General Questions and Answers about
Special Effects
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questions by clicking on it. You can return to the top of the page by
clicking on the UP button at the end of the
question.
- What does
the term "special effects" mean, anyway?
- What's
the difference between a prop and an effect?
- What
about makeup FX?
- What's
the strangest effect you've done?
- What's
the most fun effect to do?
- What's
the least fun effect to do?
- What's
the best effect you've never done?
- Do
you prefer physical or digital FX?
- Do you
think digital actors will ever replace real
actors?
- Where can I
get information about Special Effects?
- What
does "16, Blue, Madagascar..." in the title field
mean?
- What
does the term "special effects" mean,
anyway?
Special Effects is roughly
defined as when something is required for a production that would
be too dangerous, too impractical, or too time-consuming to do
"for real". This can be anything from weather effects (it's not
practical to wait for rain, wind or snow when trying to film an
outdoor shot) to scenes where a door is to explode inward with
people nearby. Sure, you could wire the door with explosives and
blow it apart, but what if the scene will be shot inside a real
office (not a set!)...and what about the actors on the other side
of the door? Alfred Hitchcock's comments about actors aside, you
don't want to hurt or kill them (unnecessarily), and that's where
the FX techs come in...the door effect, for instance, can be
accomplished with small pyro squibs, an air cannon, and a smoke
gun. It looks good on film...and more important, nobody is hurt
and the office is as good as new after cleanup. 
- What's
the difference between a prop and an effect?
While there's no real rule
of thumb, the general concept is that if an item just sits or lays
around it's a prop -- but if it does something it can be
considered an effect. Consider a tear gas grenade...if the shot
calls for an actor to throw a grenade through a window and it just
falls on the ground, we'd call it a prop. If, however, it's
supposed to start smoking after it comes through the window, then
it's an effect.
- What
about makeup FX?
Ask Rick Baker about that
one -- he's one of the best makeup artists around (having been
trained, in part, by Dick Smith), yet he's had repeated battles
with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
[AMPAS] over what constitutes a makeup effect as opposed
to a mechanical effect. His makeup for HARRY AND THE
HENDERSONS, because it had built-in servo motors for facial
expressions, wasn't considered makeup by AMPAS, but Baker had a
valid argument that because the makeup was being worn by an actor
whose eyes were visible, the actor was instrumental in "getting
the message across" which means that it should be considered, in
part, as makeup. Of course, AMPAS gave an mechanical FX Oscar to
KING KONG when most of the on-screen shots were of Rick
Baker in the suit he'd custom-designed, so go figure...
- What's
the strangest effect you've done?
That's a tossup between
fake hamburger I had to make for a TV show where the actor was so
vegetarian he refused to even touch raw hamburger (I know, this
falls into that gray area between "prop" and "effect"), and a
14-foot long tentacle that had to come onstage and carry off an
actor (I had it strapped to my chest and manipulated it by walking
it on from offstage; one performance the actor struggled so hard
he almost pulled me onstage!).
- What's
the most fun effect to do?
In my opinion -- hanging
bodies, no contest! The first hanging body I made was for a play
where a body appears and then there's a total blackout; for that
one I just had to articulate the joints and dress it. A couple of
years later I was asked to do FX for a director who had seen that
play and wanted something...better...for his show. He reblocked
the scene so the hanging body was visible for 2 minutes, which
meant that it had to be lifelike. Fortunately I only had to show
the bottom half of the body so I measured the actor who it was to
represent, got the costumer to give me a duplicate costume, padded
the body with foam so it was 3-dimensional, dressed it up and
rigged it with fishing line on the legs so after he was "hung" he
would thrash around and kick for a few seconds before going limp.
A lot of people thought we had the actor holding on to a bar and
kicking his legs, so I guess the effect worked. (A note of caution
here...in case you didn't notice, I've only been talking about
hanging fake bodies; I'm not going to go into the details of using
actors for hangings because it's too dangerous to mess around with
if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Remember,
SAFETY FIRST!)
- What's
the least fun effect to do?
I'd have to say it's a
toss-up between rain (generally unheated, always a lot of it for a
long period of time) and using steam for "atmosphere" (man, those
reinforced steam hoses are HEAVY).
- What's
the best effect you've never done?
Imagine two characters are
talking about the nature of horror films and being scared. Slowly,
down from the rafters comes a spider -- illuminated in a
spotlight, it slowly drops down to just above one actor's head,
then at the end of the scene, it climbs back up into the safety of
the ceiling. I got so many compliments for that effect...the
problem was, I didn't do it -- it actually happened with a real
spider during one performance (of course, I was so quick on the
uptake that when I was being complimented at intermission all I
said was, "Huh?"). You can bet that if I ever do that play again,
I'm gonna put that effect in!
- Do
you prefer physical or digital FX?
My own personal preference
is physical FX (rain, wind, general mayhem) just because I like
being on set or backstage actually doing something instead of
sitting in front of a computer creating images. Don't get me wrong
-- I have nothing against digital FX and it's a necessary part of
the business. For me, though, it's as much fun to build a prop as
it is to operate it or teach an actor how to operate it.
- Do
you think digital actors will ever replace real
actors?
In certain circumstances, like in James Cameron's TITANIC,
digital actors were used for shots that would have been
impractical or dangerous even for stuntpeople; this is a good use
of the technology but I don't foresee live actors being replaced,
at least for the time being -- the technology is still being
developed and, in my opinion, isn't ready for a full-scale assault
on the Screen Actor's Guild.
- Where
can I get information about Special Effects?
I've put together a list of
reference
materials that will
help you if you want to learn more about FX and props. It's a good
place to start, but if you have local theatre groups where you
are, join them as they're a great place to get experience when
starting out.
- What
does "16, Blue, Madagascar..." in the title field
mean?
It's an in-joke...ask my
wife.
Brian D. Oberquell/The Wizard's Den SPFX
Studio