THE ABYSS miniature effects 

_The Abyss_ will always be one of a kind, because only James Cameron had the balls to shoot an underwater adventure film of this scale.

This was my 1st major picture job @ Dream Quest. Started as a runner/p.a., gradually became a spfx technician working on stages during the down-time between runs from Simi to Hollywood - usually looking for parts for the model makers, or p/u drop-off reels to the lab. Some people should remember me as "The Flash" b/c I drove a turbo Toyota Supra and could get from Simi to Hollywood and back within an hour. I still have some parts off the Montana sub because we had to destroy it.

This is great! I worked at Wonderworks and worked on The Abyss. We built the Benthic and the sub interior that was flooded. I did a lot of the deck details and cranes. That was a fun show and really great people. Dave Beasley taught me how to use an airbrush

The Benthic Explorer to me will always be the best miniature of this film. The fact they built a miniature ship the size of an actual boat and took it out to open water really sold the effect. I really thought it was a full sized ship the first time I saw this movie. Makes me wish more filmmakers were as ambitious as Jim was in the 80's and 90's (with a few exceptions of course)

Only movie in my top 10 where the Making Of is as good as the flick itself.

Some day you’ll run out of these interviews, and that will be a sad day. Unless you do a sequel…

The Abyss is just chock full of incredible effects work. One of my alltime favourites.

I was working with Jim Olson in his private shop in Pasadena, CA when we got the job of making the spire that was shown on at 20:29. I did most of the carving with what seemed like a zillion cans of bondo to make for close ups. Shame we didn't get any credit in this video but I thought is was important enough now to mention. Was one of the most fun projects I'd done in my work as a propmaker in Hollywood for many motion pictures in the 80's and 90'. The best part was I knew what I had done and it made for a great conversation piece many years later. Thanks for sharing...

The unsung heroes of film and tv…..you people got my attention 🥰

If this was a series on Netflix I would never be bored watching it no matter how many seasons. I love this stuff :)

I love this movie. I rewatch it sometimes. I never realized the surface ship wasn't real. Awesome job, guys ! Computer graphics ain't never gonna replace you.

Have really fallen in love with these production videos as I watch a lot of DVD special features anyway, I'm especially captivated by these as i have no tactile creativity like this myself. Rephrasing a comment i made on one of their other videos... I love how it shows things from such a human perspective and not just a technical one (I think I wrongly used the word 'professional' last time) I hope that wasn't misinterpreted the first time because it was meant as a compliment.

One of James Cameron’s masterpieces. Absolutely love this movie. Really hope it gets released in 4K.

These guys did such an awesome job on the affects and modeling!!! It looked real!!! Not the cartoon CGI effects they use today!!

Now this is ART! Thank you guys for all this amazing and hard work. 🙏🏻

Thought the thumbnail was a real photo until I noticed the man

The more time and effort you put into making a beautifully detailed hero piece, the greater the chance that its ultimate fate is to be dashed apart on the ground.

love the effects, love the movie, just tell James C to get The Abyss Blu-ray(ed) and 4Ked.

wow I never realized so much miniature was in The Abyss.

Great movie. Especially when you figure it was done in 1989. Holds up perfectly well today. Also, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and I were in high school together, although she was a couple of years behind me. She was involved in school dramatics. (And did I take any notice of here then - well, no.) The scene where Bud Brigman (Ed Harris) is trying to revive Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) after she had to drown is one of the more gripping scenes I can recall seeing in movies. By the way, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is her given name, not a stage name.

I enjoy this soo very much. It's a shame you can't watch the documentary in 1 piece...

This was so awesome to see, wow! I was one of the Special FX artists who helped create these miniatures for The Abyss, so this really brought back memories! I was just 16 years old when I worked on this, I mostly helped on the miniatures for the giant crane that collapsed! I got to work on a couple movies early in my career with Bob and Dennis Skotak, I also helped create the miniatures for Lords Of The Deep with them! I remember they built an amazing miniature Submarine all out of a bunch of junk you would find in your bathroom, haha! I got to help out with that too and I still have photos of it! I’ve started to post some of my Special FX work on my RU-vid channel if you are interested, I did a really cool one on all the prop weapons we created for “Men In Black”, you might dig it! Thanks so much for posting this! Cheers!😄👍

It's safe to say the miniature and visual effects for The Abyss top the list of my all time favorites, if not the movie as a whole. My Cinefex issue #39 is unfortunately a little worn around the edges from years of occasional rereading.

..to be honest the Concept art of the 'mother' ship was far more sophisticated than the final model in the last scene. . A crazy shoot - amazing the crew survived this shoot!!

I have been building models since the 60s nothing like what these guys do. I'll take real props ove cgi anytime the exception is dinosaurs jurassic Park broke the bank on that.

At 42 feet long, I'm surprised they FX guys just didnt put a motor in the Benthic Explorer then have a person inside pilot it instead of towing the thing. I mean the model is bigger than a lot of recreational watercraft.

Peter Jackson would call these Bigatures. 😊

One of my favourite movies, it's really great to hear more about the effort that went in to all the effects by all involved.

This is genuine art and crafts, CGI is garbage and it looks garbage in comparison to model mork.

This why CGI should be scrapped for space ships, vehicles etc. On the whole cgi is inferior in every way.

Literally don’t make em like that anymore! Which is a shame because all these skills r being lost,

This was great to reveal. That crane could almost have its own name credit as an antagonist character. It gripped me and really made a dramatic impact of course in the story. @12:30 about the problems with water I kept murmuring "alcohol, alcohol" because I knew long ago that was how Pinestone eventually got the giant water tank waves behaving down to scale around the model naval ships. Modelers are the ultimate problem solvers.

Damn, those miniatures can be huge! I keep saying this but everytime I see miniatures, It just amazes me the amount of talent it requires in order to look good on film.

We are STILL waiting for the Blueray !!! SIGH

A masterpiece, especially in its director's cut edit. It's about time we get it (and True Lies as well) in HD (BluRay, 4K...).

The Abyss is one of the best films of all times!!!!

Genial and genial 👍👌 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎🤩🤩

Amazing miniatures and groundbreaking cgi and not to forget the lush score , can’t wait for a 4K release !

now I want to hear the story how they filmed the nuke explosion in terminator 2 :D

I'm curious to know if at least some of these models still exist somewhere in a private collection. Cool video. It's always interesting to see how they do this stuff

Your channel fills a void in the vacuum of directors commentary, ect that isnt available w. Hulu, Netflix ect, .. Why I love DVDs.

Just awesome modelling skills !!!

God I’ve been wanting a remaster of this movie for years. Loved this era of filmmaking.

some big miniatures in here

I was just brought on to a miniature work shop because several productions are requesting the style..very cool to be involved..and love these videos of the magnificent works

Really interesting. Thanks for posting

Its SUCH a crime that they have not released The Abyss on Blu-Ray or 4K yet. Seriously - WTF.

Thank you Berton. I bought sense of scale a while ago and i come back again and again to your channel for your interviews and BTS work. I enjoy that you allow the subject to speak at length about their experience so we can all visit these instances of BTS movie magic. Please keep doing this. BTS tales from the veterans is what made me want to get into film making.

4k remastered was in cinema for one night. it is still super amazing rewatching it after all these years. thz 4 making this chip to remember it. thz 4 everyone who were involved in this film. u have done it. thank you

I remember when they were filming The Abyss. I live about 10 miles from Gaffney, S.C.. My friends brother was local scuba diver who worked at a local dive shop who helped with others at the big tank.

I absolutely love the subject matter and the approach of this film. Amazing work!

Loved this movie at the time and still do. How fascinating to get a glimpse into this aspect of the production.

I remember enjoying this film as a kid. Saw it in the cinema twice. Haven't seen it since. Never realised there were PUPPETS in it! So that's a compliment to how well the physical effects were done. When will CG catch up? I's been a long tome now and it still looks crap

so many hours, so much work, so much Coke and Coffee, so many nights in the motel.

Nice to see my Gaffney studio aerial photo in here!

They used to give lots of jobs to people with little experience, now they give little jobs to people with lots of experience.

Always appreciate the talent these people have, just incredible

Nice video! I was an architectural modelmaker for about 23 years,but thankfully,no one asked us to put our models in water!

MAN !!!!! what are the 3 masks back there from? This is BUGGIN THE SHIT outta me!!!!

This is fantastic. Thanks for this -- one of my favorite films of all time. Back when the people behind the scenes were as important or more important than the principals. Outstanding 👍👍

This was a little gem. Nice to come across it, some pretty cool stuff!

How did you make those scale model.Wet Suits for the Pippet Minitures And what Paint was used

A buddy of mine used to spend weekends camping near the Salton Sea. On one trip he told me he found this huge purple thing pulled up on the shore of the lake, and that there were these big model ships further out in the water. The purple thing was damaged, and he had broken off a piece and showed it to me. Sometime later we went to see The Abyss and my buddy recognized the purple thing as the alien ship. Unfortunately when he returned to the Salton Sea, all the models were gone.

AWESOME

Back when special effects mattered 🙏🏻

One of my favorite films. So many levels of incredible effects work in this production; great interviews Piercefilm!

I really hate how Cameron treats his cast and crew. Absolutely no reason to be that bid of an asshole about everything.

What great Trade it must have been I wonder what Brand of paint and Brushes you use on thosePupoets

Easily one of the Greatest Movies Ever, w/ Awesome Special Effects

Miniature ???......🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@piercefilm productions Many thanks for saving and sharing this interesting , informative and very entertaining video with "us". It is (in my opinion) channels like Yours, that are run and "shaped" by the personal passions of it's creators that makes RU-vid great (when it is :) Best regards

Would live to see the whole movie or series! It’s so interesting, the possibilities seem endless with miniatures.Thanks for posting. C

This is so great, I love love love model work

Great to see those Battlestar Galactica models in the background, and is that the Buck Rogers shuttle in the low right?

...and of course, seven hours in makeup....

And I thought all movies have full scale sets

Thanks so much for uploading this. So enjoyable.

I never knew that crane ship in the beginning of the film was miniature. amazing

What is the percentage of viewers that are digital artists, doing the thumbs down out of spite?

Anyone know what the spaceship on the top right shelf is?

I genuinely love The Abyss - it's just crazy we still don't have an Blu-ray let alone 4K release of it! Apparently all the restoration work has been done for a few years now, but Cameron just can't find the time to approve it.

I found out later there was a bunch of scenes in the movie I never saw. Was there a version that just did not have the pollution plot or something? I am going to have to see the movie again.

A lovely movie! Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio were wonderful

This is truly amazing! I loved hearing about the crane scene in particular. Need this in 4K Blu-ray!!!

Dam ! @ 8:00 & on , you can see a Slithis monster mask in the background ! .... ?

I've got to watch The Abyss again, It's been so long I've totally forgotten the plot. The only thing I remember is Ed Harris getting his super strong ring caught in the door and looking at the alien blob.

That thumbnail FUCKED me up for a sec until I read the title

Heeeeeeeeeeres merv....

I was one of the few who saw _The Abyss_ in the theater. Loved it! Always wondered how they made the first sub crash look so good. By using a giant miniature!

This film needs to be released on Disney+ NOW!

I loved the Abyss. Now I'm going to watch it again.

I wonder where the bethnic Explorer model ended up trashed or sitting in a shipyard?☹

What is the model on the shelf below the Viper at 0:22?

Amazing. It would have been nice to see each of the finished shots too. I think it would qualify as Fair Use.

Amazing

What type of paint do you use to painnnnt those scale puppets

Legend film the hole film is just great.

Great work again, I wonder, is there anything in the PierceFilm Pipeline from the movie 'Virus?' Damn, I love that crazy film. Cheers 👍

I allways wanted to know how they made thed

I think that’s Ranger 3 underneath the colonial viper. It’s pilot was Captain William Buck Rogers.