Special effects have come a long way since a stuntman in a Godzilla suit stomped around on a scale-model of Tokyo back in 1954. With the CGI that exists nowadays, it can be impossible to tell what parts of your favorite movies are real and which have been digitally created or enhanced.
This amazing video from Roadshow Films, which shows before and after shots of the visual effects in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of that. It’s super interesting to see how visual effects are used for everything from altering little details like the lighting of a particular shot to creating entire cityscapes behind an actor.
It also makes you realize that an actor’s job is a little more difficult than it seems. It’s one thing to pretend you’re driving a car down a highway with Nick Carraway in the 1920’s if you’re outside and driving in a real car, but it’s quite another thing when the car isn’t moving, the “highway” is a lime green ramp on a soundstage, and you’re actually sitting next to Tobey Maguire .
