Special Effects Technician

Special Effects Technician — page 1 — 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

Special Effects Technician — page 2 — 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

Special Effects Technician — page 3 — 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

Special Effects Technician — page 4 — 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

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