[1st draft 7/18/2023]
2.1 Common Ground
In order to have a coherent conversation about the subtleties and nuance to be found in visual effects it is important to have a common language. They say that one person's fish is another's poisson and this is apparently true. How often have I gotten myself in trouble by using a term that is well understood in one studio but means something subtly different in another and competing studio? And people, being how they are, can take offense at the simplest thing. I once used the term "dilettante" in conversation and to my astonishment discovered later that this film professional thought I was making fun of her by using a French word. Can't we all just get along?
To avoid this discontinuity in understanding and promote harmony, I am going to propose some basic concepts and terms-of-art for us to use in this discussion we are having about visual effects. Whether or not this term is used in all places or whether everyone would agree with some of the basic assumptions I will make here is a discussion for another time. There is also a glossary provided in the Appendix. For the time being I hope you will take what I am saying here as a useful simplification and we will proceed from there.
2.2 Film vs Video vs Digital Media
In the following discussions we are going to use the term "film" synonymously with "video" and a variety of digital media. Obviously each of these media have characteristics that are different from each other and at various times those differences will be extremely important. On those occasions we will discuss and review how those differences affect the result. But for the time being, the reader should keep in mind that film frame rate varied from 16 FPS up to 240 FPS and much higher in many specialty cases. So-called video has its own peculiarities (fields vs frames, black level, etc). The various digital medias have taken this bestiary and exploded it into an endless cacophony of different compressions and frame rates and digital cinema formats and what have you. But ultimately they are all dependent on the idea that a number of still frames will be presented to the viewer in sequence, with some number of flashes of each frame, and that at a certain rate the human viewing system will fuse these still frames into an illusion of continuous motion. These "still" frames may incorporate motion in a variety of ways to make this illusion more effective. Thus all "film" exploits various features of the human visual system and special effects, sometimes called special photographic effects, is just one useful and evolving subcategory of that illusion.
The good news is that the reader does not have to understand this in any detail to appreciate most of what we are going to discuss. You should breathe a sigh of relief because the human viewing system is incredibly complicated. We will allude to these issues from time to time when they are critical to our understanding. Various photographic techniques and quirks will also be discussed. You can be sure that the people who are leading these efforts have a very good appreciation of these technical nits and their knowledge is of great use to the project. Sometimes a project thinks it can ignore these details but they do so at their own peril.
2.3 All Film is an Illusion
As we review some famous and not so famous projects I want you to keep in the back of your mind that it is all "fake" and not get too hung up on "photorealism" or technical purity. We simulate motion with still frames and motion within a frame by a variety of motion blurs and so-called "go motion", as opposed to "stop motion", when photographing still physical objects, the classic case being clay sculpture. We force perspective to within an inch of its life and we run the "film" backwards when it is convenient. We simulate so called 3D cinema with what might be more properly called "stereoscopic". We simulate color with the tristimulus theory of color reproduction and many people are exploring the opportunities and pitfalls of using more than 3 primaries. We misdirect your vision to where we want you to look and we use a foley stage and artists to fool you with sound to enhance what may or may not be on the screen. We move an animation camera over a forced perspective painting and make you think we are in some very large and expensive environment. We use makeup so that under the necessary lighting the skin tone looks lifelike or deathlike as the case may be. We use color and production design to construct a mood or an environment. We create 3D environments in order to simulate a real or fantasy space but ultimately everything becomes a 2D image. The film editor assembles and constructs a natural and dramatic scene out of disparate elements that are, individually, not very coherent. In other words, all filmmaking is a construct designed to achieve some dramatic purpose. Ideally these individual techniques and talents will ultimately come together and fuse into a seamless whole.
2.4 With a Cast of Thousands or At Least Dozens
A corollary of the above is that a large number of people with diverse skills and experience collaborate on these projects. Certain elements require only one or two people in their department. But others, such as animation and visual effects can be very labor intensive with dozens or thousands of contributors. Although the director and the actors get most of the glamour and time on the red carpet, there are dozens or more technical specialties that are being combined in a way not dissimilar to how a conductor assembles the instruments and performances of an orchestra. In that example we might have a composer, a conductor, the individual musicians, a production manager, a lighting director, an accountant and a producer and probably others.
So as we review these various projects and sequences and one or two people are mentioned, keep in mind that there may be many, many more people involved and we are simplifying to make a point and to keep things from being tiresome.
Also keep in mind that very often an independent or low budget production can not afford to get all these specialties and they must improvise with multi-talented people who are often underpaid and have to work unpleasant hours to get the job done. I hope you will keep that in mind and not necessarily compare a low budget film with a big budget one in superficial ways but look at the creativity and energy and heart that goes into a scene. I am very fond of what I call "the low budget film that transcends its origins" and we will refer to several of these in the pages to follow.
Try not to overglamourize special visual effects or any other specialty, no matter how skill intensive and impressive it may be. Visual effects, like cinematography or production design, is being used to achieve a larger goal and is not there for its own sake but is intended to "serve the story". When this is forgotten one may end up with a sequence that seems gratuitous. There has to be a creative vision that gives structure to the choices that are made. Someone's head does not explode for its own sake nor does the giant robot beat up the other giant robot on a whimsy, but because some plot point is being achieved or some deep metaphorical purpose attained. Or at least thats the way it is supposed to be.
2.5 Take What You Read With a Grain of Salt
There are many stories in the naked city. If you were not there, or in some way participating in the process, you may not actually know what happened. Even if you were there you still may not know what happened. Lets review why this may be. First, a participant on a project may know their point of view but not realize or care that management or their co-workers have a different point of view. Second, press releases, articles in trade magazines, and even just word of mouth buzz is often done for marketing purposes and why would you want to diss or badmouth the movie you just worked on? You *want* the movie to do well as it will do you more good in getting the next project. Third, if you run the project down by complaining about something ("... that director could not make up their mind...") then others may not want to hire you on their project. Finally, it may not be wise to discuss in great detail how you did a project where your competitors are listening, such as an American Cinematographer article. Whats the upside of exposing the flaws or telling them too much about how it actually worked? . The clients dont really care, the audience wants to believe a glamourous illusion. The people who do care are your competitors and want to eat your lunch and will do so if you let them.
On the other hand, scandal can be entertaining as long as not too many people get hurt. We will review some events and some personalities. What can they do to me? Sue me? Well perhaps, so we will try to be subtle or refer to projects where everyone is safely dead.
Very often I will refer the reader to American Cinematographer or Cinefex magazine both of which may have information about a major effects film and even some minor ones. Keep in mind what I said about marketing and "educating your competitors" as you read these articles.
The point is, please keep your mind open and your grains of salt handy. Even I, your esteemed author and guide, doesn't know everything. Maybe something is just an impression that I have, for one good reason or another, but a different person may read what I say here and their head will explode which can be annoying.
2.6 It is Only a Mistake if the Audience Thinks it Is
Later we will go over this in more detail and the approval process as well. In the short run keep in mind that visual effects is often filled with mistakes as may be the rest of the film. Generally you only fix the mistakes that will be noticed by the audience or in some way take them out of the moment. If you think you see a mistake, then you may very well be seeing a mistake. But maybe the mistake is at a higher level, maybe the mistake was to do the shot or sequence at all. Or maybe what you are seeing is a disaster but they decided to use it anyway and pretend they meant to do that.
2.7 Photorealism is a School of Painting
Whenever a supervisor or a critic talks about "photorealism" or "photorealistic" I think it should be mandatory that they be punished in some way. Maybe they should have to contribute $100 to a charity fund. I maintain that Photorealism is a school of painting. An element or shot is not trying to simulate reality, we are trying to fool the audience into believing that what they are seeing is real, or in some cases, to accept what they are seeing in the context of the film. When your supervisor or director uses the term "photorealism" you know you are in trouble.
2.8 Glossaries are a Glimpse into a Different World
I love to read glossaries from various crafts and fields. With these words, specialists communicate with their peers or did so in the past. You can often get a feel for how important or involved a field was by examining a glossary of their terms of art. A glossary of sailing from the age of sail, or of astronomy from the 19th century will illustrate this point.
I have provided an abbreviated glossary in the appendix and I hope you will glance at it and use it if you are confused. Many terms are probably self-explanatory in context. But not all. Most of these terms come from the worlds of animation, photography and theatre. Some of them are studio specific and in a few cases I point that out and suggest where I think it came from.
[see appendix a]
With all this behind us, lets review what visual effects actually is.
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