Special effects have always been a major part of cinema history, and the very first instance of their use came in 1895, in a film produced by inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison. These days, special effects are an entire industry unto themselves. From computer generated imagery to animation, lighting, set design, pyrotechnics, some of themost amazing practical effects ever, and hundreds of other types of special effects, they’re a massive staple of film as a whole. When movies were first being made, however, they were far less advanced than the technological marvels of the modern age.
Though they were less advanced, the early days of special effects were still the cutting edge of technology for the time. Film in general was entirely novel, and experimenting with it to achieve effects that would be impossible in the real world would have been almost entirely unheard of. This was a full year before the 1896 movie,Arrival of a Train at La Ciotatand the urban legend of an audience running in fear of a lifelike train. The novelty of special effects is likely why Thomas Edison signed on for the project, and without his help, special effects might not have gotten such an early start.
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The Execution Of Mary Stuart Trick Film Includes The First-Ever Special Effects Shot
The first motion picture to ever include special effects was a short “trick” film from 1895 titledThe Execution of Mary Stuart.The short is a recreation of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, and some have argued it was the first movie to use trained actors instead of pedestrians, and that it was the first horror movie ever made. Since it depicts the titular character’s beheading,The Execution of Mary Stuartused its special effects to save its actress' life. The story of how that was accomplished in 1895, decades before the invention of the computer, is almost just as exciting as its record.
Mary Stuart has had a much more recent film depiction, inMary Queen of Scots, a 2018 film starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan.
How The Beheading Scene Was Done In The Execution Of Mary Stuart
To achieve the beheading inThe Execution of Mary Stuart, the short film used what would later become a staple of cinema: a stop trick.Director Alfred Clark set up the beheading like normal, with regular actors taking their places. Then, as the executioner raised his ax, he cut filming, had all the other actors stay still, switched Mary’s actress with a dummy, started rolling again, and had the executioner cut off the dummy’s head(viaScholarly Community Encyclopedia). When the film finally rolled, it looked like the executioner had cut off a living person’s head on camera.
Another interesting part ofThe Execution of Mary Stuart’s special effect is how easily it can be tracked into the history of the practice.Stop tricks quickly gave way to actual cuts, where filmmakers would actually cut rolls of film and paste them onto other rolls. From there, dozens of other special effects techniques were developed, and the entire film industry was changed forever. Everything that came after, including thespecial effects that almost ruined some movies, owes a debt toThe Execution of Mary Stuartand Thomas Edison.
