Hollywood’s Greatest Trick

Can anyone guess what’s Hollywood’s greatest trick?

In this 20 minute documentary we are guided into a rabbit hole that leads to the behind the scenes of Hollywood blockbuster films, as we get introduced to the, sometimes not so spoken about, world of Visual effects artists.

First of all, here is the trailer:

Granted this day and age most of the “more relevant” movies are effects driven.

Blockbuster films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, who made Johnny Deep something like 500 millions, would not work if the Special Effects where not top quality.

Remember the good old days when Terminator 2 came around or Jurassic Park… People went out of those movies (also) talking about the quality of the special Fx.

However by the time we where done with the Matrix and Lord of the Rings we expected al SFX to be top quality. Today even Tv has top quality Fx e.g.: The Dragons on Game of Thrones.

But this effects still must be made by very talented and hard working artist and that's what this film is about.

Want to make one thing clear... Someone at some point in the movie said something like this: “Visual effects is the most important part of the movie, it’s not story or acting, it’s the visual effects. Without it, it would only be a boring story…” I want to be on the record saying, I do not agree with this sentence one bit. I think is completely wrong.

Story is the most important aspect in a storyteller medium… how many times have we seen spectacular effects in an horrible movie?…

SFX should only be a tool for telling the story when necessary. Master filmmaker David Fincher is not known as a particular Fx driven director… the reason for this is that he only uses Fx to elevate the story. Always.

But he is actually one of the pioneers in movie technology and started as a visual effects guy… for example the film “The Social Network has more Special Fx than a film like Godzilla… Quiete interesting right?

Allow me to leave a great and short video essay about Fincher and his use of Effects.

Having said that…

Visual Effects are a crucial part of contemporary Hollywood cinema.

This documentary shows us the reality of what it is like to be a Visual effects artist in Hollywood. And it’s not all champagne and beach houses, as you might have guessed.

Again, writers are also not respected has they should… they go on strikes… they get paid way less than directors (still much more than Visual Fx artists) The director can change their script has much as he wants etc...

Having said that…

Visual effects artists are indeed not only very talented and creative artists but their work is crucial for movies. And should be treated accordingly.

The movie I'm about to share with you, show us the dirty door that opens to Hollywood behind the scenes.

A great analogy that’s given in it is: If you have a burger stand and a client comes, you sell them the burger and he goes away. If you have a special FX house, the client comes and asks for a burger, so you give him the burger but he decides he wants noodles instead… then fries, then tuna steak… and so on… and at the end of the day, he is only paying for the burger…

It is a fascinating documentary for filmmakers, film aficionados and anyone who is curious about how the entertainment industry works.

A great piece of work that you can watch for free. (Make sure to send some love to the creators)

And here is the film:

In case you're interested, here is a post I made about another film, this time depicting the Record label industry… also fascinating.

https://steemit.com/filmmaker/@maxjoy/jared-leto-tells-you-the-truth-about-the-music-industry

Wish you all a Nice day.

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All images except logo from Pixabay.com