The History of SFX

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The following information is found at: Special Effects: The History and Technique by Richard Rickitt, Foreword by Ray Harryhausen. Published in 2006 by Aurum Press Ltd. 

• The Rains Came (1939) won an early Academy Award for its use of special effects. They used a split screen combination of live action/miniatures in order to present the devastation cause by earthquakes and floods.
• Ben Hur (1925) required a full scale Circus Maximus and a fleet of seven hugs Roman galleys - on location in Italy. However, the burning of the galleys; bad weather and Italian labour disputes resulted in the production being brought back to California. They completely remade the sets with a significient use of miniatures. 
• UFA (Germany's largest studio) used Fritz Lang as their star director. His two part epic Die Niebelungen (1924) was filmed on huge studio sets and featured a 60ft mechanical dragon. This production also exploited the Shuftan process. This process used mirrors to combine full-sized sets with miniatures. This is a technique that German cinema would later become famous for. 
• By 1930, Lang had left Germany for Hollywood, although he was one of the last to take flight. Lang lingered in Germany to produce Frau im Mond (1929). Lang wanted to make this film as accurate as possible, although it was science fiction. He hired Professor Hermann Oberth (who went on to design the Nazi's V-1 rocket bomb) and Willy Ley (who went on to design rockets for the USA) to work as consultants on the film. However, the Gestapo later conviscated the model rockets and prints of the film because the rocket construction was considered too 'revealing'. 
• Orson Welle's Citizen Kane (1941) used a range of matte paintings, miniatures, animation and optical printing techniques. In the same year, the Academy Awards created a special effects category, which Citizen Kane was not nominated. This is believed to be because the special effects in the film went 'unnoticed'. 
• Hollywood's troubles came about after the invention of television and the US anti-trust investigation in the 50s,  forcing studios to separate production and exhibition activities. Once-profitable theatres were closing by the thousands as film audiences around the world declined by millions. In order to compete with television, the 60s brought about production of spectacular historical epics. Twentieth Century Fox's production of Cleopatra (1963) saw a boom in budget and extras. It is reported that $6,500 was spent on a crown of real gold; 10,000 extras were employed in  periodic costumes; 'Alexandria' was rebuilt as a 20 acre set of huge palaces and temples; a 12 acre reconstruction of Rome's forum was bigger than the original; and Cleopatra's barge was a full scale vessell was built at the cost of $250,000. The finished film cost $44 million ($300 million today) and its failure at the box office almost bankrupted Fox. 
• In the 60s, Hollywood continued the theme of excess. The movies produced generally became more fast paced, action packed and violent. The beginning of the decade saw the release of Psycho (1960) (shocking audiences by the graphic horror) and the first James Bond film Dr No (1962) (delighting audiences with a new style of macho action). This resulted in the presence of on screen violence being extended (audiences responded positively to faster chases, fiercer fights and big explosions). The Great Escape (1963) saw the makers crashing real planes instead of models to add shock effect. 
• The 60s boom of realism saw a dip in the traditional skills of special effects departments. Instead of the matte artist/model maker rendering a city, the epics of the time had to have reality. For example, full scale aircraft being flown into trees by living pilots to film a plane crash.