Colour grading
- enhancing colour or adding a filter to footage to create a different mood/tone
Glitch
- creating a glitch-like motion to create a futuristic/CCTV tone to the footage Transitions
- how scenes transition into one another and how they link together
Film grain
- creating an old fashioned effect to film.
Film burn
- merging old and new film to make a burning effect on film creating very contrasting connotations
Motion Graphics
- CGI like motion added on top of footage, e.g graphs
Glare
- how light reflects off textures e.g glass Lens Flare
- how light is distorted by camera lens,
Distortion
- lines could be created on a screen to reinforce the glitch/grainy effect Blend Mode
- adding effects to existing footage
How the use of visual effects enhances film and TV productions
Visual effects are used in movie and TV production often to enhance the content and ensure that it appeals to the target audience.
Often visual effects are used to create unrealistic or hyper-real scenes which is appealing to the audience due to it being exciting to watch clips which the audience would never witness in real life, it allows the audience an element of escapism while they watch the footage.
Stereotypically we normally see the majority of visual effects used in action films such as 'The Shallows', a film following a surfer who is stranded on a buoy at sea and being pursued by a shark.
Throughout the film we see this huge shark in tense and nerve-racking scenes but in reality the shark was fully visual effects, the shark was created as a 3D graphic which was then composted onto layers of visual effects to eventually create the realistic shark which terrifies the audience throughout the film.
In the clip below it demonstrates the various effects that were placed on the clips, we see techniques such as rotoscoping as the sharks movements are all created digitally, alongside green screens that the actors used to film the basis of the shots for the 3D graphic to be layered on top of.
The use of visual effects in this film makes the entire film possible, without the ability to add the shark in digitally the film would've never been able to be shot for reasons such as dangerous to actors, cruelty to animals and unpredictability of the sharks actions.
With the ability to shoot scenes including huge dangerous animals allows the film to thrill the audience and show them scenes which they would have never seen before this once again relating to the escapism the film is enabling by having this crazy visual effects.
Due to it being so realistic the audience can be consumed by the product more and really believe its real allowing them to get more involved in the plot and get more scared and tense as if they were the stranded surfer.
The target audience of The Shallows is 15-25 year olds due to the horror-thriller genre, the aspect of visual effects allows this age range to really be targeted and enjoy the movie more due to the horror aspect it brings to the film, by actually seeing the shark biting the main character the audience can realise the real danger she's in and therefore the film itself can fit into more stereotypes of a survival/thriller whilst portraying such a infamous antagonist.
In
looking at special and visual effects used in films we can see many different
techniques that create hyperreal and unrealistic scenes that enforce film
genres and fulfil gratifications for the audience.
A visual effect that is commonly used in film is
pyrotechnics, in many conventional action films they normally contain
explosions to add to the thrill aspect of the film.
In The Dark
Knight (2008) we see an infamous scene with the Joker walking next to a
hospital whilst explosives are released on buildings either side. This visual effect was created using
pyrotechnic effects, in the explosions we see rocks, fire and smoke this
creating a realistic effect in the final cut due to the actor being able to
interact and show reactions with the explosives furthermore lighting and
shadowing is realistic with the events happening this being really difficult to
simulate in special effects.
A special effect that is also really popular in action films are green screens,
with films such as Spider-man 3 (2008) that require actors to be shot from
extremely high heights and show their inhumanly powers green screens are often
used instead to achieve the biggest shock factor.
By using a
green screen it allows Spiderman to be seen in high-densely populated cities
such as NYC in dangerous stunts to bring an element of reality due to the relatable
location however creating this fake action that looks realistic making the film
more believable for the audience achieving the gratification of escapism.
Idents
Idents shown on
television demonstrating branding for popular channels such as BBC1 and Channel
4 often use special and visual effects to create the desired connotations
linking to either the programme following or the tone of the channel. This
particular ident for E4 (2013) is mainly visual effects, by them using a 3D
model of the E4 logo composted onto raw footage it creates a personality and
characteristics for the programme.
By the 3D model being portrayed almost satirically representing the
target audience with a pet dog and in a home environment it brings comedy to
the channel this once against branding the channel with personality.
Advert
Adverts use visual
and special effect to really enhance the product and to detail the aesthetics
the brand want to create.
In this particular Lacoste advert to demonstrate the age of the company
they have created a historical advert demonstrating their brand through the
eras, the advert has more of a narrative rather than close up shots of the
product which normally leads to a more rememberable advert for the audience.
In the advert we see a use of a green screen frequently to create scenes
like the one above where the actor is runnning on top of the moving train, this would have been impossible to film safely. In using green
screens to create scenes like this it adds a luxury element into the advert by
impressing the audience.
A special effect that has been used in advertisement can be seen in this advert by Rocket Mortgage. The advert is all based around the actor Jason Momoa, the actor is very well known for his big toned physique and in the advert we see a combination of visual and special effects to create the illusion that he is 'taking off' his muscles as if they're prosthetics. In shooting this advert the actor would've had to actually use props that look like extra skin that he is removing to reveal a much skinnier physique underneath. The advert used a much skinnier actor to play Jason after he's 'removed' his skin this requiring the addition of rotoscoping and green-screens as well.
Music Video
A music video which has used special effects is Bury A Friend by Billie
Eilish, this music video is meant to demonstrate popular worst fears and in
this particular scene you see needles in Billie’s back, by including props into
this music video such as needles it creates a hyper realistic impression of people’s
fears and in this particular shot you don’t see one needles there’s 10+ this
demonstrating the emphasis into every fear portrayed.
A visual effect that has been used in a music video is also in a Billie
Eilish video called All Good Girls Go To Hell, we see the singer falling from the sky to create a
fallen angel, the motion of her falling would’ve been created in a green screen
with composting for the cloudy background. By adding this scene of Billie falling
it sets the scene for the narrative video and once again creates a professional
aesthetic for the video and promotes Billie as a serious artist to her fans.
Special effects is a technique used to create hyper-real or unrealistic plot lines using literal props and actual events, stage makeup, costumes and props are used to create a certain aesthetic on actors for an example Freddy Kruger, the antagonist in 'Nightmare on Elm Street' had a burned face this was created with stage makeup and was physically put onto the actors face.
Other special effects used are pyrotechnics and stunt props, these special effects are used to create dangerous scenes such as fires or fight scenes, the actors will be choreographed to use stunt props.
All these elements can be seen in the production stage unlike visual effects which are added in post-productions.
Visual effects are added in post-productions, these kind of effects are things such as 3D Graphics and Composting these elements are added by digital process after filming and can add a range of effects that would be unrealistic or too dangerous to film with actors.
