American Cinematographer - May 2001 - 125

Alfred
in the
world of special effects? Rickett explains
how special effects were an important
part of the director's visual repertoire,

ISBN 0-8230-7733-0

from his

Cinema is

a perceptual illusion
persistence of vision, and
special effects are born from that magic.
Richard Ricketts insightful book on the
history and technique of special effects
effectively integrates the story of film
magic with that of film history itself.
After all, fundamental technologies such

based upon

as

color and sound

are

themselves

species of special effects.
Rickett is
a

Did you ever consider that
Hitchcock is an important figure

Special Effects:
The History and Technique
by Richard Rickett
Watson-Guptill Publications
320 pp., hardbound ($75)

a

writer/filmmaker and

partner in a company that creates digi¬

use of the Shuftan process on
Blackmail (1929) to his collaborations
with master matte painter Albert Whit¬

lock

on

films such

as

The Birds (1963)

and Marnie (1964).
Have

ever

given Orson

Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) its due
as a
Rickett has, and he

special-effects film?
points out the consid¬

erable work that Linwood Dunn, ASC did

for the film with the

optical printer. "The

entire film," Rickett writes, "is littered
with subtle

fine matte

This unique series, sponsored by the
Kodak Worldwide Student Program,
has great

value to both students and
working cinematographers.Nine of the
world's finest directors of photography
share their experience in a workshop
setting, as they guide you through a
series of professional lighting problems
both in the studio and

you

recognition

MASTER CLASS
SERIES VIDEOS

optical effects by Dunn and
paintings by Mario Larrinaga.

to

solving them.

FEATURES
11NCLDDE:
Lighting Dances With Wolves
With Dean

Dunn later estimated that

film and television industries. With this

percent of Citizen Kane was optically

outstanding book, he has created an upencyclopedia of every kind of
motion-picture process. From the
antecedents of cinema to the latest digi¬
tal effects, the book is comprehensive,
historic in approach and very well orga¬
nized into 10 succinct chapters.
The context is set quite nicely
with the first chapter, "Out of the Shad¬
ows," which outlines technical develop¬
ments in film from its earliest days up to
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom
Menace (1999). The second chapter on
optical illusions explains how movie
cameras work and how images are
captured on film. With this theoretical
grounding, the reader is given a funda¬
mental technical understanding of the
basis of film effects. The principles of

improved or tinkered with, and that only
he and editor Robert Wise might ever be

Studio

able to

A

to-date

color, bluescreen, hand-drawn mattes,
front- and

rear-projection, optical printing
and compositing are covered with great
clarity.

50

identify all of the changes made."
Models, animation, matte paint¬
ing, physical effects, sound effects and
the future of special effects comprise
subsequent chapters. A fine chapter on
special-effects makeup focuses on the
work of artists Jack Pierce and Rick

Baker.

Up-to-date coverage of digital
filmmaking is also included, highlighting
such films as durassic Park (1993) and
Toy Story (1995). Great photos and art

location.

Computer animation is used to vividly
illustrate the approaches used

tal visual effects and animation for the

over

on

Semler, ASC, ACS

Lighting Dead Poets Society
John Seale, ASC, ACS

With

Lighting:

Comparative Workshop
With Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS

& Denis Lenoir, AFC
Location

Lighting

With Geoff Burton

Shooting for Realism
With Allen Daviau, ASC
& Sacha Viemy

adorn the entire book, which offers 350

Shooting for Drama
With Robby Miiller, NSC, BVK

color

& Peter

images and 60 black-and-white
illustrations. The final chapter consists of
an alphabetically arranged listing of
special-effects landmarks, along with a
glossary of terms, a selected bibliogra¬
phy and an index.
"Over the

last

one

James, ASC, ACS, CSC

Shooting for Fantasy
With Sacha Vierny & Denis Lenoir

Shooting for BlacRamL White
With Allen Daviau & Denis Lenoir

hundred

years," writes Rickett, "the art and tech¬
nology of special effects has been tire-

cinematographer, e om
(800) 4484)145

www.

123
American Cinematographer - May 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2001
