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Special Effects--How Was This Possible in 1971?

posted 2 years ago by CoriSCapnSkip (1562)
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Unless I am very much mistaken, Albert Finney played both the younger Scrooge and the old Scrooge. The movie can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Pk1jcaLDI. How was the following scene done at this time?

At 55:06, young Scrooge's hands are extending past the middle of the screen, in front of old Scrooge. This can't be split screen because in split screen the hands would have been cut where the divide was between the two halves of the picture. Right after that, old Scrooge walks forward and young Scrooge reaches up in front of him. The rest of the scene could be split screen but this part baffles me.

[–] Mikey (404) 2 years ago

I would assume that the actor playing young Scrooge in that shot is a body double made up to look like young Finney. Notice that you can only see a small portion of his face. They most likely filmed the scene with Finney as old Scrooge and a double playing young Scrooge, then again with Finney as young Scrooge with a double for old Scrooge. And they set up the camera angles so you could never really tell the other was a double by only showing his face at angles.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1562) 2 years ago

Very clever, that.