The importance of special effects

Special effects were always very important in film and television. Whether it was dangling a candlestick with a string to make it look like it was floating in an old horror film, or modern day Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), special effects have always played a key role in cinema.

In the modern day, as films become more ambitious and CGI capabilities improve, special effects take a bigger role in cinema. Key examples include Boardwalk Empire in which the majority of the city is computer generated, and Harry Potter in which special effects were essential. In Harry Potter, special effects were essential for locations, spells, and much more, not to mention the scenes in which the cast flew on broomsticks which boiled down to broomsticks on large mechanical arms being moved in fornt of a green screen. In these scenes, special effects were needed, not only to insert a background, but also to remove the large mechanical arms holding up the brooms.