Stop Villifying VFX [Video]

Sam O’Hare is a UK born, Emmy-nominated VFX supervisor and director based in New York. He studied computer generated imagery at university, and soon moved from architectural visualization to commercials, and then to movies and TV. His recent credits include SEE, Hello Tomorrow, Dumb Money and Fallout, and he is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Visual Effects Society. In this piece, he explains why VFX should be celebrated, not dismissed.—M.M.

A recent trend in the marketing and media coverage of films is that practical effects are highlighted and celebrated, while the contributions of visual effects, or VFX, are scarcely mentioned. Special effects, for the sake of clarity, are those created on set, or “in camera.” Visual effects are created in post-production, using computers.

Let’s start with Top Gun: Maverick, the No. 2 film at the worldwide box office in 2022. This IGN making-of featurettesays that “in an age when computer …