Bringing Up Baby special effects - Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

[ILOVZak]

The puppet is so funny looking

[Phersephoie]

btw, though not a special effect, the scene in Susans room was shot in a cage, as most of the shots where the leaopard was on set :) go to imdb for more trivia, it's full!

[Phersephoie]

Hey great work! But honestly I still can't quite get the split-screen technique, would it be too much to explain it a little?

[boinx1234]

@Phersephoie

There are two kinds of split screen techniques.

In a static split, the scene is shot twice with a locked-down camera - once with the actor and once with the leopard. As long as no one crosses the line of the split, the two can be easily combined.

Traveling splits are harder. Since the characters are moving, the split must move with them. As you can see in the clips, sometimes this was done perfectly, but at other times the moving split line can be seen.

[Phersephoie]

@boinx1234 interesting...thanks!

[pxb353]

@boinx1234 i just finished the movie. i could be wrong. there just seem to be some weird foreground shaking in the wide shot at 2:00 min.

[pxb353]

nice work. i just started to watch the movie and noticed that one shot in the opening sequence at the museum displays an optical effect : the dinosaur's skeleton seems to actually be a model in the foreground (or superimposed), with the scaffolding and actors + front legs terminal bones in the background.

[boinx1234]

@pxb353

But why would they do that when they built the brontosaurus full size? We know that because it collapses in the last scene of the film.

[gizmokeeper]

You will notice that most of the special effects were done with Cary Grant. It is because he was terrified of the leopard. Katherine Hepburn has told a few stories about pranks that were pulled on this set. She even threw a stuffed leopard in Grant's dressing room once. He was so scared he ran out screaming. She wasn't afraid at all, but someone did almost get hurt on set. So then after that they protected all of the actors.

[RhythmUniverse]

Puppet on 3:27? Naw. Puppets don't breathe...and it looks like Baby is panting. :)

This is great. I've seen it dozens of times too and never questioned that the cat was there in the room.

Nice work!

Do you have one about "Citizen Kane" too then?

[boinx1234]

I agree about the puppet. But is the leopard back on set? If so, why do the shot right before as a split?

Would love to do CK, but the clip would have to be about 90 minutes long!

[lou1606]

REally great!!

[hansupgwai]

Wow - that was brilliant. Thanks for sharing.

[boinx1234]

Jbellaire

wow, I've always noticed the glass partition when Grant walks into the room and shuts the door, and I've always though it was funny when the leopard walked around Grant's feet when he was trying to get off the chair. Something just says it's not his legs. Most of these I've never noticed! I've got to watch this again, lol.

[boinx1234]

gottamatch

You are very clever to pick all of these out! It was a pleasure to watch all the tricks! Thank you very much for sharing your eye for special effects with us! I've seen this movie countless times and hadn't noticed things now I can't imagine not noticing! But it doesn't take anything away from it for me.. just goes to show how clever they were all those years ago! Thank you!

[boinx1234]

Davidkevin

It figures that Katherine Hepburn was as brave as she was beautiful, strong, intelligent, and funny: she had every other Divine quality, so that bravery was there too shouldn't be surprising at all. She was Magnificent!

Sorrisotta87

So true.

[boinx1234]

omahatmbgfan

great revelations. I've seen this film at least a dozen times, and never noticed any of that. KUDOS!

RKO had a really excellent special effects dept. Three years later they made "Citizen Kane," which, as Roger Ebert says, "has as many special effects as "Star Wars."

bonzohart

Very insightful! Some of this stuff seems impossible without motion-controlled cameras.

LoManNYC

Might that 3:26 shot be a puppet again? There is very little movement from the big cat. so It could well be.

[boinx1234]

That was my first thought, but watching it a number of times made me think it was not. What do others think?

[boinx1234]

morningslider

I love this stuff! Thanks Mark. Movies truly were magic before the advent of digital editing!

blackwingy

Fantastic presentation! I wish I'd heard Mr. Dunn's talk too--but thanks to you we have this. Kudos!

HalLane9000

Masterfully researched, Mark -- I had no idea there were so many tricks involved!

ginger1961

Amazing . Thanks for the insight into the film.