In 1938, Kodak published a book for amateur movie-makers titled HOW TO MAKE GOOD MOVIES. A chapter on doing trick shots includes instructions for filming a train wreck using toy trains: “Arrange the coupled cars in a pile-up, and, with your camera upside down, film the cars as you pull them off the heap with a thin string or an unseen hand. When the scene has been reversed end for end in the film, you’ll have a first rate train wreck.” |
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Train Wreck #18
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3 comments:
Some of Hollywood’s finest miniature work was done by the brothers Howard and Theodore Lydecker for Republic Pictures. The Lydeckers used large-scale, meticulously detailed models that were often photographed outside against natural skies. Seen on the big screen, these miniatures were so life-like that many people believed them to be the full sized items. Some of the Lydeckers’ best work – exploding buildings, cars, trucks and wagons going over cliffs, flooding tunnels and caves, erupting volcanoes, etc. -- can be seen in old serials and B-westerns.
The train wreck scenes look pretty realistic, for the time period. There were a lot of talented individuals, such as the Lydecker brothers, and others that did this type of work. Who knows how different this part of the movie would have looked, with the computer generated images that are used today.
One thing for sure.....it would be a Hell of a lot louder!
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