10 Amazing Practical Movie Effects Shots Everybody Assumed Were CGI

8. Jar Jar's Hand - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

The House With A Clock In Its Walls Jack Black
Lucasfilm

It's no secret that actor Ahmed Best served as a stand-in for Jar Jar Binks on the set of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, appearing in a practical, rudimentary Jar Jar costume which was then painted-over by the movie's VFX team.

As such it'd be fair to assume that every frame of Jar Jar we see in the movie is a digital effect, but that's surprisingly not the case.

For the brief close-up shot where Jar Jar gets his hand stuck in one of the engines on Anakin's (Jake Lloyd) podracer, George Lucas eschewed CGI entirely by simply using Best's real hand within his practical, on-set Jar Jar sleeve.

It lasts for just a few seconds, but probably saved the production a few thousand bucks in VFX billings, so that's something.

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