In "poltergeist" how did they do that effect where the house crumbles !
Question: It was back in 82. How did they pull it off? I remember hearing that the quickly developing clouds in poltergeist and close encounters were white ink in water, but dont recall how they did the house crumbling at the end. it doesnt look great by todays standards but still looks pretty damn good. any guesses?
Answers: It was back in 82. How did they pull it off? I remember hearing that the quickly developing clouds in poltergeist and close encounters were white ink in water, but dont recall how they did the house crumbling at the end. it doesnt look great by todays standards but still looks pretty damn good. any guesses?
I recall how they built the collapsible set, a scale model. I'm sure that I can find the details. I think the "Poltergeist" effects have held up beautifully! Pre-CGI effects have a special quality to them, more immediacy in many cases. People don't seem to realize that CGI stands out just as much as any other special effect. So, don't slam the old style, which likely had even more care put into it than most of today's effects.
Here is one description.
"The collapsing house at the climax of the film was a six-foot-wide minature house created by Industrial Light & Magic. It was stood on end with a high-speed camera above and a series of cables extending out the bottom. The camera filmed the destructive action at 300 frames per second, as the house was ripped apart in seconds by the cables and the debris sucked up by a powerful floor-mounted vacuum cleaner. When the film was run for Steven Spielberg, the projectionist exclaimed loudly as he saw the house slowly distintegrate into itself and Spielberg knew he had a winner special effect. The remains of the miniature house were gathered into a plastic box and sealed, and were presented to Steven Spielberg. He kept them as an interesting memento of the film as a piano decoration."
I have magazines that focus on SFX of that time period. Some have very detailed articles about this particular scene that seemed impossible to do at first. It's a brilliant effect!