Imagine a world where stories could not be told. Imagine a world where your favorite heroes couldn’t fly across the screen. Imagine a world where the actors had to die if their character did. This is what life would be like without the special effects industry. Special effects are used heavily in films, whether you notice them or not. They could be used to make entire space stations explode, or they could be used to hide some exposed support wires. They could be used to reanimate the head of a mad scientist, or they could be used to remove an actor’s mustache. Visual effects do not have to be a grand spectacle; they just have to help tell a story. An example of visual effects on a smaller scale would be the “cloning” of an actor in the courtroom drama titled The Social Network. A movie about the founding of a media platform wouldn’t seem like the movie to use an abundance of digital fakery. Still, David Fincher, the director of the film, insisted on it. To tell his story, Fincher needed some of his characters to be identical twins, and rather than finding a set, he decided to take the face of one actor and digitally put it on the body of a double. This effect doesn’t exactly sound as exciting as a spaceship blowing up the Whitehouse, but it certainly improved the storytelling and believability of the characters. Of course, you have your large scale effects as well, such as James Cameron’s digital recreation of the Titanic. In Veronica Bruce McConnell’s book, she describes Cameron’s achievement of creating an environment to immerse the audience in a world with realistic physics, “he employed what he called ‘reconstructed realism’ to stimulate the ship listing, splitting in two, and sinking.” Without attention to detail and realism, a story can be drowned out by unsightly effects and can diminish the audience’s experience. On the other hand, the overuse of effects can also damage the immersion of the audience. For example, take George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic, his own company, including his crew of special effects pioneers. The effects you see today wouldn’t be anywhere as high in quality without them. For those who don’t know, George Lucas is the man who created the now billion-dollar Star Wars franchise. His 4th installment, The Phantom Menace, was ripped apart by critics despite its monumental advancements in technology. Of course, old George still made a mighty mountain of money, but that’s beside the point. The tale he was trying to tell ultimately failed because the story shouldn’t work around the effects; the effects should work around the story. The journey of special effects is a long and innovative one. It was through many cameras and techniques that things got to where they are today. Forty years ago, the idea of making a fully animated character seemed so impossible, and now anyone can create them in a matter of seconds. For example, one of the pieces of tech that helped push effects forward was the Dykstraflex. Paula Parisi’s publicly published article about the accomplishments of Industrial Light and Magic explains this piece of tech simply, “[It]was capable of motion along several axes and programmable for repeat movements in order to achieve multiple passes on the same shot (thus allowing for multiple effects layers.)” With the ability to have multiple effects layers, many elements such as flames or actor doubles can be placed in the same frame. This technology paved the way for future films such as the more recent Avengers series. Now there are machines doing all of the hard work for the animators. In her article, Jennifer Hackett explains this further, “In Avengers: Infinity War, we used machine learning for the first time for visual effects. That's a type of data analysis that trains a computer program to recognize patterns so that it can make decisions without human input.” With more technology coming out, effects are just becoming more real and real. A world without special effects would be a sad one; Superman wouldn’t get to fly, ET wouldn’t get to go home, and sharks wouldn’t get to form sharknados. The most successful uses of effects, however, were there to improve what the storyteller was saying and not the other way around. Through technological innovation and years of hard work, the special effects industry was able to put some of the most incredible things to film. As the writer, Roger Zelazny once said, “Don’t wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.”
This article is an interview with a special effects artist that uses computers to complete his work. He explains the ins and outs of designing the figures and setpieces during and after production on the film has wrapped. This is a firsthand account of what the industry is really like would be very helpful during my research.
McConnell, Veronica Bruce, et al. "Motion Pictures: Special Effects (1990s)." Gale In Context: High School, American Decades: 1990-1999, edited by Tandy McConnell, Gale, 2001. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020. This article talks more about the recent improvements and advancements of the special effects industry in the 1990s. This time was really when computers became powerful enough to run complex simulations in order to create visually stunning pictures. With these programs, almost any situation could be created and put onto the screen. Without these large steps in technical marvels, the industry wouldn’t be where it is right now.
This article talks about the technological improvements that George Lucas has made in the industry over years of experience. With every film, his Industrial Light and Magic crew have made he has experimented with different techniques that have never been done before. His status in Hollywood is one to be marveled at and his presence will not soon be forgotten. “Roger Zelazny”. Quotes: The Web’s Largest Resource for Famous Quotes and Sayings. Stands 4 Network. Accessed 9 Sept. 2020.