For director Jerry Zucker, Ghost was a vast departure from the broader-than-broad comedies that had made him a bankable commodity in Hollywood. Selecting a deeply romantic supernatural thriller for his first solo outing, Zucker surrounded himself with a cadre of top-notch visual effects artisans and created a stupendous boxoffice hit. Contributing ghostly pass-throughs and otherworldly spirits - even a representation of heaven - were effects teams from Industrial Light & Magic, Available Light and Boss Film Corp.

Article by Jody Duncan

For nearly six decades, Dick Tracy has been a household name. But it was not until producer-director Warren Beatty tackled a big-budget ode to his childhood hero that the saga of Dick Tracy - complete with its bizarre villains and ultra-stylized settings - was fully realized on film. Aided by makeup artists John Caglione, Jr. and Doug Drexler and by miniatures and matte paintings from the Buena Vista Visual Effects Group, Beatty imbued his production with a comic strip look all its own.

Article by Glenn Campbell

Captivated by childhood recollections of A Guy Named Joe, producer-director Steven Spielberg launched into Always - his own remake in which the characters were contemporized from World War II bomber pilots to modern-day aerial firefighters. Physical effects supervisor Mike Wood staged massive conflagrations on location and on studio soundstages, while Industrial Light & Magic used large-scale miniatures shot in-camera to produce the really expansive scenes requiring aircraft to barnstorm over blazing forest fires.

Article by Kevin H. Martin