October 2025

Storyboarding Key to Beetlejuice Effects

This in-depth look at the making of Beetlejuice first appeared in American Cinematographer's December 1988 issue. For full access to our archive, which includes more than 105 years of essential motion-picture production coverage, become a subscriber today. Set Photos by Jane O'Neal and James McGeachy “About two yeJanears ago, I was called by director Tim Burton to storyboard Beetlejuice, and the rest is motion picture history; the end," says Alan Munro, the visual effects supervisor on the successful '88 summer film by that name. On screen it may be history but the details of how the many varied effects came together through the combined efforts of such notable effects people as Robert Short, Pete Kuran, Chuck Gaspar and others does...more