Blended Innovations in King Kong

        One of the biggest Hollywood black-and-white films ever, the 1933 version of King Kong was a landmark action-horror film. Originally written for the big-screen by the combined efforts of Edgar Wallace, Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman, the film was made by the famous RKO productions, and was the concept of Merian C. Cooper. A 1932 version of the movie was in the form of a novel adapted by Delos Lovelace and, just like most books that become movies, consisted of more content than the movie. The love-interested Kong was significant in the development of such movie-making styles as stop animation.

        Innovations in the cinema world are often of great importance, and frequently advanced in the biz to make for a better quality and a more thrilling experience at the show. King Kong is famous for developing a thematic music score, instead of the previously used background music. Max Steiner, a young and aspiring composer at the time, is often held responsible for this new musical addition. Along with music, the movie contained what is stop motion, thanks to "Chief Technician" on the set, Willis O'Brien. The use of stop motion allowed for a life-like animated main character, prior to the addition of CGI animation.

        The blending of live action and character animation by means of stop motion and a musical accompaniment that corresponds to the action of a film was considered revolutionary and was used for many years before the invention of computer animation. These innovations broke ground for what was the present technology in cinema, and laid down the bricks for the cinematic road.
Derrick Bolhofner

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