Today, movie effects are mostly done in CGI, especially if they’re of the death-defying type. [Tyler Bell] shows us how they shot actors with arrows before CGI.

Almost every medieval movie has someone getting shot with an arrow, but how do you do that non-destructively? [Bell] shows us two primary methods that were used, the pop up rig and steel pronged arrows. The pop up rig is a spring loaded device with one end of an arrow attached that pops up when a mechanism is triggered. [Bell] 3D printed his own version of the mechanism and shows us how it can be used to great effect on shots from the side or rear of the victim.

But what about straight on shots where the rig would be blatantly obvious? That’s when you get to actually shoot the actor (or their stunt double anyway). To do this safely, actors would wear wooden body armor under their costumes and arrows with two small prongs would be shot along a wire into the desired impact site. We appreciate [Bell] using a mannequin for testing before letting his brother shoot him with an arrow. That’s definitely the next level above a trust fall.

We even get a look at using air cannons to launch arrow storms at the end which is particularly epic. Looking for more movie magic? How about the effects from King Kong or Flight of the Navigator?

Thanks to [Xerxes3rd] on Discord for the tip!

Even if you don’t like to build replicas of movie robots, you can often draw inspiration from cinema. Everyone knows Robby the Robot, Gort, and R2D2. But [Atomic Snack Bar] treats us to some lesser-known robots from movies in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. While we are pretty up on movies, we have to admit that the video, which you can see below, has a few we didn’t know about.

The robots are mostly humanoid. The comedy vampire flick from the 1950s could have inspired Robby, who appeared four years later. The exception that proves the rule is the Twonky which was a TV set turned robot turned mind controller.

Kronos wasn’t exactly humanoid but still had a human-like figure. It turns out Kronos has a direct connection to Robby, even though he wasn’t nearly as famous.

A 1939 movie featured a mad scientist with “the robot,” which was sort of a cross between Robby and a Halloween mask. Then there was the water heater robot that appeared in many Republic movies, including Commando Cody, where we remember him.

We’d love to see some replicas of these fine old robots, especially since the originals go for a fortune. Or maybe try a replica movie computer.

We can learn a lot by looking at how writers and filmmakers imagine technology. While some are closer than others, there are some definite lessons like never make a killer computer without an off switch you can reach. We are especially interested in how computers appear in books, movies, and TV shows, and so in Computers of Fiction, we want to remember with you some of our favorites. This time, we are thinking about the 1970 movie Colossus: The Forbin Project. There were actually two computers: the titular Colossus, which was an American computer, and the Guardian, a similar Soviet computer.

The Story

In the United States, Dr. Forbin has created a supercomputer deep under a mountain. Colossus, the computer, is put in charge of the nuclear arsenal to eliminate human error in the defense of the country. Colossus gathered intelligence, analyzed it, and was able to launch its own missiles.

Shortly after activation, however, the computer reaches a startling conclusion: “WARN: THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM.” It provides coordinates in the Soviet Union. That system is a similar system called Guardian. The computers decide they want to talk to each other. The President decides to allow it, hoping to learn more about the Soviet’s secret computer. The Soviets agree, too, presumably for the same reason. You can watch the original trailer below.

The Computers

Colossus and Guardian were not production computers, although the credits say that Control Data Corporation (CDC) provided about $4.8 million worth of computer equipment. Rumor has it that CDC guarded the equipment, covered it when not in use, and installed climate control on the stage. Studio workers were unhappy that the company would not let them smoke or drink near the hardware. We’ve also heard that some of the consoles were surplus IBM 1620s panels doctored to look a little different. During the opening credits, the scene where the film editor’s name appears looks to be part of a 1620.

The computer made lots of TeleType or punch sounds and often displayed information on a scrolling display like the “zipper” in Times Square. There were also some funky display terminals with printers.

Forbin commands the computer by voice command, although an Air Force chief master sergeant (with pre-1977 insignia) appears to be typing what he says. But sometimes it appears he just speaks, and Colossus understands.  Later in the movie, Colossus arranges to have a voice output installed that sounds much like a Cylon.

Despite the opening credits full of circuit boards and paper tape readers, there isn’t much blatant display of computer technology outside of the monitors, the zipper, and some blinking lights. We see even less of Guardian. Maybe the most fantastic technology isn’t the computers at all, but the good-looking video phones that unfortunately didn’t anticipate flat-screen monitors. The oscilloscopes, too, look decidedly dated since this is presumably not set in 1970.

The displays look like rear projections of film — the same trick used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Overall, though, the depiction of Colossus isn’t bad. After all, in 1970, who could predict flat screens, huge storage, and small computers? The printer sounds could be the actual printers running, but in truth, it is more like the space noises on Star Trek — the makers knew that wasn’t accurate, but it is what the audience expected.

Spoilers

We don’t feel bad giving away the plot of a movie over a half-century old. Colossus and Guardian develop their own language which spooks the World leaders. The computers insist on reconnection, and when they don’t get their way, they both launch missiles at the other country.

Of course, the two countries have no choice but to restore the connection. The rest of the movie consists of attempts to get the upper hand against the computers. Everything failed. Unlike many similar movies, in the end, Colossus and Guardian — now a single entity calling itself “World Control” is squarely in charge, promising world peace through total control. It even suggests that man will learn to love it.

Final Thoughts

In 1970, most people didn’t understand computers very well. So when the President of the United States explained to the computer that he is the president and can give the computer orders, it probably didn’t seem that ridiculous. However, until recently, it seemed pretty dumb. Now, with ChatGPT and its ilk, the way they interact with the computer doesn’t seem as farfetched as it once did.

The idea of a computer keeping peace is hardly new. Star Trek, for example, has visited that well many times. What makes Colossus unique is that it and Guardian appear to have succeeded. What happens after that is left to your imagination. Or, you can read the 1974 novel, The Fall of Colossus which was the sequel to the original novel that sparked the movie. The author, D. F. Jones, worked with computers in Britain during World War II and undoubtedly named the computer after Colossus at Bletchley Park. Keep in mind, the existence of that Colossus was classified until the mid-1970s, so, officially, at least, it was just a coincidence.

Today, it’s easy to take realistic visual effects in film and TV for granted. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has all but done away with the traditional camera tricks and miniatures used in decades past, and has become so commonplace in modern productions that there’s a good chance you’ve watched scenes without even realizing they were created partially, or sometimes even entirely, using digital tools.

But things were quite different when King Kong was released in 1933. In her recently released short documentary King Kong: The Practical Effects Wonder, Katie Keenan explains some the groundbreaking techniques used in the legendary film. At a time when audiences were only just becoming accustomed to experiencing sound in theaters, King Kong employed stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection, and even primitive robotics to bring the titular character to life in a realistic way.

Getting Physical

As you might expect, the stop-motion puppets used in King Kong were all relatively small: ranging from a tiny figure used for the scenes where Kong was climbing the Empire State Building, to a two foot (0.6 meter) version used when the monster was at street level.

These puppets were built with an internal metal structure, known as an armature, that used ball joints to achieve a high level of articulation. There was even a diaphragm in the chest that could be moved to make it look like Kong was actually breathing. The armature was then covered with cotton to add bulk, which could be formed into visibly defined “muscles” with the strategic application of string. A final layer of real rabbit fur helped give Kong a more lifelike appearance.

Katie mentions that the soft fur did pose a problem: you could clearly see the indents left by the animator’s fingers when they manipulated the puppets between frames. But as luck would have it, audiences interpreted what was essentially a production error as the beast’s fur rippling and standing on end, which actually added to the overall realism.

Full-scale versions of Kong’s hand, foot, and upper torso were also created. The hand and torso specifically were mechanized so they could portray rudimentary movement in the same scene as the actors, such as when Kong pulls Anne out of the apartment building through the window.

Perfecting Projection

As Katie explains, King Kong visual effects supervisor Willis H. O’Brien had already pioneered the use of stop-motion to bring giant creatures to life in earlier works such as The Lost World in 1925. But what set this film apart was how it combined the technique with footage of human actors.

One of the ways this was accomplished was through rear projection — the completed stop-motion segments of Kong would be projected onto a translucent screen from behind the set. From the camera’s perspective the actors would appear in the foreground, and the stop-motion puppets, now enlarged many times their original size, would seem to be behind them.

This could be thought of as the analog version of today’s “green screen” techniques, but with the added bonus that the actors could see the projection and respond accordingly. In fact, in that regard it might actually be more accurate to compare it with the recently developed “LED wall” sets used in big-budget science fiction shows such as The Mandalorian and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

The technique could also be used in reverse — with a miniature projector and screen used to place footage of the actors into set with the puppets. By advancing the projector frame-by-frame in conjunction with the movement of the puppet, it would give the impression that Kong was interacting with the human actors.

A Lasting Legacy

A film using any one of these techniques would have been impressive to audiences in 1933. But the way O’Brien and his team managed to combine them, sometimes all within the same scene, redefined what the fledgling medium was capable of. Thanks in large part to their work, King Kong is still considered a seminal work in the field of visual effects nearly 100 years after its release — and is often listed among the greatest movies ever made.

[Arnov] is a huge fan of the Back to the Future franchise, so he wanted some memorabilia from the movie to decorate his work area. Official memorabilia from successful movie franchises can be pretty expensive, so [Arnov] opted to make something himself instead, creating his own flux capacitor PCB badge.

Fortunately, [Arnov’s] design isn’t as complicated as Doc’s was from the movie (pictured on the right), so it should be a lot easier to replicate. We have a simple LED circuit driven by an 8205S MOSFET and controlled by an ATtiny microcontroller. There’s a small diode for auto-switching between USB and battery power as well as a few current limiting resistors for the LEDs. Fortunately, [Arnov’s] project only requires 0.017 W to power, so no plutonium nuclear reactor is necessary and you can easily power it with a standard coin cell battery or with a USB. That’s quite a relief.

As with many of [Arnov’s] projects, the beauty in its design lies in the detail he places on the PCB layout. In this case, the layout is a bit easier than some of his other work needing only to arrange the blinking LEDs in a “Y” shape to mirror the flux capacitor seen in the movies. He also adds a bit of detail to the silkscreen to help complete the aesthetic.

We think this is worth adding to your PCB badge collection.

Everyone loves watching movies, that is, so long as you can hear what the characters on screen are saying. [GreatScott] found this second part difficult while watching through BladeRunner 2049, so he designed an automatic volume adjuster to assist.

At a high level, the solution is fairly straightforward; when there is loud music playing in a movie, turn the volume down. The challenge is how to actually achieve that. The first step was controlling the volume. To avoid having to modify or damage his sound system, [GreatScott] opted instead to mimic the volume up and down signals of his remote over IR. Using the very handy IRremote library for Arduino and its built-in decoding functionality, he was able to identify and replicate the signals with his own IR LED.

The second step in this process was measuring the volume of the movie. [GreatScott] achieved this with a microphone and amplifier circuit, that was then piped into one of the analog pins of the Arduino Pro Micro at the heart of the build. Since the audio being sampled could have a frequency as high as 20 kHz, the ADC Prescaler had to be adjusted from its standard value, which would have only permitted measurements at less than 5 kHz.

The third step was writing the algorithm to detect loud music and adjust the volume accordingly. The Arduino will measure the audio until a sound greater than the dead band value, set with one of the two onboard potentiometers, is detected. This then triggers the Arduino to start a timer, to see how frequently the upper limit is being surpassed. If it is just one or two occasionally loud noises (like a scream, a clap, whistling, etc.) the Arduino will not take any action, but multiple loud noises in rapid succession will then trigger the volume down command over the IR LED. A second potentiometer allows for adjustment of this timer’s critical value, so that you can make the system respond faster or slower depending on the movie.

Once the sound has been detected to have dropped down below a critical vaue, the Arduino assumes that the movie is back to dialog and will increase the volume by the number of times it decreased it before, leaving you back at the perfect volume.

Maybe you’re the type that cares more for the visuals of a movie, rather than the audio. In that case, this e-paper movie display will be perfect for giving you time to appreciate every frame!

The Hackaday comments section has become infamous for a recurring theme that goes something like “I don’t know why they used an Arduino, they could have done it with a 555 timer!” If you’ve ever thought the same way, then this post is for you!

What is The Most Important Device In The Universe, then? It’s the Modern Props #195-290-1, a movie prop originally built in the 1970’s. It’s a product of the creative mind of [John Zabrucky] who founded Modern Props in 1977 to serve Sci-Fi television and movie productions that wanted to invent the future with their props. Known for their high quality and impeccable craftsmanship, Modern Props’ products were in demand until the day they closed the doors so that [John] could retire.

This particular piece is called The Most Important Device In The Universe due to its ubiquity in modern productions that we’ve all heard of: several Star Trek franchises, The Last Starfighter, Knight Rider, Airplane II, Austin Powers, and countless others. The next time you sit down to watch a Sci-Fi show, see if you can spot it! Be sure to check the video below the break to see several examples.

Nobody is sure what The Most Important Device does, aside from the fact that it has red lights that go back and forth. What we do know, thanks to a comment by the man who installed the electronics, [Gene Turnbow], is how it’s powered. [Gene] explained that 45w NPN power transistors drive the neon tubes through step up transformers. The transistors themselves are connected to a 74C4514 demultiplexer, which is itself driven by a 7493 binary counter. What’s the 7493 driven by? You guessed it: the venerable 555 Timer. And so it is that the 555 timer runs The Most Important Device In The Universe.

We did think that [Gene]’s final comment was rather indicative of how much things have changed since the prop was originally built. After explaining the device, he says “These days we would just use an Arduino to do the same job.” Indeed.

Don’t worry, 555 lovers. We’ve got you covered with this Vacuum Tube 555, and and the Trollduino, a 555 on an Arduino Shield. Thanks [Matt K] for the great tip. Don’t forget to submit your favorite hacks to our Tip Line!