What a cheap shot

[Dr. Eric Lang]

I hope I didn't offend anyone by making fun of the special effects! "Cheap Shot" was just a play on words. Like all of you I'm more interested in the story than in the effects and I overlook these things. I realize that given the technology for the day what they were able to accomplish was really quite impressive.

You can't BEGIN to imagine how primative those conditions were compared to today.  ANY special effect of any sort was the result of someone's sheer genius, artistic talents, and determination, because the 'technical' effects were virtually non-existant!

Yup - I took a media class in the mid-70's too. The old-fashioned, enormous video cams that only filmed in black and white and who ever heard of cordless in those days? LOL!

That shot of Nicholas and Cassandra wasn't the best, but it certainly beat the scene from 1897 when Laura, Tim, and Nora are fleeing the fire at Worthington Hall.

Thank you, ProfStokes! I remember that one too! I think you're right - that one has the Cass/Nicholas shot beat all to heck!

As for cheesy effects, I would have to say all the fire scenes, especially the one in Vicky's room during 1795 when Trask was perfoming his so called exorcism. The fire was burning right in front of Vicky and still she hadn't noticed it. Then when she finally sees it, she tries to put it out by throwing a blanket over it, only the blanket was on the side of the fire, instead of on top of it, yet it still went out.

Yup, Cassandra - most superimposed fire scenes have been pretty bad. I remember once scene where a house was on fire (this may be the same scene ProfStokes was talking about, or possibly another) and you could tell the flames were shot in extreme close-up, so they looked pretty bad.

The worst special effect on DS has to be the cardboard shadow.  

But believe me, back then, all these special effects, cheesy as they appear today, were amazing and unique, and we WERE impressed!

Love, Robin.  

Whenever I think about that puppet shadow thing I find myself singing that Cat Stevens song "I'm being followed by a puppet shadow . . . puppet shadow, puppet shadow."

And even some things they do today are no different from the "cutting edge" of Dark Shadows.  A friend of mine watches "Passions", so I see clips of it every once in a while.  There is this disembodied head which talks to the woman playing the witch who starred in "Nanny and the Professor".

I saw that too when I was flipping by the channels. Talk about a Saturday morning cartoon . . . (no offense to you Passions fans out there)

Very funny, ProfStokes!  In addition, I chuckle at how (if I recall correctly) the next scene was back at Collinwood -- several miles away from Worthington Hall -- yet the actors were trying so nonchalantly to ignore all the smoke that had wafted into the foyer and drawing room sets.  

That reminds me of when Jeff had the dream curse - he woke up in the Evans Cottage but the room was filled with dry ice which had spilled over from the dream set!

I grew up watching it, Ben, in b&w, too, and I imagine that in the grey shades of b&w, many of the effects did appear to be so much better than in color.  I remember the first season of "Lost In Space" was also in b&w, and the special ef-ex were of far greater quality in appearance than the ones used in the next two color seasons.

On Dark Shadows, there were also some ef-ex scenes of exceptional quality.  The one of Josette's ghost walking out of her portrait comes to mind.  It was flawless.  And just the other day, the ghost of Rev. Trask appearing in place of (superimposed over) his skeleton was also very well done, considering they had to line up the blue screen precisely with the zig-zag outline of the bricks.  It matched perfectly.

I agree - the black and white shows looked much more impressive. The sets looked more realistic too. The first appearance of Josette you described must have really tickled Dan Curtis - he used it at least 3 or  times. It was definitely memorable for the RIGHT reasons!

My sister had nightmares for weeks because of the scene involving the spell Nicky puts on Cassandra's hand, mentioned in a post above.  

Actually, that's one of the more impressive special effects - and it STILL creeps me out to think about it. One area where DS had good success is with the aging makeup they used on Barnabas and Cassandra - very impressive stuff!

[thom]

Oh Gothick I recall that Dennis Patrick scene you are talking about...  SPOILER>...






From the 1970 Leviathon eps, Megan and Jeb decide to open Paul Stodard's coffin to destroy the body and DP's smiling face greets them. I don't know how Marie Wallace spat out the words..."Jeb..he's laughing at you!" Priceless...

[Josette]

Most of the effects don't bother me.  Sometimes one can see an obvious inaccuracy, but it's usually relatively slight.  The main effect is there and the point comes across.

I never minded the shadow, either.  For one thing, she creates it by making the cutout - so it IS supposed to look like that.  As they make it grow and given the significance of what it's supposed to be, I always thought it served it's purpose and wasn't as bad as everyone else seems to think.

However, I had forgotten about that face of Paul Stoddard.  That really was a funny one and definitely qualifies as a "cheap shot."

[Bj]

It might be interesting to adjust your tv to b&w while watching the color episodes -- just to see if it's an improvement!  

I've always wondered what the show would have been like if they had decided to go b&w all the way and had the art direction reflect this -- now that would have been creepy!    After all, it's all about dark shadows.

[CastleBee]

>>You can't BEGIN to imagine how primative those conditions were compared to today.  ANY special effect of any sort was the result of someone's sheer genius, artistic talents, and determination, because the 'technical' effects were virtually non-existant!<<

Technically, this says it all very well Raineypark!  

As far as being able to overlook the way it looks today - for me it's kind of like this.  When I was in my teens and 20's I remember wondering just how people who grew up during the heyday of radio could have enjoyed that medium so much.  No bells, no whistles just sound and...their young, fertile imaginations!  

Looking back from 2002 at my own huge and continued enthusiasm for DS I can better relate to my parents generation's love of things like "The Shadow".  With DS, it wasn't so much what it looked like as where it was able to inspire my imagination to go.  In the long run (IMO) that kind of thing is always more about writing and acting than it ever is special effects.  Not that I mind special effects - actually get into them on a certain level - but I do think they've sort of jaded my pallet over the years so to speak.  

I enjoy re-watching DS because it makes me remember a time when I could not only believe that the walls of Collinwood were real, but could trancend those walls and imagine all sorts of wonderful and strange things beyond them.  

If you could travel back in time and bring your little Sony videocams into that studio, they'd have worshipped you as a god!

LOL! How true!

[scout75]

(I)f you are looking for perfection, this is not the show for you...lol

But part of the fun of DS--IMO--is rooting for the actors to get through scenes when things go very wrong; like when TLATKLS lost her earring in a scene with Joel Crothers where they were ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT the earrings! Loved how she subtly covered her ear...like we all didn't see it fall off!

We all have our favorite actors/characters (see the "Breaking & Entering" thread ), but when it all goes south, I like to cheer for everyone to make it through...