Tuesday, July 20, 2010

War of the Worlds TV pilot, part 3



This video links to test footage conducted in the mid-1970's for a proposed TV series based on the War Of The Worlds novel and film. What's remarkable about the footage is that it incorporates an experimental special effects process owned by Paramount called "Magicam", which allowed the synchronized movement of actors on a blue screen stage to match the movements on a miniature set. The result was that the actors seemed to actually move within a miniature set while the camera panned along with the action. This was an enormous breakthrough that unfortunately was never properly exploited.

The Magicam process was intended to be used on the aborted Star Trek Phase II television series that was to air around 1977 to 1978.

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