What are some of the common visual techniques used in film & TV production?
The entire movie of King Kong (1933) was created using positional illusions and photographic tricks whereas the image of a gigantic gorilla was created using a toy-sized miniature!
Multiple Exposure is another important technique.
The multiple frames can be so called "overlapped" to create the image of same person doing different things simultaneously.
Double exposure, together with other techniques like stop-action, perspective tricks, fast and slow motion, helped produce the world's very first sci-fiwith special effects.
The multiple frames can be so called "overlapped" to create the image of same person doing different things simultaneously.
Double exposure, together with other techniques like stop-action, perspective tricks, fast and slow motion, helped produce the world's very first sci-fiwith special effects.
A Trip To The Moon (1902) was a ground-breaking film in terms of the use of special effects. It was said to be the most technically innovative film at that time! Particularly, showing people standing on the surface of the moon staring at the Earth was something that was never done before... Take a look at this 10min film to appreciate how much have we progressed in terms of special effects technology! |
Here is an example of how our local film maker makes use of special effects.
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NOW
Time has changed…
Look how easy it is now to simply do anything using digital visual techniques !
1998
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2007
The video on the left is the famous arrow-shooting scene in film Just Follow Law by Jack Neo Jack Neo made use of digital visual technique to create the arrows flying in the office to indicate the hostile exchange of emails between directors. |
2012
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BUT…
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50 years of progress
And we must NOT stop.
When it comes to technology in film and production, Singapore TV scene has little to offer. Particularly, when comparing with U.S TV series such as Vampire Diaries, the use of visual techniques in Singapore seem to be less sophisticated. This may due to the fact that the genres of the TV productions are different. Sci-fi generally requires more special effects compared to TV shows like Little Nyona. Nevertheless, Mediacorp should to continue to explore the use of special effects to raise the standards of our local productions. There is still much to learn and despite the progress in last 50 years, we must not stop.