{spotlight} feature reports

The field of Visual Effects or Digital Special Effects is set to vastly expand. Once Were Farmers are positioning themselves at the heart of this ever-expanding market. With the acquisition of the Oscar winning, Film and HD, Compositing and Effects software, Shake, OWF will be able to offer a range of services to a base of clients who previously would not have been able to afford them.

The new opportunities are not simply created by the lower cost of existing services – it would cost exponentially less to blow up the Glasgow Millennium Tower today than it would have even five years ago – but also the new possibilities, which are still being discovered.

The ways in which we will alter an image will only limited by the imagination of the filmmaker. From changing the sky on an over cast shoot to a beautiful sunny day, which is becoming increasingly popular in Hollywood and is presumably a much needed service in Scotland, to changing background elements of a set. Say for example there was a particularly ugly building [or should we say unsuitable – maybe it’s too shiny and new and you need it to look run down and rugged.] in the background of your shoot, but apart from that it’s the perfect location, it would be a straightforward job to remove or replace that building with a more appropriate one. It is commonplace to digitally remove modern elements such as Pylons and streetlights for a Period Shoot.

It is also becoming more and more cost effective to shoot in entirely Blue Screen environments and create your sets digitally later. Again not just for stylistic reasons but possibly for economy and controllability. Of course you could also create the massive effects spectacular, have aliens land in Glasgow, blow up the Science Tower, have a Volcano erupt from Arthur’s seat, have an earthquake rip Scotland asunder from England. The more you think about it the more you realise that there really isn’t anything you can think of that isn’t achievable…

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