Abstract

Special effects cinematography is as old as cinema itself. The cinematographer had a major role in making the special effects scene either by making the whole effect in camera or combined with the optical effects in laboratory after shooting. A question pops up after the digital revolution: Does the cinematographer have the same role as before? Is there a need to adopt new techniques to master the cinematographer work in the digital era? This paper attempts to explore the differences between the conventional and the digital visual effects from the cinematographer’s technical point of view, based on a comparative study. Before the digital era most of the effects were done by the camera or in the laboratory. Nowadays, however, there are new tools and techniques such as digital visual effects that overruled the cinema industry, sometimes the only live-action elements are the actors. The term CGI (Computer Generated Images) is currently well known to many people and filming is only the first step to be followed by many other procedures. The mentioned procedures are called post production, which is the region where most of the visual effects creation takes place.

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