One of the movies we enjoy here in the lounge area of the Cat’s Lair is John Carpenters 1982 classic The Thing. I recently saw how the title sequence was made. Back when there was no CGI, special effects were engineered with creativity and improvisation. Special Optical Effects Supervisor Peter Kuran explains the effect, taken from the documentary “The Thing: Terror Takes Shape”:
“When I did the effect for the title… a fish tank that was about, I don’t know, four feet wide by two feet high. and I put smoke in the fish tank and on the back of the tank I put the title “the Thing” I Drew it on an animation cel, ah, behind that I had a piece of garage bag plastic which I stretched over a frame and behind that I had a light with was pointed through the letters. And When I photographed it, I hit the garbage bag put a flame from a match to the plastic. The plastic would open up and let the light through the letters. That is how the letters look like they form and burn on with the [light] rays. It was a simple process but we went through a lot of takes….”
garbage bag, smoke, and a fish tank…
You can check out the documentary here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=iaZ1iopdKVs&feature=emb_title
Enjoy