Practical Effects vs Special EffectsWith today's computer processing power and advanced software anyone even YouTubers can use special effects very easily.
But when you are creating content or a film or a video, do you want practical effects or digital recreations?
Of course, some practical effects are just to logistically intensive or cost prohibitive. But that is not the case with everything.
At one time, if you wanted a super hero to fly, you hoisted the actor up on cables and moved him through a scene. But today we just plop someone down on a green screen and we let the editing do the rest. And, if you have an unlimited editing budget to get the editing perfect, that is fine.
But the majority of us just pull up Photoshop Creative Cloud, select chromakey and after a few minutes you are done, regardless of spill, clean edges or a movie quality look.
But if you had the same scene in the real world, suspended the actor from cables and used Photoshop to remove the cables you would have a movie quality shot on a very small production budget.
But most small production companies are just that, they shoot films, they do not produce them and don't get into special effects. They concentrate on lighting, and shot angles. The DP is not usually worrying about the script, that is the directors job and again, directors are not editors or special effects people.
Typically, they need a shot and the props and special effects people figure out how to do it.
Well, do you have all those people? We don't.
And we do not need them. Because we are a small outfit looking for simple solutions that make sense and give us movie quality shots.
In our case, we have a forklift and boom and raise people and props up to 20' off the ground and can easily move them in any direction, swing them, spin them or whatever is needed.
We have seen staffs of people put up cables and pulleys and use teams of people to get the right movement.
Why didn't they think to use a forklift?
Because nobody has experience with it, they only know what they have learned or used previously and don't have the mechanical understanding of common construction or commercial equipment.
Making a super hero fly does not have to be green screen cheesy or cost a fortune. There are options if you can think outside the box. Here at Mr Dog Poop Studios, we do just that. We look at what we have and we try to make it work as opposed to going out and engineering a cable system to have a super hero fly over a wall or land slowing in a crowd.
Using practical effects can not only save you money, it can make your production stand out. This is exactly why we stock so many props and pieces of equipment to make the most out of every production without breaking the bank.
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