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