Special Effects [Hardcover]

Jake Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

For the first time, special effects experts allowed a photographer to go behind the scenes to reveal the fascinating secrets of their work, step-by-step. In this explosive introduction to the world of illusion, young readers discover how Steven Spielberg created the dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park", how Jim Carrey's eyes popped out in "Mask", and how the spectacular arrival of alien spaceships was staged in "Independence Day". Full-color photos.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-10APacked with lots of great movie stills, this introduction is a dazzling, but cursory, look behind the scenes. Novice film buffs will find it appealing; readers seeking detailed information will have to look elsewhere. In 26 two-page spreads (and one four-page spread), Hamilton covers everything from pouring rain to creating computer-animated dragons that can act. The one extended spread shows how a latex, alien head mask is created. The book is beautifully illustrated, but the text occasionally glosses over such details as the difference between the intricate miniature stop-motion animation of the original King Kong and the campy man in a rubber suit of the Godzilla movies. The author touches on the history of special effects with stills from classic films, giving readers a quick introduction to names and films important to the genre. However, the interesting story behind the development of special effects gets short shrift. With no cross references to the names of stars, the index leaves something to be desired. All of this aside, readers will be informed and possibly inspired.AHerman Sutter, Saint Pius X High School, Houston, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: DK CHILDREN (March 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078942813X
• ISBN-13: 978-0789428134
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 10.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,065,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to special effects, September 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Special Effects (Hardcover)

Ok, so I'm not 9-12 years old (the book's target audience), I'm almost 30 and I still enjoyed this book tremendously. It has awesome illustrations to show the techniques used in various effects like robotics, miniature models, etc. The explainations are easy to understand too. This book took the mystery out of the state-of-art special fx with recent blockbuster movies as examples. For an introduction to special effects, it's excellent.

4.0 out of 5 stars Brief explanations of how the most amazing movie special effects are done, July 10, 2007

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Special Effects (Hardcover)

While the special effects in the movies keep us astounded, learning how they were performed can be just as enthralling. In this book, you are given a brief introduction to how some of the groundbreaking special effects were made. Scenes from the classic science fiction movies such as the Star Wars sequence, "2001 A Space Odyssey", "Terminator 2" and "Alien" are described and explained. Other standard special effects such as fire scenes, battle scenes, underwater scenes, combinations of live actors and animations and explosions are all demonstrated.
While none of the explanations is completely thorough, they all are lengthy enough to give you the general idea as to how the action was accomplished. In my opinion, knowing how something was done never detracts from the thrill of seeing it, therefore I enjoyed this book immensely.