Cinefex is a quarterly journal devoted to visual effects. I’ve been collecting it on and off since issue #1, published way back in March 1980.
One day in 2011, I decided to re-read my collection and blog about each issue as I went. The next thing I knew, Cinefex publisher Don Shay and editor Jody Duncan Jesser had both emailed to tell me how much they were enjoying my articles. You could have knocked me down with a feather.
My retrospective reviews of Cinefex appear on this blog at fairly regular intervals. If you want to catch them as they appear, either subscribe using one of the buttons opposite or bookmark this page – I’ll update it each time I publish a new review. Below are links to all the retrospectives so far, in sequence:
- Revisiting Cinefex (1): Star Trek, Alien
- Revisiting Cinefex (2): The Empire Strikes Back, Greg Jein, Star Trek
- Revisiting Cinefex (3): The Empire Strikes Back, Walter Murch, Phase IV
- Revisiting Cinefex (4): Outland, Altered States
- Revisiting Cinefex (5): Ray Harryhausen, Titans, Roy Arbogast, Caveman
- Revisiting Cinefex (6): Early CGI, Dragonslayer, Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Revisiting Cinefex (7): Willis O’Brien
- Revisiting Cinefex (8): Tron, Silent Running
- Revisiting Cinefex (9): Blade Runner
- Revisiting Cinefex (10): Poltergeist, Firefox
- Revisiting Cinefex (11): E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Robert Swarthe
- Revisiting Cinefex (12): Something Wicked This Way Comes, Stop-Frame Fever, Dream Quest
- Revisiting Cinefex (13): Return of the Jedi
- Revisiting Cinefex (14): The Right Stuff, Brainstorm, Twilight Zone: The Movie
- Revisiting Cinefex (15): Never Say Never Again, The Day After, Ralph Hammeras
- Revisiting Cinefex (16): Rick Baker
- Revisiting Cinefex (17): Ghostbusters, The Last Starfighter
- Revisiting Cinefex (18): Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Revisiting Cinefex (19): Gremlins, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, Dreamscape
- Revisiting Cinefex (20): 2010
- Revisiting Cinefex (21): The Terminator, Dune
- Revisiting Cinefex (22): Return to Oz, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
- Revisiting Cinefex (23): Explorers, Lifeforce, My Science Project
- Revisiting Cinefex (24): Cocoon, The Goonies, Back to the Future
- Revisiting Cinefex (25): Enemy Mine, Der Trickfilm, Fright Night
- Revisiting Cinefex (26): Poltergeist II, Young Sherlock Holmes
- Revisiting Cinefex (27): Aliens
- Revisiting Cinefex (28): The Fly, Big Trouble in Little China, Short Circuit
- Revisiting Cinefex (29): Star Trek IV, King Kong Lives, Top Gun
- Revisiting Cinefex (30): Little Shop of Horrors, The Gate, The Golden Child
- Revisiting Cinefex (31): Spaceballs, The Witches of Eastwick, Masters of the Universe
- Revisiting Cinefex (32): RoboCop, Innerspace
- Revisiting Cinefex (33): Dick Smith, James Bond, Predator
- Revisiting Cinefex (34): Beetlejuice, Batteries Not Included
- Revisiting Cinefex (35): Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Willow
- Revisiting Cinefex (36): Dead Ringers, Alien Nation, Die Hard, The Blob (coming soon)
- Revisiting Cinefex (37): Star Trek: TNG, The Fly II, Oxford Scientific Films (coming soon)
- Revisiting Cinefex (38): Terry Gilliam (coming soon)
- Revisiting Cinefex (39): The Abyss (coming soon)
- Revisiting Cinefex (40): Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (coming soon)
My plan is to cover the complete first decade of Cinefex publication from 1980 to 1990, which by my reckoning will take me up to issue #40. At that point I’ll stop. Perhaps have a little lie down. By then, I hope I might have formed an overall picture of how visual effects developed through the 1980s: that amazing decade during which the summer blockbuster was born and effects movies took over the top ten charts. The eighties also saw the beginning of the digital revolution. At the precise time all the traditional optical and mechanical techniques were being pushed to the limit, CG was quietly on the rise.
Here’s a final thought. If you’ve enjoyed my retrospectives, why not go a step further and read the real thing? Cinefex is available quarterly in various formats for print, web and iPad. Subscribing via their website is as easy as pie. For the iPad edition just go straight to iTunes. And before you ask, no, Don and Jody didn’t ask me to give them a plug. I’m just sharing the Cinefex love.
Finally, I guess I should point out that the opinions expressed in these blog posts are mine and not Cinefex‘s, so if you want to respond to something I’ve said, just post a comment here. And, as always, thanks for reading.
‘[Graham's blog articles] represent a fine history of visual effects in the Golden Age between motion control and digital imaging’ - Don Shay
Hi Graham. I’m currently putting together an article on the making of Saturn 3 and was wondering if you have any information on the visual effects of this particular film – or in fact the production itself?
Hi Gregory. Thanks for asking, but I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer. I remember seeing the film at the cinema when it was released but don’t have any material on its production. I seem to remember the UK’s Starburst magazine doing a small feature on it – they may have something in their archives. Good luck with the search! Best wishes, Graham
Cheers Graham. Thanks for the pointer – I’ll definitely look into it. Really love what you’re doing!
Thanks, Gregory. I think Saturn 3 was shot at Shepperton so I daresay it was a British crew on the VFX.
Yeah, that’s absolutely right! I know the VFX budget was slashed to compensate for Raise The Titanic going way over its own budget (also an ITC production), so I’m trying to find out just how much Saturn 3′s VFX budget was – and how much it was reduced by. This all goes a long way in explaining why the film’s VFX are, shall we say, a little on the ‘low-rent’ side (despite the same crew having worked on Superman: The Movie).