It's hard to think of a time where CGI didn't exist. But in the not so distant past, if a filmmaker wanted to create a something or somewhere that didn't exist in the real world they couldn't fall back onto a team of CG artists to render that world for them, they had to get their hands dirty and build everything practically. But building everything full scale would take too long and cost too much money. So filmmakers started experimenting with building miniatures to cut down on cost and be more time efficient. But it's not as simple as building a smaller version of something, filmmakers had to conquer a lot of challenges to make sure that a 3 foot long model could look 200 feet long on film. But before I discuss the smaller details in how filmmakers pioneered the illusion of scale, let's dive into where it all started.
One of the earlier films to use miniatures was Georges Méliès' 1902 classic "Le Voyage Dans la Lune" or in English "A Trip to the Moon". This film pioneered a lot of effects including stop motion, double exposure, split screen and more relevant to this post, miniatures. It's important to realise that Georges Méliès wasn't a filmmaker by trade, in fact he was an illusionist, Georges Méliès was technically performing on screen magic and without realising paved the way for a whole new industry based around special effects. The most iconic shot from this film, that of the moon with a face, was created using a miniature model of the moon.
But like any technical aspect of filmmaking, it started simple and developed over the year, with different filmmaker adding to what was capable with miniature effects. And a film that really took miniatures to the next level doesn't need much introducing. A film that many claim to be one of the greatest film of all time. Orson Welles' 1941 magnum opus "Citizen Kane". A film that shattered the ceiling for what was capable for film and features a lot of miniature effects. A hybrid of miniatures and matte paintings were used to create Charles Foster Kane's iconic home, Xanadu. What's majorly important and innovative about this is how it creates depth to the world, these effects paired with the way the scene is edited create a sense of scale and grandness that before this point had never been done. The special effects really flesh out the world of Citizen Kane and proved the potential in using miniature special effects for realistic world building.
Another huge mile stone in the use of miniatures was in 1968 with Stanley Kubrick's crowning achievement of science fiction "2001: A Space Odyssey". Kubrick took us to the moon before man had even landed there in the real world. Kubrick made space travel feel real, which had never really been done before. The model making team had pioneered a new way of adding detail and scale to the miniatures they were building, a technique called "kit bashing" which consists of taking existing details from manufactured model kits of things such as cars, planes and ships. Adding these small details really added to the effect of scale, sculpting these small and intricate details wouldn't be possible by hand, but kit bashing allowed model makers to quickly and effectively add incredible amounts of detail to the miniatures they were building. The small details really add to the effect that something is working mechanically, working especially well in areas such as space ship engines. The use of kit bashing paved the way for many more incredible science fiction films to follow including Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner, Independence Day and The Matrix, in fact I can say with quite a lot of confidence that almost every film since Kubrick's 2001 that has made use of miniature effects has used kit bashing in one way or another.
So enough discussion on the history of miniatures in the special effects industry and time to move on to how you can create these effects at home yourself.
How to Build Miniatures
One of the best resources on the internet for miniature model building is the YouTube channel "Tested". Tested was founded by Mythbusters host Adam Savage. Before working on Mythbusters Adam Savage worked at Industrial Light and Magic (the special effects company behind Star Wars). Adam worked for ILM between 1998 and 2003 as a model maker working on films including the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Matrix trilogy. Adam is very generous with his knowledge on model making and has discussed it several times on Tested, but I especially love this video of Adam building a space craft inspired by a piece of Moebius concept art entirely from scratch. Using only a hobby knife, sheets of polystyrene, Weld On and some model kit parts.
Even though the build isn't that big, Adam covers a lot of the fundamentals that go into great model building that you can apply to your own projects.
One of the only things not covered in this video is painting and weathering these models. But Tested have another great video on this topic featuring special effects artist Frank Ippolito where he creates an underwater dystopian city.
How to Film Miniatures
Whilst there are many ways to film miniatures, if you want the shot to have motion then you're going to need to use some sort of motion control rig so you have the ability to accurately repeat movements.
One way of shooting miniatures is using a static subject with a moving camera. You will need motion control for this because whilst shooting this style of miniature you're going to have to film what's known as passes, this is where you repeat an exact movement a number of times, changing the elements of each take. This allows you to stack and adjust your shot during post production. These passes usually include, a fully lit shot with a green screen so you can mask out your models from the background, the second pass is typically known as a beauty pass, this is where you light the shot to how you want it to look, the third pass would be lights on the model turner on, and then possibly more passes for atmospheric elements such as rain and fog. The production team behind the short film "Slice of Life" have a lot of great behind the scenes videos on this topic. This one explains the concept of shooting miniatures in passes perfectly.
Another way to shoot miniatures is again to shoot with a static model and a moving camera but this time to a different effect. This time you'll be emmulating the effect of an object moving through space. This technique of motion control was made famous by films such as Star Wars, Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
For this you're going to need to start the shot with the camera in front of the model and dolly it backwards, revealing the model and then continuing to dolly back, causing the model to become further and further away from the subject. Once this shot is keyed out using your editing software, it will give the effect that the camera isn't moving, but the model is flying. These two YouTube videos perfectly illustrate this use of miniatures.
Obviously these effects can also be recreated digitally using 3D software like Cinema 4D or Blender, but why would you want to do it digitally when you can do it practically? Challenge yourself and expand your knowledge by attempting these effects practically without any help from 3D software. If you get round to trying it out then I'd love to see them, upload a short clip to instagram and tag me in it @mastersofcinema and I'll give you a shoutout on my story. Good luck!
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