10 Vintage Film Special Effects That Make A Mockery Of CGI

7. UFO Landing Scene - Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

Steven Spielberg has enjoyed both sides of the coin when it comes to visual effects; as soon as the technology caught up to his visions he certainly didn€™t shy away from using CGI in abundance (for better or worse, but usually for the better). On the other hand, late €˜70s and early €˜80s Speilberg was a master of employing old-school special effects to marvelous results. From Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and most impressively Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The film tells the story of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), an everyday blue collar worker in Indiana, who encounters and forms an obsession with unidentified flying objects. For the famous landing scene Speilberg used a 400 lb fiberglass model that was four feet high and five feet wide. The UFO model was wired and lit using fiber optics, incandescent bulbs, and neon tubes. Fifteen years later, Jurassic Park would come out and kick off Hollywood€™s obsession and reliance on computer-generated imagery.