“A Changing Industry: Motion Picture Special Effects”
...cts. In his article published in Encarta in 2000 Nicholas Tanis said, “In making Star Wars, Lucas used computers to control camera movement. In this technique, called motion-control cinematograph, the computer’s precise control allows a camera shooting live action in one studio to move at the same speed as a camera shooting a model in a second studio that serves as background for the live action” (Work Cited). “Star Wars” revolutionized the way special effects were created and proved them to be a potential box-office gold mine. George Lucas, who directed “Star Wars,” which cost $10 million dollars. Lucas created his own special-effects studio, Industrial Light & Magic, which became a leading innovator and was responsible for a series of groundbreaking special-effects techniques. Filmmakers draw upon many other special effects to Create illusions in the cinema. Sometimes a film calls for an actor to appear in a place it will be difficult to film, or doing something that is impossible, such as flying. In these cases, the filmmaker uses the so-called blue-screen process, filming the actor in front of a screen that is either painted or lit to match a particular shade of blue. During printing the filmmakers then replace this blue background with a completely different image, creating the illusion that the actors are moving through that setting. According to Hayes 1979’s “Superman” A blue-screen was used to depict the hero's flight. The actor, Christopher Reeve, was filmed with his arms outstretched against a blue screen in a studio, acting as if he were flying. After images of the city were substituted for the blue background, Superman appeared to be flying over tall buildings. Blue-screen processing is still used today, but now computer-generated backgrounds are often inserted making the effects even more realistic. Superman cost 55 million dollars altogether. “Throughout the technological history of film making during the last quarter of this century, it has been increasingly difficult to overestimate the significance of traveling matte in film production” (Work cited). Another way to place actors in settings that do not actually exist is through matte photography. This technique involves a realistic painting with an area blacked out. The painting is filmed and then, separately, an action sequence that has been carefully framed to fit the perspective and scale of the blacked-out area is inserted. The combination of the two images creates the illusion that the action is happening in the environment of the painting. The paintings used in matte photography range widely in size, and many matte photographers are now using computers to generate the paintings. One use of matte photography occurs in the final scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” filmed in 1981, costing 22 million dollars and shot in 75 days. The scene shows a worker pushing a crate through a huge warehouse stocked with all kinds of government-owned objects. Except for the worker and the path he takes, the warehouse is actually a painting. In the late 20th century, the techniques used in creating effects entered a new era, that of digitization. According to Robert La Franco in his article “Digital Dreamin’,” “Right now they now they are giving Hollywood what it craves: pulse-raising special effects…” (Work Cited). In digitization, sounds and images are stored as electronic files and viewed and edited on a computer. Creating a digital version of a filmed image takes a huge amount of data-storage capacity. To approximate the look of the 35-millimeter film, the computer must break each frame into millions of pixels. The computer assigns a number value to each pixel that corresponds to a color and brightness level. By renumbering the pixels so that the colors change, the image can be altered. Digitizing images allows them to be manipulated in almost any conceivable manner, and the computer can also be used to generate its own images. An example of combined imagery is a scene from “Jurassic Park” movie costing between 56 to 100 million where computer-generated dinosaurs are seen charging toward and then leaping over a filmed man and two children. “We still need to specify a viewpoint, to select objects and to position them in space…” (Work Cited). In 1994 the title character in “Forrest Gump” costing 270 million seems to meet historical figures such as President John F. Kennedy and singer Elvis Presley. This was done by digitally merging images of lead actor Tom Hanks with films of Kennedy, Presley, and other figures, which were taken from a specific viewpoint. Many advances have also been made in the way that weather is produced onscreen. “Location shooting in the Oklahoma heartland ended months ago…. But the real stars – those roiling, raging tornadoes – still need their final touchups” (Work Cited). This is how writer David Kaplan describes the tornadoes that are seen in the movie “Twister” this movie costing 72 million. Special eff...