Contents Bram Stoker's Dracula: Heart of Darkness: In undertaking his film adaptation of Dracula, director Francis Ford Coppola was determined to remain faithful to the original Bram Stoker novel while still leaving himself adequate freedom to examine it through his own sensibilities. Rejecting high-tech effects, he opted to employ old-time cinema illusions supervised by his son, Roman Coppola, with a host of providers includingMichael Lantieri,Cannom Creations, Matte World,4-Ward Productions, Fantasy II, Colossal Pictures, Visual Concept Engineering and Available Light. Article by Janine Pourroy

A Close Encounter with Steven Spielberg: Once upon a time, a watershed motion picture challenged the long-entrenched Hollywood notion that unidentified flying objects and the forces behind them must be inherently evil. Choosing instead to speculate upon exraterrestrial visitation as a benign phenomenon, writer director Steven Spielberg fashioned a classic tale of everyday people swept up in extraordinary events. On the occasion of its fifteenth anniversary, Spielberg reflects upon Close Encounters of the Third Kind - its concept, its casting, its effects. Interview by Don Shay

Quick Cuts: Muppetized Dickens

Commercial Spot: True Colors, Sci-Fi Pest Control

Effects Scene: Full Moon Rising

Profile: Doug Beswick

Laser Revolution: Harryhausen Cornucopia

Contents Cliffhanger: Effects in the Vertical Realm: Centering on a team of expert mountain climbers and set atop the rugged peaks of the Colorado Rockies,Cliffhanger was a dizzying adventure in filmmaking for director Renny Harlinand his production crew. Key providers of the film's 'over-the-edge' illusions were special effects veteran John Richardson and visual effects supervisors Neil Krepela and John Bruno of Boss Film. Article by Debra Kaufman

Toys: Toy Wars: Known for poignant, richly-drawn slice-of-life films such as Diner and Avalon, director Barry Levinson took a more fanciful turn with Toys, an anti-war parable starring Robin Williams. Helping Levinson to explore Toys'bizarre world were production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, effects coordinator Clayton Pinney and a full roster of mechanical and visual effects artisans. Article by Mark Cotta Vaz

Quick Cuts: Unfriendly Skies

Commercial Spot: Thoroughbred Animation, What's Up, Nike?

Video Beat: Deep Space Miniatures, Chronicling Young Indy

Effects Scene: The Perigee of Apogee

Profile: Peter Kuran

Laserdisc Revolution: Tall Tales and Epic Lore

Contents Jurassic Park: The Beauty in the Beasts: An unusually prolonged preproduction period paid off both artistically and commercially when Steven Spielberg's much-anticipated Jurassic Park opened this summer to a dinosaur-crazed public. The creation of its amazingly lifelike dinosaurs was an odyssey into moviemaking magic led by Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett and Michael Lantieri. Effects techniques as old as the movies themselves were infused with new life and direction, while newer approaches were pushed to unexpected heights. The result - a quantum leap in aggregate technologies - would establish an altogether new set of standards for a venerable old genre. Article by Jody Duncan

Video Beat: Deep Space Wormholes

Quick Cuts: Under Heavy Cetacean, Once More into the Abyss, Hail to the Impostor, A Crash in the Andes.

Company File: Pixar

Portfolio: Jurassic Park Denizens

Commercial Spot: Evolutionary Auto

Effects Scene: In the Digital Domain, Cinematic Archaeology

Laserdisc Revolution: Jurassic Reality

Contents The Nightmare Before Christmas: Animation in the Third Dimension: Ever since his days as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, Tim Burton had nurtured the idea forThe Nightmare Before Christmas, a dark and uniquely personal fairy tale that has at last come to the screen as a fully stop-motion-animated feature film. Article by Mark Cotta Vaz

Last Action Hero: Pandora's Paintbox: Although Last Action Hero failed to live up to its pre-release hype, its massive effects workload and tight schedule did inspire some behind-the-scenes heroics by artisans at R/Greenberg Associates, Sony Pictures Imageworks and other effects companies. Article by Bill Norton

RoboCop 3: RoboCop Redux: After two years of financial entanglement, Orion Pictures has released RoboCop 3, the latest installment in its popular franchise. Laboring to bring a more fully-evolved RoboCop to the screen was an effects team that included Rob Bottin and Phil Tippett. Article by Phil Carpenter

Quick Cuts: Digital Soul Searching, Feline Fabrication, That Other T-rex.

Commercial Spot: Track Sold Separately.

Profile: Pete Romano.

Video Beat: Making Movie Magic

Laserdisc Revolution: From the Disney Archives