A significant proportion of the composition of a feature film, television production, advert or online video series is visual effects, and the capabilities of the production studio will shape what stories can and cannot be told and how they will resonate with an audience.

Outside of very specific genres and movements designed specifically in opposition to the use of visual effects, such as those by the infamous Dogma 95 collective, visual effects are used in every production in one way or another to tell a story that would otherwise be impossible.

Whilst visual effects are most commonly associated with blockbuster cinema of the past 40 years, special effects in one form or another have been used since the very beginning of the medium.

The first to use a demonstrable visual effect is extremely short, but its impact can still be felt in cinema today.

The First Literal Cut

It is perhaps fitting that the very first special effect was to depict a reenactment of an execution, providing both a literal and physical cut.

The 1587 execution of Mary, Queen of Scots for treason is not only one of the most notable events of the English Middle Ages, but it is also an event for which there is a particularly vivid literary description.

This has made it a popular subject for reenactment and film, which led to Thomas Edison producing a reenactment of the moment of execution as one of the first films ever made.

Released in 1895 and directed by Alfred Clark, The Execution of Mary Stuart is 18 seconds long and captures the moment of her execution.

Despite its short length, it is believed to be the first film using trained actors and the first to use a special effect in the form of a substitution splice, known at the time as the “stop trick”.

The Stop Trick

The stop trick, also known as locking off or a substitution splice if done well or a jump cut if poorly executed, is believed to be the first visual effect ever used in a feature film.

It was originally discovered by accident by the French magician and early filmmaker Georges Méliès. When filming at the Place de L’Opéra, his rather unreliable early camera continued to break, but when he projected the film later, it appeared as if everyone had transformed.

The Execution of Mary Stuart was believed to be the first film to do this intentionally, substituting theatrical actor Robert Thomas, playing the blindfolded Mary, with a mannequin dummy, who is soon decapitated and the head is hoisted aloft.

Interestingly, this film predates the “trick films” that made Mr Melies famous, predating his 1902 film A Trip To The Moon by seven years.

What was unique about the stop trick is that, unlike other forms of theatrical tricks that were widely used in early cinema, cutting and splicing the film to create impossible effects could only be done in the film medium.

The stop trick would be used for a century, only ultimately being widely replaced by advanced digital editing techniques in the late 1990s.