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Decade 11 / 21

1920s

16 effects · The decade marks introduction, breakthrough or wide use

  • 83

    Photomontage

    1920s: Dada, illustrated press and political graphics.

  • 84

    Photogram

    1921–1922: Man Ray's Rayographs turn the process into an avant-garde language.

  • 85

    Solarization

    Late 1920s–1930s: Surrealism and experimental photography.

  • 86

    Miniature Effects

    1920s: early feature film standard; still in use today

  • 87

    Schüfftan Process

    1920s: Development; Metropolis 1927

  • 88

    Split Screen

    1920s: avant-garde experiments; later telephone and action montage

  • 89

    Slow Motion

    1920s experimental examples; later sports, advertising and action.

  • 90

    Undercranking

    Silent film comedy; later action and deliberate stylization

  • 91

    Two-Color Technicolor

    1922, The Toll of the Sea

  • 92

    Silhouette Animation

    1920s, Lotte Reiniger's feature films

  • 93

    Photo Booth Strip

    1925, Anatol Josepho's Photomaton in New York

  • 94

    Dunning Process

    1927, Carroll Dunning's colour-separation process

  • 95

    Spirit Duplicator

    1923, Wilhelm Ritzerfeld's spirit duplicator

  • 96

    Pulfrich Effect

    1922, Carl Pulfrich's description

  • 97

    Airbrush Illustration

    1920s commercial prominence; nineteenth-century origins

  • 98

    Special Effects Makeup

    1920s landmark: Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera, 1925

← 1910s
1930s →
LETZ.AI

504 effects — 321 historical, 183 machine. Dates mark introduction, breakthrough or wide use, not always invention.

The History of Visual Effects · 1820–2026

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