John P. Fulton
John P. Fulton (* November 4, 1902 in Beatrice, Nebraska, USA, † October 1, 1965 in London, England) was an American special effects expert and cinematographer. In his four -decade career, he was involved in over 260 film productions, including, among others, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein or The Ten Commandments. The Oscar for best special effects, he received three times.
Life and work
Born in Nebraska, John P. Fulton and his family moved to California in 1914. His father Fitch Fulton, a matte painter, insisted that he is not working in the film industry, but studied electrical engineering. So Fulton began his career in 1920 at the Southern California Edison Company. Despite this resistance, he then started his film career in 1923 at Universal, first as a camera assistant, then as a cameraman and later as Technical Director.
Early 1930s Fulton made with some impressive work attracted attention, to call particular the outstanding special effects for The Invisible Man, in a precursor to the blue screen technique was used - the invisible image components were thereby covered with black velvet.
In addition to the films mentioned above, he worked in the following decades with numerous other productions, such as The Miracle Man ( with Danny Kaye ), or to four sequels of the invisible, the special effects have been continuously improved over the years, such as the first scene ever, in an "Invisible " acting in front of a moving camera. We should also mention the converted with very high technical complexity scene in The Ten Commandments, in the Red Sea is shared.
During filming in Spain Battle of Britain ill John P. Fulton at the very occasional aplastic anemia, where he then died in 1965.