06/05/2024
What SFX props are?
Special props (SFX props) are located on the border of two worlds: the world of things (props) and the world of special effects (SFX).
If you want to understand what (SFX) props are, you have to understand, what "just props" and what special effects are.
Props is a set of things and objects that used for the production of theatre performances, filming, photo shoots, or as samples for artists and sculptors, etc.
Props can be real or fake things.
Props usually play a supporting role in a work of art. And this role is huge, because remaining in the background, they are still an important part of the overall atmosphere of an artwork. Props help to create general impression to a viewer.
Props include: furniture, transport, documents, press, weapons, clothing accessories, small (and not so small) household items and the like.
So props are stable things and objects.
Special effects, contrary to props, are not objects.
Special effects are incidents with a limited time of existence. Rain, wind, falling and lying snow, fire and burning of something; explosion, shot, imitation of a bullet hit, flash of light, blackout. There are effects that create impressions.
They are very strong and significant, but they cannot be fixed (except on film), picked up, put in a warehouse, etc.
They even cannot be reproduced the same way several times. Each SFX will be somewhat different from the previous one.
And so... SFX props are the things that allow you to create special effects. Sometimes at the cost of their own existence!
For example, a breakaway glass bottle: at the beginning of the scene it is an object, and at the end, when it is smashed on somebody’s head, it becomes a pile of fragments.
And the most important happens in the middle - the very moment of breaking!
Another example is a retractable knife: at first moment it's just a knife, and a second later it's a knife stuck into a person's body. And, again, the main job of such a knife is the movement of the blade: the dynamic illusion of sticking in.
The same is true for a retractable syringe, a weapon that simulates a shot, to a controlled fire (which breaks out or goes out, at the command of the director), to a "smoldering" fake cigarette, etc., etc.
Thus, the special props work not by static presence, but by their dynamic change. And it's much more spectacular!
Masters of special requirements are unique persons.
On the one hand, they must be able to solve non-trivial technical problems, and on the other - artistic ones.
The development of knowledge, skills, technologies, production facilities and tools for the production of special requirements takes more than one year.
But the result is worth it!
Even now, not all effects can be qualitatively drawn on a computer (CGI).
SFX props often save some non-trivial directors ideas.
