Special effects are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world. Special effects are traditionally divided into the categories of mechanical effects and optical effects.

Mechanical Effects

Mechanical Effects (also called Practical or Physical Effects), are usually accomplished during the live-action shooting. This includes the use of mechanized props, scenery and scale models. Making a car appear to drive by itself, or blowing up a building are examples of Mechanical Effects. Mechanical Effects are often incorporated into set design and makeup. For example, a set may be built with break-away doors or walls, or prosthetic makeup can be used to make an actor look like a monster.

Optical Effects

Optical effects (also called photographic effects) are techniques in which images or film frames are created photographically, either “in-camera” using multiple exposure, mattes or the Schüfftan process or in post-production using an optical printer.

On its most fundamental level, film editing is the art, technique and practice of assembling shots into a coherent sequence. The job of an editor is not simply to mechanically put pieces of a film together, cut off film slates or edit dialogue scenes.

A good editor will cohesively tie all of the parts together, keeping a close eye on the minimal details while never losing sight of the greater picture. Also, good editing is something you notice by its lack more than by its presence. Good editing can help a movie move at a good pace suiting the story and establishing a proper engagement with its audiences. When scenes are edited well emotions, tensions and mystery can be colligated in the right shot. Good editing can turn a sad scene into a high-voltage drama showing the emotions in full light.

Video editing is important because it is the key to blending images and sounds to make us feel emotionally connected and sometimes truly there in the film we’re watching. It’s a safe assumption to say that video editing is among the most important jobs in the film industry.

My Tiger And I is a short film that shows great use of editing, which won them the reward of best editing at GMC film festival.

Voice-overs are one of the most divisived tools in all of the screenwriting industry. When it works, we get a clear picture of a character’s inner thoughts or a narrator’s version of the story. When it doesn’t, the story drags and can be confusing.

A voice-over is the non-diegetic use of a character or omnipresent narrator talking over the visuals of a film or television show. This voice-over can be existential, or it can be directly related to what’s happening on the screen. No matter which voice-over you use, you have to make sure it carries the story and doesn’t over-explain what we’ve already seen. 

Here are a few perfect examples of a good use of voice-overs:

Pacing is the timing of cuts, also called as rhythm or tempo. As the word suggests about the pace of the film will be. Fast-paced movies will have quick rapid and fast cuts in a short amount of time, whereas a slow-paced film is more likely to have longer scenes, with not a lot of cuts. There are multiple reasons why you’d want to have a fast-paced scene or why you’d want to have a slow-paced scene, but that mainly depends on the subject material that can be seen in that scene.

Slow pace:

Slow cinema is a genre of art cinema film-making that emphasizes long takes, and is often minimalist, observational, and with little or no narrative. It is sometimes called “contemplative cinema”. Slow-paced films allow you to observe the nuances of the character or the setting, meditate on the story as it is unfolding, or sustain anticipation and tension for a long stretch of time. If done poorly, slow-paced films are boring; but if done well, they are fascinating.

Some examples of slow paced films are:

• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Almost Famous (2000)
• Audition (1999)

Fast pace:

Fast-paced movies will have quick rapid and fast cuts in a short amount of time, whereas a slow-paced film is more likely to have longer scenes, with not a lot of cuts.

Cross-media convergence is a vital process in the marketing of media product because it can help to attract people of other media into a films target audience that may otherwise not given it a second’s thought. A reason why cross-media convergence is so important when marketing a media product is it can help increase people’s interest in the film.

Cross media convergence is made possible thanks to the advancement in technological development and convergence. Technological convergence is how technology allows media texts to be produced and distributed on multiple media platforms and devices.

Cinema Verite is a French film movement, which took place in the 1960s. This film movement forced the movie industry to pay more attention towards incorporating natural actions and authentic dialogue into the movies, which showed people in day to day lives  . Basically, the movement was about observing and capturing life as it was or finding truth in the moving images.

Before this movement, filmmakers recorded footage, interviews, and actual conversations separately. The camera was usually handheld. Then they would review the footage and cut them all together. However, this technique did not have the ability to give life to realistic looking movies.

Many different factors influenced the production of documentary movies in the 20th century. Post World War II, neorealist movement, and the British independent documentaries hold a prominent place out of them. In fact, all these reasons contributed towards the rise of Cinema Verite during the 1960s. However, the film industry elites heavily criticized the Cinema Verite movement at that time.

A storyboard is a graphic representation of how your video will unfold, shot by shot. It’s made up of a number of squares with illustrations or pictures representing each shot, with notes about what’s going on in the scene and what’s being said in the script during that shot.

The storyboard is a very important part of the pre-production process because it clearly conveys how the story will flow, as you can see how your shots work together. It also allows you to see potential problems that would not go unnoticed, ultimately saving you time and money.

Here is the step-by-step way to make a storyboard:

Step 1: Create a Template. Draw a series of rectangles on a piece of paper, as if you were creating a comic strip.

Step 2: Add the Script. Under each rectangle, write the line of script or dialogue that corresponds to that scene.

Step 3: Sketch Out the Story. …

Step 4: Add Notes.

Composition refers to how the elements on screen (actors, scenery, props, etc.) appear in respect to each other and within the frame itself. In the earliest days of cinema, film composition basically mimicked that of a stage play.

film composition is important because it directs the audience’s attention. It’s also important because composition can create visually appealing images unique to the director’s style. It guides the audience to pay attention to one single person in a crowd of people, or a single point in a busy frame.

But beyond all of the technical and personal objectives of composition, it allows us to instantly convey information and subtext. By controlling the angles and the distance between characters or significant props we can instantly and intuitively clue our audience in on the deeper meaning of the scene.

In visual arts and particularly cinematography, framing is the presentation of visual elements in an image, especially the placement of the subject in relation to other objects. Framing can make an image more aesthetically pleasing and keep the viewer’s focus on the framed object. Here are the fundamental types of framing:

• Extreme close up
• Close up
• Medium close up
• Medium shot
• Long shot
• Low angle shot
• High angle shot

Sound is a micro element of Film making. It uses the audience sense if heaing.

“Sound refers to everything we hear in a movie” words, sound effects and music. Sound is used in film to heighten a mood, provide us with information about the location of a scene.

Digetic: Refers to all those audio elements that come from sources inside the world we see on the screen. Everything the characters hear. Including dialogue, doors slamming, footsteps.

Non digetic: Refers to all those audio elements that come from outside of the fictional world we see on screen.