Y R A R B I L S L L I K S Y R U T N E C T S 1 2 CHAPTER ONE FILM MAGICIANS The film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince features a scene in which ghostly shapes attack as people cross a bridge in London The bridge twists turns and crashes into the water below A team of special effects technicians helped make the movie Gladiator starring Russell Crowe
Filmmakers did not really destroy the bridge Instead they used computer graphics to make the bridge look like it was falling apart This is one example of special effects Special effects make impossible things happen on screen They can involve big things like destroying bridges or small things like changing an actor’s eye color These effects are created by workers called special effects technicians There are many kinds of special effects Some actually happen during filming One example might be a small explosion that a technician sets off A camera operator shoots the explosion on film This kind of effect is sometimes called a special mechanical effect Explosions are a common special effect in action movies Special effects technicians plan the explosions carefully They make the object they are blowing up extra weak in some spots This helps them make sure the pieces will fly in the right directions They also make sure that actors standing near the explosion will not be hurt Special visual effects happen off camera This means they are added to the film after a scene is shot In the movie Gladiator the main character fights in a giant stadium The crowd roars when one of the fighters is hurt Most of the crowd and the stadium were added using computer graphics after the action was shot Gunshots in movies are also special effects Imagine a movie hero running through a door as bullets smash into the doorway
Y R A R B I L S L L I K S Y R U T N E C T S 1 2 A special effects technician sets up this shot by cutting away a piece of the door He puts in a tiny charge that is controlled electronically Then he places the cut wood back in its spot Paint and fillers are used to make the doorway look untouched The technician makes the charge explode at the right moment It looks like a bullet has hit the door and chipped a piece off But it exploded inside the door The Transformer films used special effects to create the Transformer characters including Bumblebee
Makeup and creature effects are also created by special effects technicians Big monsters like the ones in Aliens or Predator are made using costumes that combine prosthetics with monster suits and makeup Some costumes even use robotic puppetry These robotics make body parts such as tails or wings move around Weather effects are also common in many movies Storms are created with giant fans and huge water hoses Snowstorms are made with snow machines like the ones at ski resorts Miniature effects use small models of cities or vehicles They are filmed to look life-size Miniature cities are built so they can be destroyed by floods or alien attacks Today some weather and miniature effects are done entirely on computers Special effects also correct problems after the film is shot A director reviewing footage for his new Western might notice that there is a stop sign in one shot Visual effects technicians fix the image by taking the sign out Maybe the director thinks a scene has too much blue in it A special effects technician can correct the color Almost every movie made today uses special effects If the technicians do their jobs well you won’t notice that the effects are there John Andrew Berton Jr works on special effects for Hollywood movies such as the 2008 comedy Bedtime Stories In one scene from that movie the characters are in a skyscraper The director wanted the scene
