Outline for the Third Term Paper

Special Effects in Animation and Live-Action

1. The universe revolves around us! Actors move around the world, or the world moves around them

• Moving and controlling the man-made environments are an example of practical special effects, which involves utilizing real solid props
• Placement and movement of set pieces can be directed in clever ways to create illusions of character's interaction with surroundings
• With the right set design and ability to control it, filmmakers can make the actor appear to be moving from place to place
• With the right technique to control the man-made sets, characters can interact with places where the actors are really not, or move in ways only possible in the depicted environments

2. You, The Living (Du Levande)

• A Swedish language black comedy drama film directed by Roy Andersson
• Despite taking place in relatively ordinary local places, every location is built right in the production studio, including locations that appear to move away from characters
• In one scene, a girl dreams of having married her musician idol, and they move away, with the two of them inside an apartment building that is being relocated by railway. Outside the window, what appears to be an entire city is actually a series of miniature buildings, with the couple and their apartment room being dragged through the city models across the inside of the production studio
  
• No green screen was used
• The entire film, including all outdoor scenes, was filmed indoors

3. 2001, A Space Odyssey

• A scifi film directed by Stanley Kubrick, which takes place in a centrifugal space station

• The challenge of the film was to create the illusion of actually being in outer space, and to do that, they need to simulate a zero-gravity environment

• In one example, a woman can be seen walking up along a curved wall, until she is actually standing upside down on the ceiling. In reality, the actress was still standing and walking right-side up, but instead, the entire room she was in was designed to rotate around her, allowing her to stand and walk on the walls as they gradually move along below her feet. The camera also rotates, as it follows and stays in the same orientation as the room at all times. 

4. Conclusion

• Whether it's due to the expenses of CGI and other digital special effects, or simply the directors/filmmakers passion and sense of creativity, with the right attention to detail and filming technique, the film can look very realistic and successfully take the viewers into their world. 
• These examples of using real models as practical effects are very successful in recreating their intended environments, and the way the actors and actresses appear to interact with their surroundings makes us believe that they are real.