Although movie special effects have made great strides in the last ten years, largely thanks to CGI and improvements in the use of green screen, many of the film techniques and special effects we use today were actually developed by the early pioneers of cinema, during the silent film era.
I recently came across a very interesting short film called "Les Kiriki, Les Acrobates Japonais" (The Kiriki: Japanese Acrobats) produced in 1907 by the Spanish/French director Segundo de Chomón that uses a simple yet effective special effect to produce an enchanting and interesting short film.
The film supposedly shows a troupe of Japanese acrobats performing amazing gravity-defying feats. The troupe, consisting of eleven men, women and children perform seemingly impossible stunts. Can you guess how they filmed this?
In this impressive shot, a single man hold seven people off the ground!
In this still from Les Kiriki, we see man lifting three other acrobats while supporting himself on his head. The three acrobats are hanging from his feet and ankles, in a seemingly perfect balancing act.
This is a really impressive shot. Four of the acrobats are hanging upside down on a wooden beam supported by their fellows.
In this impressive shot, a single small buy holds four grown men up on a beam, which he balances effortlessly.
Below you can watch the film in its entirety: The movie was filmed before color cinematography but the frames were each meticulously hand painted to generate color. It was first released in France in 1907
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Now that you have seen the film, can you tell how they did this? As you might have guessed, these acrobatic feats are not physically possible. But they seem possible because of a simple yet innovative camera trick: except for the opening and closing shots when the performers come on stage and leave, the entire thing was shot from above. The acrobats are not standing but are actually flat on the ground which is painted black to trick your sense of depth and perspective. When the acrobats seem to be standing on top of one another or balancing impossibly on a beam, they are actually on their sides and we are seeing them effortlessly lying on the ground. There are no feats of acrobatics, just feats of camera angles by Segundo de Chomón, one of the pioneers of the silent film era.
Segundo de Chomón (17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was Spanish film maker who later moved to France where he worked for the Pathe Studios. He created many short films which display a daring innovation and are still entertaining to watch over a 100 years later.
We hope that you have enjoyed this encore presentation of a little lost gem from the silent film era.
