One of the most prevalent criticisms of modern movies is the oversaturation of visual effects, or VFX. Without lamenting the now-lost prevalence of practical special effects, it’s understandable how some people are growing anxious with the idea of filmmakers relying on VFX and computer-generated imagery (CGI) to fix or create everything we see on cinema screens.
Love it or hate it, VFX is vital to modern cinema, allowing filmmakers to render creatures, characters, environments or action that would be impossible to otherwise create. But visual effects artistry is more thankless and ingenious than people realize. When VFX are masterfully executed, most audiences don’t even realize that they’re there, especially when films stray from the bombastic action that often calls for computer-generated effects.
Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump boasts a myriad of subtle, yet brilliant, uses of VFX that are as charming as the film itself. From a CGI feather to altered historical footage, Robert Zemeckis’ heartfelt drama has many sly effects shots that still run the risk of slipping past many modern viewers’ eyes, the most notable of these involving Lieutenant Dan, a character who, in the film, loses his legs in the Vietnam War.
To make actor Gary Sinise appear as if he truly had lost both his legs, the filmmakers turned to a variety of in-and-out of camera tricks. From practical solutions, like a specially-designed wheelchair, to VFX, the uncanny result is especially impressive when you consider the era in which the film was released.
Henley Royal Regatta in The Social Network (2010)
One of the defining films of the 21st century, David Fincher’s The Social Network is a masterful study of the ugly marriage between greed and success. The film, written by Aaron Sorkin, dramatizes the life of Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his creation of Facebook, as well as the financial feuds and lawsuits that sprouted from the wake of its success.
You might have noticed the film’s impressive duplication of Armie Hammer, who played both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twins who serve as Zuckerberg’s rivals in the film. Many did not. But Fincher also utilizes VFX to recreate environments in rather unassuming ways. Bet you didn’t notice that the film’s rendition of Henley-On-Thames for a rowing sequence was created entirely in post.
Baby in the Bath in A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A film by Ron Howard (director of In the Heart of the Sea and Solo: A Star Wars Story), A Beautiful Mind details the life of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe), revolving primarily around his personal life and his struggle with paranoid schizophrenia.
At the peak of a bout of severe delusional episodes, Nash leaves his infant son in a running bathtub. Naturally, the filmmakers had to ensure they would not endanger a child and so, in order to show Nash’s son submerged in water, they combined footage of the filling tub with that of the infant in an empty bath.
Microphones in Les Misérables (2012)
Boasting an all-star cast with performers such as Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Eddie Redmayne, Les Misérables is an award-winning adaptation of the West End musical of the same name. In filming the 2012 period epic, director Tom Hooper did away with a major convention of musical films, one that saw actors lip-sync to pre-recorded studio versions of the movie’s songs.
To capture more emotional performances from his actors, Hooper’s cast had microphones attached to their costumes. They also wore earpieces so that a pianist could guide them with an accompanying track that was played live and on-set. It was then up to the VFX team to remove the recording devices in post-production.
Scenery in Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Though a relatively reserved drama about cowboys Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), falling in love, 2005’s Brokeback Mountain is unlikely to be the first film on your mind when you imagine movies rife with visual effects. But the film features extensive use of sky replacements, additions to sets and, curiously, the duplication of massive crowds of sheep.
The changes to the scenery can be accounted for by the use of Alberta as a primary filming location. While the story is set in Wyoming, director Ang Lee opted to film in the Canadian Rockies for financial reasons.
One-Takes and the Baby in Children of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian thriller Children of Men depicts a grim future wherein the human race is completely unable to reproduce. The 2006 film was able to accomplish a feeling of gritty realism through its immersive cinematography. The movie’s famously impressive one-takes (long-sustained shots designed to keep audiences locked in the ensuing action) were pivotal to the film’s sense of realism, but were enhanced with VFX to be more visceral and less practically demanding to shoot.
The movie’s most impressive special effects feat, however, comes from the need to work around Hollywood’s laws around the use of infant actors on sets. To be more specific, there are laws that prevent children below a certain age from being used as actors in films. As a result, the messianic newborn baby that appears near the end of the film is entirely CGI.
Racetracks in Ford vs Ferrari (2019)
This 2019 sports drama details the partnership between Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale) after they are ordered to design a racecar that would triumph over Enzo Ferrari in the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Unfortunately for the production, the circuit on which the famous endurance car race took place, the Circuit de la Sarthe, has been heavily modified in the decades since. Additionally, the mishaps and vehicular accidents that take place in Ford vs Ferrari were far too dangerous to recreate practically. VFX allowed director James Mangold (director of Logan and the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones movie) to recreate the racecourse accurately and without calling for the construction of period-accurate sets.
Vampire Blinks in Dark Shadows (2012)
Dark Shadows is a 2012 comedy that follows Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), a man cursed to be a vampire, as he awakes after two hundred years of imprisonment and returns to his much-changed estate in Collinsport, Maine.
Despite their work on bringing the fantasy elements of his film to life, director Tim Burton tasked his visual effects artists with a seemingly innocuous task. To make Depp’s vampiric Barnabas appear more otherworldly, the filmmakers ensured that Depp’s eyelids were digitally altered to make it seem as if the actor never blinked.
The Roaring Twenties in The Great Gatsby (2013)
To claim that the effects went unnoticed in 2013’s The Great Gatsby might be a bit of a reach. Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name featured a slew of special effects in its frenetic depiction of the roaring twenties, and you would have no doubt noticed the extremely stylized visuals in which the film takes pride.
However, what you may have not realized is that the film features more computer-generated elements than you might think. From entire exterior locations to a more period-appropriate New York City, mostly everything but the interior sets and props that the actors interacted with was added in post.