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30 Photos That Reveal The Tricks That Filmmakers Used In Their Movies
On-screen, everything looks picture perfect. From close-up shots to elaborate fight scenes, it seems there’s no room for error in our all-time favorite movies. And although it’s true, that doesn’t mean it’s a given.
In fact, many A-list filmmakers have been putting all their best effort, ingenuity, and talent into coming up with something as good as the iconic rooftop scene from The Matrix.
So this time, Bored Panda has compiled a list of the most incredible behind-the-scenes photographs that reveal all the big and small cinematographic tricks. Get your popcorn ready, we’re about to find out how on earth do they do this!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
The Phantom Menace (1999)
Model maker Michael Lynch created this miniature set for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. To fill the stands, 450,000 Q-tips were cut, painted and inserted into a mesh. By blowing fans from underneath the model stands, the Q-tips appeared as a live crowd moving around in their seats
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#2
Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
When you hear someone talking about visual effects, movies like Star Wars, Blade Runner, or Jurassic Park often come to your mind. But VFX aficionados often find their passion not exactly in the entire movies (like film critics), but rather in particular shots that blow their minds in their complexity.
A great example of one is the mirror shot in Robert Zemeckis’ film Contact from 1997, where young Ellie races to a medicine cabinet, with the camera right in front of her face. As she finally comes upstairs, the viewers realize we have been watching her reflection in the mirror.
According to visual effects and animation journalist Ian Failes, this scene embodies all that good VFX should have. “Not only is it a shot considered a milestone in invisible and seamless visual effects, it is a scene that even VFX pros regularly admit they have no idea how it was pulled off.”
#3
Jurassic World (2015)
#4
Forrest Gump (1994)
The VFX Supervisor Ken Ralston, who worked on the mirror shot in Contact, said that initially, the mirror shot wasn’t going to be that at all.
“One of the things that we were starting to pursue was a very, very early version of what is now called ‘bullet time,’ shooting something with stills and using those, like in The Matrix [which came out in 1999]. At the time, we were looking at The Rolling Stones' music video that had been done,” he told animation journalist Ian Failes in the interview.
#5
Exterior Of The Sewer Set In It
#6
Star Wars
Grant Imahara (RIP) and Tory Belleci from Mythbusters working on Trade Federation battleship from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
NO WAY! MYTHBUSTERS WORKED IN STAR WARS???!!!! Did not know that!
#7
E.T The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
#8
The Godfather (1972)
#9
Back To The Future Part III (1990)
Mohsie Supposie 4 years ago
Great effects. Loved how they did special effects "back in the day" before CGI. It was done using real objects and real camera tricks rather than using a mouse and keyboard.
Fast forward to today, and people are still mesmerized by the scene without a clue of how the team pulled it off. But when it comes to visual effects, Ralston believes that it all comes down to being presented in a simple way. “The beauty of it is, anywhere else, there’d be cutaways, of course, to show what you need to know.”
A shot like that one, according to Ralston, “just gotta be right or it’s not going to work.” “You have to be grounded somehow in a movie, or believing in what you’re seeing, or it just doesn’t mean anything.”
#11
The Hunt For Red October (1990)
#12
The Call Of The Wild (2020)
#13
Star Wars: BB-8
#14
Baby Driver (2017)
How the car was driven in Baby Driver when the actors were busy acting inside
Essentially, visual effects have allowed filmmakers to transcend the limits of the screen and create impossible worlds. Sometimes it’s motion-capture footage blended with hand animation as in The Dawn Of Apes (2014).
#15
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
#16
Shutter Island (2010)
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
Even when CGI exists, it's still great to see filmmakers make props like this.
#18
Avengers Endgame (2019)
#19
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Spider-Man, War Machine, and Hulk behind the scenes Avengers: Endgame
Other times, it takes never-before-used solutions to come up with something very creative, like the iconic bullet shot in The Matrix where Neo dodges a bullet. This frozen shot was executed by the VFX Supervisor John Gaeta, who worked with the directors and cinematographer to place 122 still cameras around Keanu Reeves before triggering them one by one
#20
The Invisible Man (2020)
#21
Titanic (1997)
#22
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
#23
Knives Out (2019)
In Knives Out, Matt Mania (Key Grip) cleverly sculpted mattes to reshape the lighting equipment into scenery you'd realistically expect to see reflected in the glasses.
#24
Men In Black (1997)
.Another iconic VFX shot from The Matrix is the code onscreen, which hadn’t been done before. Gaeta’s idea was to give the audience an impression of what it’d be like to think in code. The team surely succeeded in doing so by making some of the most memorable visual effects ever shown on screen.
#25
I Am Legend (2007)
Saint Thomas 4 years ago
They should've kept the guy in green, he's more terrifying than the badly CGI dog.
#26
Avengers : Infinity War (2018)
#27
Space Jam (1996)
#31
Batman Returns (1992)
#32
Die Hard (1988)
engineer_nope.avi 4 years ago
Fun fact: when Alan Rickman was about to be dropped, the Director said that he's gonna count to 3 and then drop Alan, but they dropped him at 1 instead.
#34
Tiger In Westworld (2016)
#37
Aladdin (2019)
#38
Hannibal
#39
The Shining (1980)
''Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya.'' A behind the scene photo of the horror movie The Shining
#40
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
#41
Alice In Wonderland (2010)
#42
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
#43
The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
#44
The Walk (2015)
Mohsie Supposie 4 years ago
Glad that got cleared. For a second, I thought they had rebuilt the Twin Towers just to do the movie. ;)
#46
The Matrix 4 (2021)
#47
The Mandalorian ( 2019 )
A.M. Pierre 4 years ago
I absolutely loved how they used "the volume" instead of green screen for so much of The Mandalorian. I find it so much more convincing and realistic.
#50
The Call Of The Wild (2020)
#51
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Mike Myers In Makeup As Fat Bastard In "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me"
Andrew Gibb 4 years ago
Oh, is that all the thanks I get for the night of hot sex? I'm dead sexy, you were crap!
#53
Goldeneye (1995)
Thomas brennan 4 years ago
Sad that the telescope where the movie finale was shot literally collapsed a few months ago due to underfunding
#54
The Mask (1994)
#56
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Shelli Aderman 4 years ago
I think it would have been fun, (but too $$$) to rebuild that section of NYC on a studio (like in Back to the Future) to get trashed!
#57
Alfred Hitchcock (1948)
#60
Alice In Wonderland (2010)
#61
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
#63
1917 (2019)
#67
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Opening Scene - Inglourious Basterds - LaPadite Farm
#68
Inception (2010)
#69
Space Odyssey, 1968 (2001 )
#74
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (2015)
Noel Benavente 4 years ago
I have a huge crush on her. She visited my country in 2018 for her birthday, i missed her... :'( ba2c06610a...8b3c73.jpg 
#75
Baby Driver (2017)
#76
La La Land (2016)
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Lis Daglish 4 years ago
I have great respect for good actors / actresses, even more so when you see the reality, and sometimes the absurd / silly context, that they are acting within.
Daria B 4 years ago
True. Sometimes, for the fear of leaks and spoilers, these actors don't even know exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Like, they're acting "blind".
Load More Replies...
Csaba Hegedűs 4 years ago
Most of the pictures are good, but some of them are like 'hey, actually there were CAMERAS where the scene was shot!'
Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
Right? Emma Stone dancing, with lights and cameras pointed at her. Incredible effects!!!!
Load More Replies... Thomas brennan 4 years ago
There's a quality youtube channel with experts discussing good and bad cgi in movies. One of the most interesting bits i learnt was that often the motion capture suit stuff is useless to the artists because they are put on completely computer generated backgrounds anyway, so they just need to design it all from scratch. They also point out that a lot of directors don't know how to set up shots for cgi addition later, which is often why you get really shonky cgi in big budget movies. That and in many cases the cgi houses are only given a small window to do the work, which is why you end up with situations like Black Panther end fight scene being hilariously low rent - they only finished it a week or so before it was due to be released.
Caroline 4 years ago
I didn't know special effects were used so much, even in situations that I thought they weren't needed?
Daria B 4 years ago
Wait until you learn stunt doubles don't do only stunts either. ♡
Load More Replies...
Sanne H. 4 years ago
In the movie “Children of Men” there is this scene inside a car full of people, where the camera keeps on turning 360 degrees. If you see the scene your reaction is “how the bleeb did they film this?!” No CGI was used, but a clever combination of a moving camera on top of the car, and actors moving down off-camera to let the camera pass at exactly the right moment.
B 4 years ago
One of my first jobs was as a model maker for a sci-fi movie. Myself and my partner spent 5 months building a 2 metre long space trawler, complete with lights, engines that fired, and moving parts inside. The film makers packed it with explosives and blew it up as part of the filming soon after we completed it, after about a day of filming. A little part of me died too that day. Thank **** for modern CGI is all I can say.
Alyssa Fiedler 4 years ago
I thought that the harry potter one was the best, by far, because they had absolutely nothing to look at except a green screen, and the movies is awesome!!! : )
Mary Hurst 4 years ago
I admire the creativity of the people whose craft is special effects, set design, makeup and costuming. Just as important as the actors.
Gabby M 4 years ago
I wish people behind the scenes of movies were more well known than actors. If actors didn't have the directors, writers, costume designers, set designers, lighting, sound effect, special effects, etc...movies just wouldn't be as special. I don't know why actors are paid an obscenely amount of money when the people that bring movies to life are far less recognized.
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest 4 years ago
What bothers me is the amount of money and objects used for one moment and tossed. Like 450,000 qtips, paint...and toss... I probably am going against the grain but I have ways hated that in TV and movies.
Alexis draskinis 4 years ago
practical fxs, even big ones like star wars, are still usually cheaper than CGI. Or at least they used to be. CGI is getting cheaper to use & getting used more often. But that means some directors use them fir more & more little stuff that & doesnt always make things better or more realistic looking. That, and the talent it takes to make realistic fxs is nearly unmatchable. I Cant imagine a world where someone like Tom Savini is out of work for some semi realistic looking anything, personally
Load More Replies... Lis Daglish 4 years ago
I have great respect for good actors / actresses, even more so when you see the reality, and sometimes the absurd / silly context, that they are acting within.
Daria B 4 years ago
True. Sometimes, for the fear of leaks and spoilers, these actors don't even know exactly what they're supposed to be doing. Like, they're acting "blind".
Load More Replies... Csaba Hegedűs 4 years ago
Most of the pictures are good, but some of them are like 'hey, actually there were CAMERAS where the scene was shot!'
Kristin Ingersoll 4 years ago
Right? Emma Stone dancing, with lights and cameras pointed at her. Incredible effects!!!!
Load More Replies... Thomas brennan 4 years ago
There's a quality youtube channel with experts discussing good and bad cgi in movies. One of the most interesting bits i learnt was that often the motion capture suit stuff is useless to the artists because they are put on completely computer generated backgrounds anyway, so they just need to design it all from scratch. They also point out that a lot of directors don't know how to set up shots for cgi addition later, which is often why you get really shonky cgi in big budget movies. That and in many cases the cgi houses are only given a small window to do the work, which is why you end up with situations like Black Panther end fight scene being hilariously low rent - they only finished it a week or so before it was due to be released.
Caroline 4 years ago
I didn't know special effects were used so much, even in situations that I thought they weren't needed?
Daria B 4 years ago
Wait until you learn stunt doubles don't do only stunts either. ♡
Load More Replies... Sanne H. 4 years ago
In the movie “Children of Men” there is this scene inside a car full of people, where the camera keeps on turning 360 degrees. If you see the scene your reaction is “how the bleeb did they film this?!” No CGI was used, but a clever combination of a moving camera on top of the car, and actors moving down off-camera to let the camera pass at exactly the right moment.
B 4 years ago
One of my first jobs was as a model maker for a sci-fi movie. Myself and my partner spent 5 months building a 2 metre long space trawler, complete with lights, engines that fired, and moving parts inside. The film makers packed it with explosives and blew it up as part of the filming soon after we completed it, after about a day of filming. A little part of me died too that day. Thank **** for modern CGI is all I can say.
Alyssa Fiedler 4 years ago
I thought that the harry potter one was the best, by far, because they had absolutely nothing to look at except a green screen, and the movies is awesome!!! : )
Mary Hurst 4 years ago
I admire the creativity of the people whose craft is special effects, set design, makeup and costuming. Just as important as the actors.
Gabby M 4 years ago
I wish people behind the scenes of movies were more well known than actors. If actors didn't have the directors, writers, costume designers, set designers, lighting, sound effect, special effects, etc...movies just wouldn't be as special. I don't know why actors are paid an obscenely amount of money when the people that bring movies to life are far less recognized.
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest 4 years ago
What bothers me is the amount of money and objects used for one moment and tossed. Like 450,000 qtips, paint...and toss... I probably am going against the grain but I have ways hated that in TV and movies.
Alexis draskinis 4 years ago
practical fxs, even big ones like star wars, are still usually cheaper than CGI. Or at least they used to be. CGI is getting cheaper to use & getting used more often. But that means some directors use them fir more & more little stuff that & doesnt always make things better or more realistic looking. That, and the talent it takes to make realistic fxs is nearly unmatchable. I Cant imagine a world where someone like Tom Savini is out of work for some semi realistic looking anything, personally
Load More Replies...
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