Lydecker miniature goes ka-boom!

Howard, Theodore and crew members check a large scale miniature prior to touching a match to it for Flame of Barbary Coast.

The Lydecker brothers worked at Republic Pictures, a second-tier but thriving movie studio.  The brothers created all sorts of nifty vehicles, gizmos and miniature sets during the 30s, 40s and 50s.  After they built them, they usually burned them down or blew them up, and boy, did that look cool.  They were largely responsible for creating the verisimilitude that pre-pubescent matinee-goers everywhere knew as the stuff that made any Republic serial better than the competition.  By a country mile. The other studios (Columbia, Universal, et. al.) simply couldn't hold a candle to Republic's effects team.

So what was it that made the Lydeckers' miniatures so darn good?  In a nutshell, it was their policy of "build it bigger and shoot it in natural light."  Miniature effects created by the other studios often employed relatively smaller models built with lesser detail.  They often ended up looking just like what they were-- little models dangling on the end of a thread shot against jiggly rear-screen footage.  Even the youngest matinee-goers could spot this kind of thing for what it was.

In addition to the use of relatively large scale models and natural light, there is a third factor in making miniature photography look real --the use of slow-motion.  During the shoot, film is run through the camera at a higher speed than normal (determined by the scale of the models) and when projected at normal speed, the slow-motion effect gives the end product the right appearance of mass and size.