The Twitter account @silentmoviegifs shared these simple images that explain how special effects were completed during the silent film era. You can find the whole collection on Imgur.
How a background was added to a shot from Modern Times using a glass matte painting shot pic.twitter.com/4EddbfTOh8
— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 6, 2017
The end result in Modern Times (1936), looks like Chaplin is really in danger of going over the edge pic.twitter.com/2qjjzU04WX
— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 6, 2017
Buster Keaton seamlessly combines a matte shot and a crazy stunt in Sherlock Jr. (1924) pic.twitter.com/kSA9hMkcQg
— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 7, 2017
By placing a plate of glass partially painted black in front of the camera, Keaton on the motorcycle was filmed separately from the trucks pic.twitter.com/KHEiamPWES
— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 7, 2017
Mary Pickford kisses herself in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)
One of the most technically impressive double-exposure shots of the silent era pic.twitter.com/lG0nTF861g— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 5, 2017
This is how cinematographer Charles Rosher achieved the effect. The three-second shot took 15 hours of work to get right pic.twitter.com/QZd6VcRvzR
— Silent Movie Gifs (@silentmoviegifs) January 5, 2017
Find the rest of the images on Imgur.
