f.x.: What color is a dinosaur's skin?
by Jerry Flattum
With upcoming films like Artificial Intelligence, The Matrix 2 and 3 (2002) and Jurassic Park III, critics complaining of Hollywood movies sacrificing plot for special effects are in for the f/x ride of their lives. Just watching the trailers for these movies is enough to enrapture you into the world of dinosaurs, "Doc-bots" and human androids (trailers available online).
Movies call for the suspension of disbelief. So to be real jaded about it, you can dismiss all of Hollywood as one great big magician's trick. Movies are impossible without the audience's imagination. You've got to want to be there. You want to feel a dinosaur breathing on your neck. You want to sink with the victims of the Titanic. You want to hear the bullets hitting soldier's helmets in Saving Private Ryan.
In the movies humans can fly (Superman), slay dragons (The Dragon Slayer), thwart off alien invasions (Independence Day) and travel through time (The Time Machine-remake due in 2001). It is largely the job of f/x supervisors to make these impossibilities real.
Knowing a few things about the "tricks" can only enhance the movie-going experience. In The Hunt for Red October, the submarine shots were filmed on dry land with water drawn in through computerized animation. Gotham City in the Batman series is the work of art directors and set designers. John Gaieta, VFX supervisor for the original Matrix, used "bullet-time photography" and laser guided tracking systems for plotting camera angles in creating the action sequences.
A classic technique is compositing, where foreground and background shots are filmed separately and later superimposed together. Selected areas of the foreground have to be transparent for the background detail to show through. Foreground objects are shot against a Chroma Blue screen (human skin color stands out more). Editors then erase the blue background allowing the background objects to show through.
Setting up camera angles can be as complex as a military operation. In theater there is no opportunity for close ups of subtle eye movements or generating the same kind of suspense when the camera focuses on the feet of an evil stalker walking down a dark alley.
Storyboarding is a series of sketches the director, cinematographer and other editors use to plan the action for each scene and to plot out the storyline. Actors can see how a character develops and cinematographers can map out how the scene will be shot. In the Matrix, comic book artists created 100s of illustrations.
Effective use of lighting is key to creating mystery, suspense and other tones and moods (Jack Nicholson running through the woods at night in The Wolf). Colors affect our emotions and art directors, cinematographers and editors are masters in the use of color to create magic.
Actors can spend hours in make-up, like Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. Prosthetics, rubber skin suits made from molds and other plastics and materials help to create the life-life impressions of unreal characters.
In the re-creation of history (Titanic) costumers pay attention to every detail, from the shapes of buttons to using the same kind of material that was used in real life. One of Hollywood's most famous costume designers, Edith Head, was well known for her attention to detail and adherence to storyline. She would interview the actors, director and designers, find out the color of sets, consider the weather, and any other detail that would help match costuming to story.
Sound f/x make karate fights, door slams and bombs exploding much more real. Just about anything that makes a noise is fodder for the sound f/x tool chest. Sound f/x people have drawers full of "stuff" they use to make every conceivable kind of sound imaginable and watching them work is entertainment in itself.
The term "special effects" was coined by Fox Film Corporation as a credit for mechanical effects in Raoul Walsh's What Price Glory (1926) and the first film to win an f/x Oscar was The Rains Came in 1939. But even the inventors of film were into f/x long before the term originated. In the 1890's, Thomas Edison (phonograph and kinetoscope) cut a short film called Mary Queen of Scots that showed a beheading. Audiences were shocked. And more shock came from a train seemingly about to crash through the screen in the Lumeire Brothers short film The Arrival of a Train at a Station.
The future of f/x promises a more immersive experience. Instead of watching a movie, you'll find yourself dodging your own bullets and running from your own 50-foot dinosaurs. Architects are already designing 360-degree, 3-D full-motion theaters equipped with huge mirrors. Virtual Reality is the next new wave allowing for a fully immersive experience. Holographic projections from your laptop? No problem. Slap on a set of iGlasses, sit back, and enjoy DVD-quality movies. And with over-the-counter editing and image processing software anyone can make a movie…almost.
FX creators don't want to be figured out. They want you to believe the guy on fire is really running for his life. You would too if you were being chased by giant insects and rocket-shooting robots. And besides, does anyone really know the color of a dinosaur's skin?
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