Vampiro wrote:
Buzz Dixon wrote:
It looks and falls like a rag doll (which is appropriate since Kong is dead or unconscious at that point). I don't think they'd waste time animating an elaborate fall when they could achieve the same effect with a high speed miniature.


   I meant the climb, not the descent. 

But looking at things again...  If it had been a guy in a suit for the climbing scenes, wouldn't it have made sense if they shot the fall on the same day using the same set-up?  Just take the stunt guy out of the suit, stuff it with foam and newspapers or whatever, then chuck it off the top.   In a far away shot like that where you don't need to see any close-up detail, why not? 
Now that's an interesting point.  I (and others) have wondered about that climbing shot for a long time Vampiro, so you're not alone.  But the fact that the shot of Kong falling is most obviously not animated (I think we all agree on that), and the fact that it's the same setup as the long climbing shot, would strongly suggest that they were shot at the same time (same day, one right after the other, whatever). 

If that's the case, and with the falling shot obviously being a dummy, would they have animated that looooong shot with an 18" model and then made an 18" dummy?  Seems more likely, for this extreme long shot, get a guy in an ape suit (heck, any old ape suit for all the detail you see), shoot him outside from a long distance climbing up something.  Then after that, shoot the "dummy suit" falling off the same structure at 72 frames-per-second.  Matte both shots into the empire state building scene and you're done.

Many have often seemed genuinely upset that this shot might be someone in a suit, like it would be soiling O'Brien and co.'s reputation or something.  But, c'mon: it's one measly shot, and an extreme long one at that.  Even if this turned out to be ol' Carmen Nigro hi'self (not saying it is, necessarily), that wouldn't take one iota of O'Brien's accomplishment away.

   
Don Glut wrote:
...something about the "weight" of that figure, going both up and down, always suggested to me something shot in "real time."
I agree, Don.  Especially the scene "going up" of him shaking his fist /swatting down at the ground.  That, in particular, doesn't look animated. 


Last Edited By: JimPV Mar 6 10 2:18 PM. Edited 2 times.