Miniatures in the Media

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Last updated 18. december 2014.

Miniatures have been used in films and television since those two mediums appeared and became such integrated part in our lives and culture.

There is no need to elaborate on what movies and tv shows are. Movies and tv shows are an entertaining mediums that tell a story visually. To bring our imagination from our minds and making it visible. Films and television shows can give us such visual wonders and bring fantasy worlds to life in such a realistic way that its almost like its a real place. To do that realism is important. And here is where miniatures and models come in handy.

For a long time, before the time of CGI (computer generated imagery) miniatures and models of of buildings and other structures, vehicles, objects and people are used to achieve whatever effect the director desires. Miniatures and models are very useful in creating realistic landscapes and structures and make scenes that otherwise would be too expensive or even impossible to create with full sized movie set. Like alien landscapes, alien cities, alien vehicles and many other scenes. Using miniatures can be cost-effective.

Miniatures have been used to depict disasters like earthquakes and sinking of ships and major distruction of structures.

Miniatures are also often used to achieve a forced perspective which is an optical illusion effect that is used to make object(s) appear closer or farther away than it is or used to make object appear bigger or smaller. Forced perspective is not just used in moviemaking, its used in photography as well.

Here is an article with a video that shows how miniatures are used to achieve forced perspective effect.

A few of famous movies where miniatures were involved are for instance King Kong (1933), Godzilla (1954), Alien (1979), the Star Wars movie (the originals), Harry Potter films, LotR.

Sites used in compiling informations on this page:

Miniatures in a Digital World by Michael Goldman.

Miniature effect – wikipedia page – this wikipedia page about miniature effect, a special effect created for tv shows and movies.

Special effect – wikipedia page – general information about special effects and its use in television, movies, theater and in video games.

These pages also have additional informations not covered on this page:

An article about 25 facts about Harry Potter set miniatures by Stuart Kemp.

Iconic movie sets that were miniature models by Abraham.

ILM Modelmakers Share Star Wars Stories and Secrets by Wesley Fenlon.

Harry Potter and the film-makers’ magic: Incredibly detailed model of Hogwarts Castle used for every film in blockbusting series is revealed for the first time by Anthony Bond.