The Oscar winners list for the best visual effects is a long and very impressive list indeed. Looking back to the films that started in 1929 and everything that came after you can see how VFX began to take a very real turn from the more simplistic sets and effects to the more detailed and up to date special effects. Imagine if the people in charge of such effects back in the late 20’s could see what’s been done now. I think they’d be the first into the studio to see just what’s been done and how it was accomplished. After all since the dawn of CGI things have never been the same and the old movie sets have been a thing of the past.
With the ever-increasing need to wow the audience and to give them something new and what they want to the VFX on every movie to date have had to incorporate a lot of different elements and take on a life of their own that early filmmakers might never have dreamed about. The likes of the films that have come out in the past few decades have fully eclipsed those made in the past, and the continuing desire for more and bigger and better is always a factor in how a movie is being made these days. The more mind-boggling the effects the more interest is placed in the film.
One thing you can’t do however in any instance is compare the films of then to the films of now. In every way, the story, the effects, the actors, everything is so different that trying to compare them to one another is nearly impossible. There are ways that they can be compared but overall it’s not a fair call since there is simply too much of a generation gap between them. Trying to compare Tora! Tora! Tora! to any modern day war movie would be folly since back then the VFX of the time was some of the best around. Nowadays people would likely get up and leave the theater if they came to see a blockbuster and instead saw those kinds of effects.
That might make audiences seem fickle, but a modern day audience tends to want modern day effects. Those that remember when the older movies came out and were around to see them might miss the simplicity of it, but even they can’t deny that today’s effects are simply amazing and in many cases hard to spot anymore. Some movies make up entire cities and landscapes using green screen so that they don’t have to film on location. There are so many different computer programs out there today that have so many different effects that many films are shot in studios without ever having to leave the country. Filming on location is still done but there are still a great many effects that are added in later during the editing process.
The world of film and movie magic has changed a great deal in the past 89 years, and it’s only bound to change a lot more as time goes on.
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