Editing Special effect (section)

===Early development===
[[File:The Execution of Mary Stuart, 1895.ogv|thumb|''The Execution of Mary Stuart'' (1895)]]

In 1857, [[Oscar Gustave Rejlander|Oscar Rejlander]] created the world's first "special effects" image by combining different sections of 32 negatives into a single image, making a [[Photomontage|montage]]d [[combination print]]. In 1895, [[Alfred Clark (director)|Alfred Clark]] created what is commonly accepted as the first-ever motion picture special effect. While filming a reenactment of the beheading of [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], Clark instructed an actor to step up to the block in Mary's costume. As the executioner brought the axe above his head, Clark stopped the camera, had all of the actors freeze, and had the person playing Mary step off the set. He placed a Mary dummy in the actor's place, restarted filming, and allowed the executioner to bring the axe down, severing the dummy's head. Techniques like these would dominate the production of special effects for a century.<ref>Rickitt, 10.</ref>

It wasn't only the first use of trickery in cinema, it was also the first type of photographic trickery that was only possible in a motion picture, and referred to as the "stop trick". [[Georges Méliès]], an early motion picture pioneer, accidentally discovered the same "stop trick." According to Méliès, his camera jammed while filming a street scene in Paris. When he screened the film, he found that the "stop trick" had caused a truck to turn into a hearse, pedestrians to change direction, and men to turn into women. Méliès, the stage manager at the Theatre Robert-Houdin, was inspired to develop a series of more than 500 short films between 1896 and 1914, in the process developing or inventing such techniques as [[multiple exposure]]s, [[time-lapse photography]], [[dissolve (filmmaking)|dissolve]]s, and hand painted colour. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality with the [[cinematograph]], the prolific Méliès is sometimes referred to as the "Cinemagician." His most famous film, ''[[A Trip to the Moon|Le Voyage dans la lune]]'' (1902), a whimsical parody of [[Jules Verne]]'s ''[[From the Earth to the Moon]]'', featured a combination of live action and [[animation]], and also incorporated extensive [[Scale model|miniature]] and [[matte painting]] work.

From 1910 to 1920, the main innovations in special effects were the improvements on the matte shot by [[Norman Dawn]]. With the original matte shot, pieces of cardboard were placed to block the exposure of the film, which would be exposed later. Dawn combined this technique with the "glass shot." Rather than using cardboard to block certain areas of the film exposure, Dawn simply painted certain areas black to prevent any light from exposing the film. From the partially exposed film, a single frame is then projected onto an easel, where the matte is then drawn. By creating the matte from an image directly from the film, it became incredibly easy to paint an image with proper respect to scale and perspective (the main flaw of the glass shot). Dawn's technique became the textbook for matte shots due to the natural images it created.<ref>Baker, 101-4</ref>

During the 1920s and 1930s, special effects techniques were improved and refined by the motion picture industry. Many techniques—such as the [[Schüfftan process]]—were modifications of illusions from the theatre (such as [[pepper's ghost]]) and still photography (such as double exposure and [[Matte (filmmaking)|matte]] compositing). [[Rear projection]] was a refinement of the use of painted backgrounds in the theatre, substituting moving pictures to create moving backgrounds. Lifecasting of faces was imported from traditional maskmaking. Along with make-up advances, fantastic masks could be created which fit the actor perfectly. As material science advanced, horror film maskmaking followed closely.

[[File:King Kong 1933 Promotional Image.png|thumb|Publicity still for the 1933 film ''King Kong'', which used [[stop-motion]] model special effects]]
Many studios established in-house "special effects" departments, which were responsible for nearly all optical and mechanical aspects of motion-picture trickery. Also, the challenge of simulating spectacle in motion encouraged the development of the use of miniatures. [[Animation]], creating the illusion of motion, was accomplished with drawings (most notably by [[Winsor McCay]] in ''[[Gertie the Dinosaur]]'') and with three-dimensional models (most notably by [[Willis O'Brien]] in ''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'' and ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]''). Naval battles could be depicted with models in studio. Tanks and aeroplanes could be flown (and crashed) without risk of life and limb. Most impressively, miniatures and [[matte paintings]] could be used to depict worlds that never existed. [[Fritz Lang]]'s film ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' was an early special effects spectacular, with innovative use of miniatures, matte paintings, the Schüfftan process, and complex compositing.

An important innovation in special-effects photography was the development of the [[optical printer]]. Essentially, an optical printer is a projector aiming into a camera lens, and it was developed to make copies of films for distribution. Until [[Linwood G. Dunn]] refined the design and use of the optical printer, effects shots were accomplished as [[in-camera effect]]s. Dunn demonstrating that it could be used to combine images in novel ways and create new illusions. One early showcase for Dunn was [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', where such locations as [[Xanadu (Citizen Kane)|Xanadu]] (and some of [[Gregg Toland]]'s famous '[[deep focus]]' shots) were essentially created by Dunn's optical printer.