Special Effects in Movies

The special effects of Matrix has made us to believe that Superman exists. Star Trek's Alien in the world of Jurassic Park and finally, Sixth Sense took over the Avatar of Pandora. Yes, you name it and it is all over our beloved films - special effects! Special effects can safely be said to be the saviors of some movies which might otherwise have been a damp squib. Join me as I try to see what is behind the scenes.

What are Special Effects?
Special effects are illusory gimmicks used in a film or a drama for simulating the flow of the story. These are commonly called SFX or just FX. Optical effects and mechanical effects are the two types of special effects. Optical effects are basically photographic effects and are mostly a post production process. On the contrary mechanical effects refer to visual effects which are accomplished with the help of scenery, props, pyrotechnics and so on during an actual shooting.

History of Special Effects
It all started in 1856, when the world's first trick photograph was made by getting together regions of 32 other photographs in a single image. However, it was Alfred Clark who is generally accepted as the creator of the first ever special effect in a motion picture, way back in 1895. Thereafter the people who notably contributed to special effects in movies were French magician Georges Méliès, Norman Dawn and then a big break came in with the Schufftan process, which involved alterations from illusions used in theater and still photography. Then one of the tricks, 'Stop Trick' developed well by then and started becoming totally film centric and original to the films. By this time it was the 1920s and 1930s. Then the optical printer came about. This was basically meant for making the copies of the film for distribution. It was a projector aiming into a camera lens.

Then around 1950s or so, color was introduced in movies, demanding better and refined special effects. Development of sodium vapor process and blue screen were introduced in this period. Then the late 1960s was the era of science fiction boom and many movies having related special effects were made. Then came a huge breakthrough when George Lucas's Star Wars was made in 1977. It was truly spectacular at that time. Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind followed Star Wars with its impressive barrage of special effects. Finally, again Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park brought to fore the technique of computer generated imagery for having special effects in movies. Since then the industry has not looked back and the latest movie Avatar is evidence enough as to the fact that this field changed and progressed leaps and bounds. Movies like Terminator, Lord of the Rings, the Abyss, Avatar, etc., are said to have the best special effects.

How to Create Special Effects in Movies?
Initially explosions and earth quakes were shown as a part of the special effects. Miniature explosions were shown with help of the slow motion effect. Giant miniatures were used to solve a particular problem regarding slow motion effect. Miniatures if blended and combined well with live action do not leave scope for disbelief on the part of the audience. These days digital graphics and computer generated images have made the task of incorporating special effects in movies easier.

There are other innumerable innovations and specializations involved in these special effects. Special effects thus are a huge business within Hollywood and film industries world wide.

I wonder how boring and unappealing our movies would have been without these special effects? That is why perhaps specializing on effects is the name of the game in our modern flicks!