Makeup, Monsters, and Movies: an Inside into Practical Effects
Directors Statement:
The original intent of this film is to explain and dive into the significance and importance of practical FX in the film industry. I believe that there is an importance to having prosthetics, makeup, and creature effects in movies. There is something that differentiates digital effects and practical on set effects. I have always been fascinated with practical movie effects ever since I watched Jurassic Park for the first time. Seeing those dinosaurs really wowed and struck me with a sense of awe. Within the last 20 years, CGI and digital effects have begun to take over the film industry and the use of practical effects seems to have slowly decreased. Although movies may be saving money in using both digital and CGI effects, it is pretty easy to tell the difference between a practical effect and a digital one. One major problem is that much of the digital and CGI effects have taken away the physical effects, losing believability in some aspect of realism. That’s why I want to bring to attention the importance of why practical effects still need to play a major part in film.
With this as my concept, I wanted to look upon the different aspects of the practical effects industry, focusing on creatures, prosthetics and makeup for movies. I wanted to not only focus on those but also on the importance of them in film and how they have evolved and changed over the years, starting from low budget productions to high expensive big budget name films.
With this in mind I want to interview people who have worked in the industry making creatures and monsters, makeup, and prosthetics for movies, even for haunted houses and other events. I have gathered together a large number of people who have worked in the industry both students, independent freelance artists, and a wide variety of other artists who have worked in the industry. I want to hear their stories, learn about their experience, how they got started, and what working on practical effects means to them. Bearing that in mind it is important for me to show the audience why each of the people I have interviewed, believe that keeping practical effects in the film industry is important. I hope that this inside will show people that although CGI has helped progress the film industry, that practical effects are more “practical” to movies and film.
This subject is very important to me. The practical effects industry has always fascinated me, and is something I have always dreamed of being a part of. The idea that one day digital effects might push practical out of the way in its entirety worries me. I think that we need to keep practical effects around for the sake of realism, compared to something we obviously know is false.