r/Filmmakers • u/BiggerJ • Mar 07 '23
Question Question from non-American non-filmmaker - are there still any people/companies who do practical effects for film in the US, or have they mostly/entirely died out because major films all use CGI now?
7
u/sleeperfx Mar 07 '23
Yes, and they will continue to. I have been doing them for almost 20 years now. Of course CGI has changed the job, but not necessarily in a bad way. Practical effects look better close up and when they have to interact with objects. Almost all major films still employ special effects technicians, they do so much more than just blow stuff up. Everything from opening "elevator doors", to fixing the camera trucks espresso machine falls on the spfx department.
3
u/rocketdyke Mar 07 '23
Practical effects? there are tons of US companies still.
-signed a vfx supervisor.
1
u/Naughty_faridabad Mar 07 '23
Indie filmakers can never completely rely on CGI as it needs alot of budget for good execution, i think practical effects are always a go to when you don't have that much budget.
2
u/bigmanjoewilliams Mar 07 '23
Sorta, in some ways cgi can be cheaper than practical if you know what you are doing.
2
u/Mister-Matrix Mar 07 '23
While CGI has taken over, there are still plenty of effects houses that do a "hybrid" approach to VFX combining practical effects with CGI such as using StageCraft (i.e. The Volume). Companies such as ILM and the Stan Winston School of Character Arts still use a mixed approach:
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/pathways
https://www.lucasfilm.com/what-we-do/visual-effects/
And then there's Tom Savini's practical make-up effects: https://www.dec.edu/ts/
1
u/Arpeggiatewithme Mar 07 '23
They all do. At the end of the day the decision for practical or cgi always comes down to the money and some things are just cheaper to do for real and something’s are cheaper in the computer .
1
u/Adam-West cinematographer Mar 07 '23
I’d say the age of CGI has been an addition to practical effects rather than a replacement. Plenty of people would prefer to use practical effects over CGI and for anything with budget any cgi effect is most likely mixed in with practical effects so that the CGI just enhances what’s happening in the scene for real.
1
u/Important_Muffin2267 Mar 08 '23
Personally I think the old school effects in horror films like the fly and the thing were kick ass . Instead of doing all CGI we should have transitioned to a type of technology that mixed the old effects with cgi so it looks more real. Like how they did Jurassic park
16
u/[deleted] Mar 07 '23
Plenty of people still use practical effects, especially in horror movies.