History Main / PracticalEffects

* In ''Film/TheWomanInTheWindow'' by Fritz Lang, Edward G. Robinson is shown waking up from a dream. This is done without any cut or dissolve. Instead the camera zooms in for a closeup of his face, while stagehands removed the tear-away clothes that Robinson was wearing and put in a new set behind him, all in a matter of seconds.

* The 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film only had a handful of actors in front of green screens. While the robots were mostly CGI of course, most of the stunts were entirely real, involving the actual actors [[EnforcedMethodActing shitting bricks while running from timed explosions]]. A common story from the production of the film is that director Creator/MichaelBay wanted to use exclusively CGI for the stunts, action sequences, and visual effects but executive producer Creator/StevenSpielberg [[ExecutiveMeddling stepped in and persuaded him to restrict the use of computer graphics and effects to the robots and background elements of the action sequences and to use animatronics and practical effects wherever possible]]. And even still there were a handful of images of the robots that were actually puppets: Frenzy in a few shots, Megatron's legs and even Bumblebee when strapped to a flatbed trailer.

* The 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film only had a handful of actors in front of green screens. While the robots were mostly CGI of course, most of the stunts were entirely real, involving the actual actors [[EnforcedMethodActing shitting bricks while running from timed explosions]]. A common story is that executive producer Creator/StevenSpielberg [[ExecutiveMeddling persuaded director Michael Bay to use animatronics and practical effects wherever possible and only computer graphics and effects when there was no other option, such as for the robots and background elements in the action sequences]]. And even still there were a handful of images of the robots that were actually puppets: Frenzy in a few shots, Megatron's legs and even Bumblebee when strapped to a flatbed trailer.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': The animated characters were done separately and composited later, but any prop they used, like Baby Herman's cigar, the weasels' guns or Eddie's trenchcoat while Roger is hiding inside, was manipulated on camera with strings or hydraulic devices (which were often covered up by the animation). Conversely, any "toon" prop used by the live actors (the mallets, Eddie's toon gun) was a live prop that was [[{{Rotoscoping}} rotoscoped]] to look animated.

* The 2007 ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film only had a handful of actors in front of green screens. While the robots were CGI of course, most of the stunts were entirely real, involving the actual actors [[EnforcedMethodActing shitting bricks while running from timed explosions]]. And even still there were a handful of images of the robots that were actually puppets: Frenzy in a few shots, Megatron's legs and even Bumblebee when strapped to a flatbed trailer.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/PacificRim https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_3252.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Build [[HumongousMecha your own]] today!]]

** Nolan did it again in ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', which heavily utilized practical effects for all but the footage of the planets, stars, black holes, and other space phenomena. The spaceships were done entirely with MiniatureEffects and the shapeshifting robots were actually large puppets operated by Bill Irwin, who also voiced TARS. Even the dust clouds were done with giant fans blowing cellulose-based synthetic dust at the actors, and the [[MindScrew brain-twisting]] [[spoiler: "[[AlienGeometries tesseract]] [[EldritchLocation space]]"]] that Cooper finds himself in at the climax was actually a giant set that they dangled Matthew [=McConaughey=] in from a crane. Unlike most films featuring space travel, the cockpit scenes in the spaceships were shot "live" in front of projection screens rather than green screens, so the actors are reacting in real-time to pre-rendered footage on the cockpit screens rather than a blank green wall to be filled in later.

* During the red lady scene in ''Film/TheMatrix'', while Morphius is explaining the dangers of agents to Neo you can see that everyone in crowd has a duplicate. Creator/TheWachowskis confirmed in a behind the scenes video that no CG was used for this scene, but rather they cast real twins instead [[note]] it's mentioned in the movie that the simulation was created by Mouse, and the doppelganger crowd is meant to suggest [[FridgeBrilliance that he finished half of the program, got lazy, and copy/pasted the assets he had]][[/note]].

** While the prequel films received endless amount of complaints over their use of CGI and actors on [[ChromaKey green screen]], each individual movie actually used more practical effects than the entire Original Trilogy combined via animatronics, make-up and miniatures. The films had extensive use of [[SerkisFolk CG characters like Jar Jar Binks]][[note]]Jar Jar was originally intended to be a DigitalFaceSwap with an alien head, so Creator/AhmedBest wore a legitimate Jar Jar costume and a mock-up of the head for reference, but after seeing a head replacement versus full body replacement George Lucas felt the latter had superior results[[/note]], but what they really spearheaded was the use of digital compositing methods to ramp up the number of items that could be seen at once. The Naboo city of Theed was a miniature but could precisely include waterfalls that wouldn't scale right (actually done with sugar). Mustafar had to be lit from top and bottom to capture the lava flow. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' no computer could render the Trade Federation capital ship at the detail needed, and it wasn't until ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' that [[TechnologyMarchesOn they could work on a large-scale battle]].
** ''[[Film/TheForceAwakens Episode VII: The Force Awakens]]'' goes out of its way to use practical effects to almost the same level as the original trilogy. When the first trailers appeared and [=BB-8=] was shown, the Internet went into an uproar about a [=CGI=] droid in Star Wars. A few weeks later, during a panel about the upcoming movie, lots of crow was eaten after they brought out the [[https://youtu.be/A_K10fX9DSY?si=08u1IsrE2nWleqpv&t=27 actual working BB-8 robot]]. Some scenes were obviously CGI, but the working robot was used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tElYdeH-58&t=80s&ab_channel=StarWarsCoffee in-camera as often as possible]].

** Of particular note was [[MakingUseOfTheTwin casting an actor's twin]] in key scenes, particularly where the T-1000 mimics one of its victims. Don Stanton's twin brother, Dan, played the T-1000 disguising itself as the security guard Lewis, while Creator/LindaHamilton's twin sister, Leslie, played the T-1000 disguised as Sarah Connor during the film's climax, in addition to the dream version of Sarah in a nightmare sequence. A deleted scene also featured Leslie helping to portray a functioning mirror: Linda and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenneger portrayed Sarah and the T-800 as reflections in a mirror while Leslie and a prosthesis of Arnie's head portrayed the "real" Sarah and T-800, with Linda and Leslie perfectly mirroring each other's motions through the "mirror".
* ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' is heavily praised for it's intricate special effects despite its small, out of pocket budget. In the movie, the main character is transformed into a living heap of scrap metal [[spoiler: after accidentally killing a metal fetishist and having sex over his dead body]], which is achieved using a mixture of prostetics, puppetry, and stop motion animation.

** Ironically, the ''prequels'' actually used quite a bit of animatronics, make-up, and miniatures. And not just in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' either like some fans claim, a lot of the places seen in episodes II and III used miniatures, such as the diner and even the lava planet of Mustafar.

A number of those who are DoingItForTheArt will therefore stick to practical effects and the audience will often thank them for it. They will make proud announcements during promotions that everything in their movies is real and will take extra costs and risks to ensure their "realism."

** ''[[Film/TheForceAwakens Episode VII: The Force Awakens]]'' goes out of its way to use practical effects to almost the same level as the original trilogy. When the first trailers appeared and [=BB-8=] was shown, the Internet went into an uproar about a [=CGI=] droid in Star Wars. A few weeks later, during a panel about the upcoming movie, lots of crow was eaten after they brought out the [[https://youtu.be/A_K10fX9DSY?si=08u1IsrE2nWleqpv&t=27 actual working BB-8 robot]]. Some scenes were obviously CGI, but the working robot was used in-camera as often as possible.

** ''[[Film/TheForceAwakens Episode VII: The Force Awakens]]'' goes out of its way to use practical effects to almost the same level as the original trilogy. When the first trailers appeared and [=BB-8=] was shown, the Internet went into an uproar about a [=CGI=] droid in Star Wars. A few weeks later, during a panel about the upcoming movie, lots of crow was eaten after they brought out the actual working [=BB-8=] robot. Some scenes were obviously CGI, but the working robot was used in-camera as often as possible.

* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' is one of the most prominent examples of practical effects in cinema history, with its title character and monster foes being brought to life on screen using rubber suits and puppetry against a miniature Japanese landscape. While Creator/{{Toho}} has been incorporating CG into the series over the years, [[DoingItForTheArt they don't intend to abandon the use of puppetry anytime soon]].

* ''Film/JurassicPark'' is constantly lauded for its great use of combining practical and digital effects. It stands among Creator/StanWinston's greatest ever work, which is saying something. While the effects, both practical and computer generated, have aged very well (the CGI probably even has better musculature), scenes like the kitchen chase with the ''Velociraptors'' would have been much less taut without the ability for close ups of the "raptors" faces or pots and pans being knocked and clashed and jangled by the dinosaurs.

** ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'': ''Film/BatmanBegins'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' were all very conservative on the post-production special effects. Only the most extravagant or dangerous stunts were performed in post-production. But certain scenes like Bruce saving Ducard from sliding off the edge of a cliff was done on location, with the actual actors wearing the necessary safety lines. ''The Dark Knight'' managed to film the flipping of an 18-wheeler by...[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRgq12XOhjc actually flipping an 18-wheeler]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJmEZe3ICpY on the streets of Chicago.]] They got it in one try. The plane hijacking scene in ''Rises'' makes rather spectacular use of practical sets and stuntwork. The director of the trilogy.