Top SFX shots No.14: King Kong

This shot, with inserts of screaming citizens removed, is one of the most elaborate in Willis O'Brien's fantasy classic, and a veritable masterpiece not only of animation but of compositing. Every part of the frame is alive with action - check out the strangely loitering gawpers at the windows, stage right. Note also that fleeing crowds pass both in front of and behind Kong. Also notice the animated passengers in the bottom left-hand corner of the frame who succeed in climbing down from the wrecked subway and flee their furry persecutor. It's a shame no-one thought of the go-motion approach for the first train, which passes in a particularly stiff manner, but that doesn't take away the evident weeks or months of work which went into this one shot.

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