The opening scene of the firstGhostbusters (1984)remains etched in the minds of fans worldwide and has done so through the many years since its release. Now numerous additional entries to the franchise both in movies and television, this classic is still a fan favorite. It managed to introduce iconic characters, set its ghostly atmosphere, and tell a great supernatural comedy adventure story. But with the technical restrictions of the time, many fans may be wondering how the iconic opening scene was brought to life.
To get an understanding of how the filmmakers innovated in their field of work and managed to use their creativity to bring the ghosts back to life on screen, let’s delve into the movie to analyze how the narrative is introduced, what sort of camera tricks were used, and how it all came to be the library scene as we know it nowadays.
The Domino Theory of Reality
One of the keys to the success ofGhostbusterscan be explained by a sequence of events that is also known as The Domino Theory of Reality. The filmmakers understood that for the story to work, audiences would have to be willing to suspend their disbelief and embrace the bizarre plot if they were gradually led into it. Usually, the opening scene is the point narratively where you need to set the atmosphere without revealing everything at first since you will need to do this for almost 20 minutes into the film.
Some media deal with this in a more explicit way, like musicals, for example. The ensemble commonly sings the first song. We get to know what the story is about, the theme, how the universe in that story works, and sometimes even how it will all end, with leads the audience to wonder how it happened and be interested in the journey rather than the destination.
So basically, to tackle this concept in the film, the idea is to start in a common place: a scene in a library, where the librarian is framed as if she was trapped between the bookshelves and the camera is watching from afar, adding to the observer’s perspective and heightening the sense of anticipation that something is about to happen to her. As the librarian starts to run off in fear, the filmmakers cleverly hold the reveal, carefully introducing our scientists and painting their work with the supernatural until it is later revealed, increasing the audience’s curiosity for the reveal to come.
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Clever Camera Tricks
Creating a ghostly appearance on screen requires creativity and technical skill, especially when you need to overcome a lack of technology or limitation of equipment. At that time, the production didn’t have a VFX crew that could add everything they needed or fix things with the addition of a green screen. In the case of the movie we’re talking about, the opening scene showcases the filmmakers' mastery of clever camera tricks such as, in order to achieve the ghostly visual effects, the Library Ghost, played by actress Ruth Oliver, and other ghostly figures were filmed against a black screen, allowing for their image to captured separately.
Later, editing the film in post-production, the crew took this separate footage and overlaid it with the rest of the film, creating the ghostly and translucent apparitions in the movie. The same style was chosen later on when the famous Slimer appeared, but in his case, they built a latex model and had someone make his movements for the camera, using black fabric to cover the legs. This process resulted in a great spectral presence that enhanced the atmosphere and established the supernatural tone of the movie from the very beginning.
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Shot in Two Different Libraries
To create the entire library that we see in the film, the director decided to use real locations instead of building a set. But what most people don’t know about the opening scene is that two different libraries were shot, but they were so seamlessly brought together that we actually feel as if it was just one place, creating a cohesive and immersive environment for the characters and their ghostly interactions.
For the external shots, the opening frame, and the main room, what we see is the New York Public Library. But the stacks and all the rest that we see were shot in the Los Angeles Central Library, with a system that holds more than six million volumes available to over 18 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, serving the largest population of any publicly funded library system in the United States. This attention to detail ensured that the opening scene felt atmospheric, believable, and set the stage for the thrilling paranormal adventures that lay ahead and helped to create one of the most classic films in cinema history.
