understanding and knowledge of how the film industry was worked back in this time in history. I gained a great form of appreciation of the time and effort that it took to make this film. The making of this film was generated and put together by the best of the best in the film industry, these directors did not only appreciate and understand the making of a film but they acted that role into their whole life. The directors of this movie were Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack. These two individuals gave their heart and dedication of everything they had towards the efforts of production and success of this movie. The major and most interesting part of this film that I believe formed and made this movie a success is the use of special effects. The special effect of Kong in this film was 6 18 inch pose able models that were metal skeleton, ball and socket joints, had rubber skin and rabbit fur. This figure of Kong was put together with these special features to make a real like model of this character. I felt the amazement and pride in the accomplishments of these special effects of Kong because it truly made and reflected on the whole movie to time of film history. The establishments of these effects were made possible by the roles acted out of Kong in stages. The role of Kong and the figures that were put together to make this character were acted out in stages in which all the movements were hand made and recorded. This type of action is known as Stop Motion Photography. The film producers made Kong possible by shooting 24 frames per second. Each specific frame was drawn, planned out and then shot individually. This was also referred to as persistence of vision. Another remarkable special effect in this film was the background and scenery of the film. The background of the film scenes consisted of foliage of the jungle and other large figures of the background were all made of metal. An additional and remarkable effect was the model and projection of Anne throughout the movie. The role of Anne was an outstanding and remarkable achievement that was made possible by not only the actress that played Anne but the individuals behind the scenes in the making of the special effects scenes in the this film. Anne was pronounced very clear and her movements were very real while she was being held and cared for by Kong. The close ups and special effects that were very pronounced and clear throughout this film felt like this was happening before your eyes and the suspense was felt deeply. The use of rear projection in this film was shown on an acetate screen with the actor that acts in front of it. The use of rear projection made the viewer focus in on the scenes in which you could see where the frames were pieced together. Overall I felt that this production and efforts to this movie marked an important impact on film making history. At this time of life the audience and workers in the film industry thought there was nothing more remarkable and more achieving. I felt that this movie was a great success during that time period and helped establish a movement of film production that contributed to were the film industry is today.

2 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you Kayla, the special effects used in this movie were very advanced for the time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you Kayla, the special effects in this movie were very advanced for the time.

    ReplyDelete