How Special Effects Work #4: The Reveal

The latest in my semi-random, long-neglected series of asides on special effects continues with the concept of the “reveal”. This is that moment when you finally get to see the spectacular object that has been withheld from you for so long. A good reveal will not just happen, but will be the culmination of a series of gestures that draw you in to a state of curiosity, suspense and anticipation. In short, if they’ve spent a lot of money on their biggest selling point, they’re going to make you wait to see it.

Stopgapping

I’ve neglected this blog for over a week. I know that the blogosphere is very forgiving of these kinds of things, but I like to refresh things around here regularly. I’ve been in an essay-marking frenzy te last couple of weeks. Nearly finished now, but it’s knocked me out of my regular blogging schedule, and I’m suffering from mild withdrawal symptoms. It’s been over a week since I emptied my brain into cyberspace. I’ll make up for it next week, but in the meantime I thought I’d change the scenery with a decorative post drawing your attention to something lovely you might like to look at. These pictures are from Spacesick‘s Flickr set of spoof covers for retro novelisations of movies including Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Batman, Gremlins, Splash and, er… Ghost Dad. The fondness for the 1980s as some sort of lovable memory-bank is noteworthy – it seems to be a popular era for retro design and nostalgic recovery.

It seems Spacesick (Mitch Ansara) was inspired by the work of Olly Moss, whose reimagined movie posters I mentioned here in February. Anyway, take a look at the complete set, which has given me a great excuse to put something much cooler at the top of the page on Spectacular Attractions this week. Normal service will be resumed shortly.