For those disappointed by the overpowering digital effects of contemporary Hollywood blockbusters like the “X-Men” series and “The Chronicles of Narnia,” something to consider is a return to an older era of visual effects before digital dinosaurs and animated armored polar bears came to be.
Years before these digital effect-laden films dominated theaters, award-winning visual-effects artist L.B. Abbott was working on 1966’s “Fantastic Voyage,” a film that follows a shrunken ship of scientists who explore the inner workings of the human body.
This film and others of Abbott’s 55 years of work in the visual-effects industry will be featured this month as part of the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s series “Wire, Tape and Rubber Band Style: The Effects of L.B. Abbott.” The series is to celebrate the centennial year of his birth, showing that despite the advanced digital technology at the hands of today’s filmmakers, the creativity and artistry of early pre-digital effects nonetheless succeeded in creating stunning alternate realities.
“‘Fantastic Voyage’ is such an amazing movie because it really treats the inner world of the human body as if it were outer space. I think the effects really draw the audience into the fantasy of the story itself,” said Paul Malcolm, the archive programmer who organized the series featuring Abbott’s work.
The L.B. Abbott series features big-name films that highlight his contribution to visual effects, like “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1959), “Fantastic Voyage” (1966), “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972) and “Cleopatra” (1963).
“This is a way to bring attention to this particular below-the-line artist who helped create a number of classic Hollywood films,” Malcolm said. “I wanted to underscore the artistry of that era of visual effects as a way of indirectly drawing a contrast to the kind of effects we see today, which are all heavily digital.”
Abbott’s career spanned half a century of technological development in the visual effects industry. While visual-effects artists today might multiply extras into vast armies from the comfort of their swiveling computer chair, Abbott’s early jobs as an assistant cameraman required grueling fieldwork.
“(Abbott) didn’t have the benefit of being able to turn to a computer,” said Gene Kozicki, member of the Visual Effects Society’s board of directors. “He had to figure (the visual effects) out somehow, as a physical reality.”
In his book “Special Effects: Wire, Tape and Rubber-Band Style,” Abbott describes the meticulous and repetitive details of setting up a shot of World War I soldiers marching through a miniature of a French forest, using repeated shots over the course of 36 hours to create the effect of a moving army.
“This procedure was repeated throughout the night,” Abbott wrote, “with the positions of the marchers and the bomb blasts changed each time so that in the final picture it would appear that there were thousands of men.”
In addition to showcasing Abbott’s artistry and innovation, Malcolm hopes to attract visual-effects enthusiasts and classic Hollywood film fans to attend the series.
With DVDs and widescreen features replacing the distinctive effect of big-screen movie theaters, audiences often miss out on the intense visual experience and original artistic intentions of the filmmakers.
“DVD and home theater is its own experience unto itself, but the theater still has the best sense of spectacle, scope and emotional engagement,” Malcolm said.
The series starts tonight with a showing of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” at the Billy Wilder Theater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday will feature “Fantastic Voyage” with guest speaker Kozicki, and the program will continue until the March 29 viewing of “Cleopatra.”
“Just before we get that next barrage of digital summer blockbusters, let’s take a moment and look back at these really amazing visual effects films from summers past,” Malcolm said. “It’s a nice palette cleanser before all that digital stuff comes out.”