One of the first disaster movies ever, The Johnstown Flood, leaves VFX artists floored almost 100 years later, with one of them remarking, "It's crazy how modern this feels." Directed by Irving Cummings, the 1926 silent film follows the catastrophic dam failure that inundated the titular town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1889, resulting in widespread destruction and death. The film stars George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert, and Janet Gaynor. Gary Cooper and Clark Gable also appear in uncredited roles.
During the latest episode of Corridor Crew's "VFX Artists React" series, hosts Sam Gorski, Niko Pueringer, and Wren Weichman unearthed what is potentially the first disaster film ever made, The Johnstown Flood. Watch the portion of the video below:
The VFX artists were amazed by the 100-year-old film's use of miniatures, classic disaster movie tropes, and how modern the movie looks overall. Read some of their comments below:
Weichman : Some miniature trees going down the little miniature stream. You can tell because of the way it is.
Pueringer : The buildup here to the disaster is so modern, like it's so Roland Emmerich, it's crazy how modern this feels... They're also just nailing the miniature effects, like 1926, it's perfect, like the logs, the debris, the destruction, the way the water flows.
Gorski : It's so amazing. Like obviously, the techniques have changed. The technology has changed, but it's so cool seeing 100 years ago, like how you're going to conceptually structure these visual effect shots, it's the same.
Why The Johnstown Flood Looks So Modern
It Used Miniatures & Was Recently Restored
The flood scenes in The Johnstown Flood, despite being set in the titular town in Pennsylvania, were actually filmed in and around Santa Cruz, California during the 1920s. Special effects experts Jack Smith and Roy Davidson built many miniature sets that were designed to realistically collapse when exposed to moving water. They used materials from a local lumber company and also incorporated nearby buildings as part of their sets. This seamless blend of miniatures and sets is what makes the movie look so modern today, as the VFX artists explain.
One of the VFX artists, Pueringer, also explains how The Johnstown Flood was recently restored by film historians Robert Harris and James Macowski, which also contributes to why the movie looks so modern today. The two historians took the original 35mm prints and repaired all the damage, including improving the degraded film material and removing all the fuzz and dust. Harris considers the film remarkable for its time due to its strikingly vivid depiction of the flood, calling it a pioneering cinematic achievement similar to Star Wars.
Our Take On The Johnstown Flood's VFX
It Innovated The Use Of Miniatures
The Johnstown Flood, which contains one of the first disaster sequences ever committed to film, pioneered special effects in 1926 by seamlessly integrating the use of miniatures, which combined with the recent restoration, is why it looks remarkably modern to this day. Its historical significance lies within these innovative achievements in VFX, which were akin to the impact of Star Wars, according to a film historian. Since 35mm film is extremely high resolution, viewing a restored version of The Johnstown Flood in such pristine quality is still quite remarkable today.
Source: Corridor Crew
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