Suspension of belief and Special Features

[Princess Ivy]

One of the main criterion for watching any film, but especialy sci-fi, fantasy and monster films, is the suspension of belief. To become involved in the story, so that it doesn't matter that the huge dragon is probably cg, or that the enterprise in space shots are done with models and black paper. We know these things aren't real, but we believe in them anyway.
This is harder for me with all of the 'making of' special features that come with dvd's these days. I don't want to know how they made the monsters. it makes them more plastic, less real. How can i be scared of the giant river of lava when i know its paint with some phosperecent powder sprinkled on top?
I don't watch these things on that basis. I find it ruins the magic of the movie for me.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

I suppose it depends how much you love the original film.
For example, I probably watch the additional features for the LOTR extended versions more than I watch the actual film!
I love the documentaries on there (possibly because so much was real - be it minatures or real swords) and can (and have!!) watch them for hours

With the digital effects - I still enjoy seeing the making of, because so much happens afterwards! You see the likes of Gollum being animated by motion capture and see Andy Serkis in his silly 'gimp' suit or the motion capture one with ping pong balls on, and you see what the CG guys have to work with - and, for me at least, you still can't see the flaws!

I suppose for me it's a bit like the best tricks just work, even after you know how its done but still can't figure it out!

One a seperate issue, there are lots of lame 'making of's' out there and it seems to be the standard thing to attach onto dvd's these days. Most of them do ruin it - especially the X-Men one!
It was rubbish seeing wolverine's rubber claws

 

[polymorphikos]

It's pretty obvious how they did all those old stop-motion monsters, even without the special features, but I never found knowing the how of it detracted from the effect.

 

[dwndrgn]

It never hurts my enjoyment either. We know, even if we don't want to, that what we are seeing on the screen isn't real. The real magic is that when the film and story come together well enough that we don't care whether it's real or not - we're too engaged. For example, only a two year old or someone without good eyes would believe that the King Kong of the movies was a real animal, but the fact is, at the end it still almost makes me cry...good filmmaking doesn't need realistic effects, they can help - but they can't heal a bad script and poor direction.