P1: Explain how special effects are used to enhance audio-visual content
A special effect is a physical effect, or one that is actually there in the production, that is used to enhance the production.
There are five main special effects, these are:
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Special effects can be used in film, TV, music video, adverts, TV indents, animation or Internet advertising.
I am going to focus on the Star Wars Saga to explain where all of these special effects are used and how they were used to enhance the film.
I am going to focus on the Star Wars Saga to explain where all of these special effects are used and how they were used to enhance the film.
In this scene from The Dark Knight, we see Batman smash through a window at 2:21 - 2:35. This glass is actually sugar glass, which is a stunt prop, and a less dangerous version, but still holds the effect on the audience as if Batman broke real glass. This gives a thrilling kind of emotion off, as you know something like a fight is going to happen.
In the video to the right, we see the character Jabba The Hutt. This character is not made by CGI this is because during the time that Star Wars VI Return of the Jedi was made, this tech was not around, and Jabba is actually an animatronic operated by eight people. Animatronics are used to make a scene with a creature like Jabba or the T-Rex from Jurassic Park feel real to not just the audience, but also to the actors. These can be remote controlled, robotic or even just simple puppets like Jabba. This makes the character Jabba in the movie seem more believable and real to the audience.
Here we have the original modelling for the AT-ATs from Star Wars V The Empire Strikes Back. They are scale models of the size they are in the movie. They are designed smaller and thanks to camera work with shots and angles, they look like giants in the movies. This saves money, even today! However, green-screen and CGI was not around when this film was made so they would have had no choice but to do it this way. Stop motion is also used here. This makes the AT-ATs look huge to the audience, as if they are actually there.
Here is a picture of Darth Maul for Star Wars I The Phantom Menace. He is made from very good make-up prosthetics. Make-up like this is used to make characters that do not have a human face (e.g. aliens, zombies etc.) more believable and seem real to the audience. Sometimes CGI is used to create these characters but it costs a lot of money so it is a lot cheaper to use this method but it is still very effective. This makes the character more believable and epic looking to the audience.
Here we see characters Finn and Rey from Star Wars VII The Force Awakens, backing away from an explosion that is not CGI, this is an actual explosion made from Pyrotechnics. Pyrotechnic movie explosions are used to make explosions seem more real to the audience and to the actors. Nevertheless, they take a long time to set up, are expensive and have to be done correctly first try, so they are not used all the time in films that have access to CGI and Green-screen. But are still an amazing thing to behold on screen as a movie explosion is one of the best effects an audience member can view, after all, who doesn't love explosions, it makes an audience member want to see the film more.
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P2: Explain how visual effects are used to generate audio-visual content
Something that is added in a movie that is usually computer generated to make a movie or TV show better and more enhanced
Here are examples of Visual effects:
Digital Compositing
Blue screen
Green screen chromakey
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
Mattes
Morphing
Rotoscoping
3-D graphics
Digital Compositing
Blue screen
Green screen chromakey
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
Mattes
Morphing
Rotoscoping
3-D graphics
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Digital Compositing is where you add different layers of effects and objects or elements into an piece to make one final image. The video shows an image with components and objects being edited in using Digital composition. This effect gives the audience a better background to the scene which is more believable.
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Blue-screen is used to add a better background that will make the scene more believable for scenes that do not have actors in. In this video blue screen is used to make the space and the planet. This is at 0:00 to 0:28 seconds in. The rest of the scene is on the planet Jakku in this scene. The background for this is made by green-screen, this at its most obvious at 0:58 seconds onward. Greenscreeen is used like blue-screen, (to create backgrounds) but the green makes skin tone look better than blue-screen so green-screen is used for scenes with actors. This is to give the audience a more believable scene and to give them a good movie.
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This entire scene is made from CGI (apart from the background which is made using green-screen), Toruk Maktau and the characters are all generated by CGI. CGI stands for Computer Generated Imagery, it is used to make very realistic and believable 3-D images to be added with real objects and people. Unless the entire scene is created using CGI and Green-screen/Blue-screen like this scene. CGI can wow the the audience as it can show what we cannot do in real life as it does in this scene in Avatar.
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At 0:31 to 0:43 seconds, a matte painting of the city Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings is used. A matte painting is 2D painting either created digitally or by hand to be used as backgrounds in films and TV. Matte paintings are a cheaper way to wow the audience like a green screen but a still background can sometimes be more appealing and beautiful like the city in this scene.
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Morphing is used to change an object or element in a scene with changing shot or angle, or just without moving the camera in any way. In this scene from Doctor Who episode The end of Time, The Doctor regenerates and changes his face, this is in the same shot without the shot moving. It is masked by a special effect. (0:44 - 1:14). This effect gives the audience a more believable change rather than it just changing, an effect masks the fade. This is better than two shots put together with a fast cut
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Rotoscoping is the process of painting on a visual effect after the sequence has been shot. It can also be the term for removing an unwanted piece of the image by "rotoscoping" it out. A good example from this music video "Take Me On". The effect this scene has on us is that it brings what is meant to be a comic book character alive in front of a real woman, which is impressive editing, this is shown at 1:16 to 1:49.
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3D graphics use CGI to create elements that can be used in scenes with real objects and people, but in the case of this scene i have chosen to use, it is with objects mostly with people only in the shot for a few seconds. In this scene from Star Wars VII The Force Awakens, Star-killer Base fires massive lasers aimed at a system of planets, the lasers are 3D graphics. The lasers are fired at 1:05. 3D graphics are good because they add things to clip that we wouldn't be able to watch the scene without, you can't have a laser gun fire without showing the lasers.
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