Ancient CGI? - The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) Discussion

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] kc_storm1 16 years ago

Cool. Thanks for the quick reply. The fly didn't have much detail, so it was hard to tell.

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dude just think about your question...CGI 1957....nuff said. they didnt have the tech for it. I dont even think they had animation over film yet but I might be wrong.

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[–] toshguy 14 years ago

Of course it could have been animated. I recall an animated butterfly in a Cary Grant movie from the forties. They just animated it on a transparent sheet that they put over the film.

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die

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[–] fomao5 11 years ago

I think you can find mixed animation and live action in Koko the Clown shorts from the 1920s.

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[–] eimb1999 14 years ago

The fly was a simple double exposure, or composite, of a real fly crawling across a film-neutral background and composited into the shot. Could have been done by front projection, rear projection or travelling matte, but was not hand animated nor, of course, CGI. The movie was made before the days when computers destroyed the art of film, back when film makers had to have actual skill and creativity.

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[–] toshguy 14 years ago

Well in the Cary Grant movie it was definitley animated, it looked Disneyesque. So they did that too back then.

I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here 'till the day I die

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[–] andrewwjohnson 14 years ago

.........Any of use who have eaten outside knows the common house fly needs little encouragement to land on your face. This definitely happens if you are drinking soda or something else with sugar or corn sweetener in it. that may have been how the film makers got the fly to land where the wanted it to. Just use a couple drops of something sweet..........In the fifties computers were huge number crunching machines and nobody thought of using them to create movie effects. That wasn't done till the early eighties in movies like "Tron".
TAG LINE: True genius is a beautiful thing, but ignorance is ugly to the bone.

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[–] moviefixer 12 years ago

It was a stunt fly. Actually, the first fly died during filming. He was a SAG member and a member of the Stuntfly Association. (They do all the stuff regular flies won't try due to being too dangerous.) I think his name was Marty Mac.

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] vonziggy 11 years ago

McFly McFlyington

You can live on fishes but you can't live on wishes

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[–] mcode518 11 years ago

The first film to feature CGI was 1973's Westworld.

Okay, well... filibuster.

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[–] rddeaton1 11 years ago

As one who has a very extensive collection on THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS, I rechecked a few volumes, and in one of the press blurbs at the time, it mentioned that more than 450 flies were used to make the scenes with Jimmy Stewart. It says they were knocked out with ice water and revived with cigarette ashes so they would "act" in the manner they wished. Wonder if that would ever make it today with any of the watchdog agencies and cruelty to animals?

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[–] JayBee-66 10 years ago

CGI stands for Computer-Generated Imagary. But in 1957?

Animation though is quite possible.

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[–] dodgercodger 9 years ago

In 1957 "CGI" would probably have had something to do with Cary Grant.

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