King Kong

After watching the original King Kong made in 1933, I have gained a new appreciation for the art of film and the work that was put into some of the oldest movies. Cooper and Schoedsack had an enormous amount of creativity and positive direction to create this movie and make the special effects as effective as they were with the challenges that they were faced with. Although the movie was an amazing accomplishment for the time period, it is obviously dated at this time, which makes the special effects less effective for viewers now a days. Regardless of this fact, we are still fascinated with the effects that were made possible for other movies by King Kong. I have much more appreciation for this movie after watching the behind the scenes features, these clips allow the viewer to see what went on during the making of the movie and the issues that the directors and actors ran into while filming. I was amazed by the complexity of the models and how difficult it was to make the figurines realistic and mobile.
Because I do not have background on film study I did not understand what was needed to make a film like this in the 30’s, but watching the behind the scenes clips revealed to us that they used stop action filming to create King Kong’s movements as well as those of the other animated characters in the movie. I was amazed when I realized that they had to film him in one position then move him into the next position slightly and film again, and the time consumingness of this way of filming. The intricate scenes that Cooper and Schoedsack designed in order to create the jungle scenes of the island were also an advancement of the time. They were able to use multiple backgrounds as well as projection and real foregrounds to create a realistic scene.
The improvements to filmmaking and the advancements made to create such intricate special effects were the main cause of making King Kong such a successful film, one that has lasted for decades and become a major part of American culture.