Question of the Week: Due 2/13/09

[At least 250 words on the Question of the Week topic are due by 5:00 PM on Friday, 2/13/09 for a maximum of 25 points. In addition, you must place links to at least two other articles which you have found in your blog.]

Background: Special effects -- we've all seen them in movies. In the early history of movie making, special effects were often generated by using tricks to fool the eye. To make flying saucers appear to float across the screen, some early movies used miniature models. Now, we just generate them using computers. In the history of movie making, the first major advance was use of the blue screen. For a quick history, see http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/03/031802_movies.jhtml. Now we make entire animated movies only using computers. Special effects have gotten so good that it is hard to tell the real from the computer generated. Not convinced?? Go to this web site and take this test: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/specialfx2/real.html

Here are a few more resource links:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/specialfx2/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_effects

http://www.filmsite.org/visualeffects.html

Question: Pick a movie, perhaps one of your favorites. Explain how computer generated special effects were used for that film. Find two research links to justify your explanation. Identify at least three specific scenes where computer special effects were used.