MovieChat Forums > Explorers (1985) Discussion > miniature shots???

miniature shots???

posted 18 years ago by GlennTriggs
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i absoloutely love explorers to death. it helped turn me into a filmmaker. im hoping that someone out there in the world (or space) knows details of how this film was made. there are some incredible night time street shots in the film as the thunder road is flying around the neighbourhood. im guessing it's just miniature models of streets with painted backgrounds..it just looks so good and authentic in a kids adventure type of way. if any one knows anything
email me at [email protected]
-thanks
-glenn

[–] imdb-7497 18 years ago

This old episode of NOVA from 1985 talks about it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/listseason/12.html#1215

Magic of Special Effects (The)
Original broadcast date: 11/05/85

It's one of the best documentaries ever made about optical effects. It was the first time I ever saw a full explanation of how travelling mattes worked. They do talk about Explorers a bit, and they even show how a shot from the movie was made from start to finish. (The one where the helicopter circles around the ship.)

If you can get a copy of the episode, it's well worth watching.

Note that NOVA did another episode about special effects in 1998 called "Special Effects Titanic and Beyond", which I haven't seen, but I assume talks mostly about computer effects.