Tag Archives: movie miniatures

The Caine Mutiny 1954

To prove  that Lawrence W Butler was more than capable of producing quality model ship action after the criticism levelled at him by Otto Preminger on In Harms Way, here’s a look back to an earlier film he supervised with … Continue reading

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In Harms Way 1965

John Brosnan in his excellent book,Movie Magic (McDonald and Janes 1974), quotes from an interview Andrew Sarris conducted with the film’s director Otto Preminger in Hollywood voices, where he claims; “I had originally hired a famous expert for these models. … Continue reading

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Krakatoa east of Java 1969

Nominated Oscar Special Effects (1970) Eugene Lourie, famous for directing a number of classic B-movie monster movies in the fifties, was also an accomplished art director and special effects director. He art directed and directed the special effects miniature work … Continue reading

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Operation Pacific 1951

A pretty unremarkable John Wayne movie about dud torpedoes. Varied quality miniature effects,  most close ups  suffering from poor depth of focus. Many shots taken from much earlier films and exhibiting an obvious grainy quality. A particularly odd over use … Continue reading

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MODEL CONTROL

In miniature visual effects work usually the maxim “simpler the better” is employed and most miniature ships have been moved across the tank by pulling an underwater rope. Usually  divers are employed to man-handle the ship into position and to … Continue reading

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CAMERA, LIGHTING AND LENS

A fundamental factor in making models appear life size and massive is to shoot them at high camera speeds. This results in them being viewed in slow motion when projected. At normal live action speeds, say when an actor is … Continue reading

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MODEL SCALE – how big are the miniatures?

As mentioned in the About this website introduction, Water droplets do not scale and the water droplet size is the single most tell tale sign of a miniature effect, consequently the size of the model has a very great bearing … Continue reading

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