The Birds (1963, Universal)

The Birds (1963, Universal).

The visual effects of The Birds explained on the AMC Filmsite web page.

Alfred Hitchcock's most expensive film to date featured a stylized sound track - composed from a constant interplay of natural sounds and computer-generated bird noises. The stark film about an unexplained and seemingly-organized bird attack also played without background music.

Ub Iwerks was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Special Effects, but lost to Cleopatra (1963). Real birds and animatronic birds were used throughout the film.

One of the film's most famous scenes was the one of dozens of birds slowly gathering on playground equipment - a complex special-effects shot that optically combined over two dozen separate elements.

Shortly later during the scene of the bird-attack at the school, special effects combined the shot of the schoolhouse in the background with kids running on a treadmill in the foreground.

In another frantic scene of flames and flapping, screeching birds, the female protagonist sought shelter in a telephone booth where she became trapped

Advanced rotoscoping and male/female traveling mattes were used in the 20-second scene of hundreds of birds flying over an aerial view of the town - a combination of real live-action footage with hand-drawn matte paintings.

Source: Film Milestones in Visual and Special Effects .Click here for web link

There was originally a different ending to The Birds.

Here is a video that explains the original ending. .Click here for Video