Today's movie magicians have graduated to making entire cities disappear, a stunt pulled off with alarming realism in this summer's motion picture epic, Independence Day , in which extraterrestrial invaders set out to systematically destroy the world. Only the technology has changed. Independence Day, Jumanji , and Kazaam . At the beginning of the 20th century, the biggest special effect of all was cinema itself. People paid to see such spellbinding shows as workers leaving a factory, a baby being fed, and a train arriving at a station.
Cinematic legend has it that the audience shrieked and fled during the train sequence.
Traditional props, sets, actors, costumes and make-up all serve this purpose. They also made liberal use of magicians' stage tricks. Similar tricks of forced perspective were used to create some shots of the giant marauding toddler in the movie Honey, I Blew Up the Kids . The technology of special effects has advanced by leaps and bounds since the 1890s. Although films such as Jurassic Park and Jumanji have made computer animation virtually synonymous with special effects, digital graphics are just one tool in the effects bag of tricks.