Linwood G. Dunn

Key takeaways

Linwood G. Dunn belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Linwood G. Dunn to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Linwood G. Dunn from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Linwood G. Dunn, A.S.C. (December 27, 1904 in Brooklyn, New York – May 20, 1998 in Los Angeles, California) was an American pioneer of visual special effects in motion pictures and an inventor of related technology. Dunn worked on many films and television series, including the original 1933 King Kong (1933), Citizen Kane (1941), and Star Trek (1966–69).

Early career Dunn is noted as being very interested in cinema from as early as age 14, going so far as to compile his own rating scale for the movies he watched. This interest initiated his career, which began in 1923 in his home state as a projectionist. He was hired as an assistant camera operator by the Pathé company in 1925 and eventually moved to Hollywood, where he continued to work for Pathé until 1929. His early contributions in this capacity were for film serials such as The Green Archer (1925), Snowed In (1926), Hawk of the Hills (1927), and Queen of the Northwoods (1929). He was then hired by RKO Radio Pictures as a cinematographer and as head of the photographic effects department, where he would work from the late 1920s until 1956. His early contributions in camera work and special effects at RKO included films such as The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930), Danger Lights (1930), and Cimarron (1931), an Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, and The Monkey's Paw (1933). This early experience led to the World War II development of the first practical commercially manufactured optical printer, a device consisting of cameras and projectors allowing for the accurate compositing of multiple images onto a single piece of film.

Body of work Dunn photographed the rotating RKO radio tower trademark used at the beginning of all RKO films. In the early 1930s, Dunn became part of the effects team responsible for the creation of the original King Kong (1933). He advanced his special effects techniques through extensive cutting between a miniature Kong model in full shots and fully-scaled body parts in close-ups, a technique he would repeat for later movies, including the sequel, Son of Kong (1933). Dunn worked under model animator Willis O'Brien and would go on to work with O'Brien on other projects. Dunn did optical/photographic composites for the airplane-wing-dance sequence in the first Astaire-Rodgers musical Flying Down to Rio (1933). The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) were other well-remembered RKO films on which Dunn worked before America entered the second world war. In Citizen Kane, Dunn's composites open the film and many of cinematographer Gregg Toland's deep-focus shots utilize Dunn's skill for creating optical composites. For Bringing Up Baby (1938), separate footage of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and a leopard were photographically combined by Dunn. Dunn's work became so highly sought after by other studios that he formed his own company, Film Effects of Hollywood, in 1946. He served as the company's president until 1980, working that business at the same time as working at RKO. Eventually, Dunn sold his company to Francis Ford Coppola, who absorbed it into Zoetrope. Production on The Outlaw (1943) was halted owing to a controversy over how much of Jane Russell's bosom would be visible. Dunn resolved the situation by rephotographing Russell's close-ups with a tiny scrim inserted between the projector and camera, so as to soften the line of her cleavage. Dunn gained a technical Oscar (along with machinist Cecil Love) in 1944 for his work. Dunn continued to work at RKO after Howard Hughes bought the studio. After RKO had ceased to exist as a film production company, Dunn did the optical composites and title sequence for West Side Story (1961) and the elaborate fire-ladder sequence at the end of Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), which required 21 different all-color elements to be composited into final images. Other later large-format and/or high-profile films Dunn's company did opticals for are My Fair Lady (1964), The Great Race (1965), Hawaii (1966), The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), Darling Lili (1970), and Airport (1970). In some cases, his work was not given credit. For example, he was consulted for the special effects in The Exorcist (1973), and numerous correspondences indicate his role in the production of the movie. His contributions to this movie include several stylistic choices that display the demonic possession of Regan MacNeil, including levitation and facial transformations.

Inventions and innovations

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Linwood G. Dunn

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Linwood G. Dunn claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Linwood G. Dunn before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Linwood G. Dunn ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Linwood G. Dunn

In research: Linwood G. Dunn appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Linwood G. Dunn in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Linwood G. Dunn is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1998 deaths, Academy Award for Technical Achievement winners, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Linwood G. Dunn outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Linwood G. Dunn in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Linwood G. Dunn means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Linwood G. Dunn out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Linwood G. Dunn in simple terms?

Linwood G. Dunn, A.S.C.

Why does Linwood G. Dunn matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Linwood G. Dunn?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Linwood G. Dunn.