In its broadest film definition, any visual effects not achieved through the use of conventional cinematography. In the silent era, many of the photographic effects that we take for granted today, such as the fade in and fade out, were considered special effects. As special effects have become considerably more sophisticated, the term tends to be used to describe "tricks" that are fairly elaborate and complicated.
There are three basic types of special effects: those that are accomplished "in the camera," those that are achieved through laboratory processes (i.e., in the printing), and those that are a combination of the first two.
An example of an "in-the-camera" special effects is the glass shot, in which one section of a glass plate is painted to simulate part of a scene. The painting represents what might otherwise be an expensive set or location shot. The painting is then photographed along with the actors and/or action in the unpainted portion of the glass plate, leaving the effect that the action is taking place in the midst of a realistic milieu.
An example of a special effect that can be accomplished "in the lab" is a traveling matte, which combines into one image shots that are filmed in the studio with those that are filmed on location.
The combination of the two approaches is in evidence whenever back projection or front projection are used. Special effects are used in most films, although they can be found in greatest abundance in horror, fantasy, and science-fiction movies.
Throughout much of Hollywood's early history, there was hardly a better example of the use of special effects than King Kong (1933), which used miniatures to create the great ape. In the 1950s, when special effects were widely used in the burgeoning science-fiction genre, the state of the art was represented by The War of the Worlds (1953), which won an Oscar in that category.
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) brought a new interest in special effects, but it was George Lucas's Star Wars (1977) that set the standard for excellence through the use of miniatures, optical printing, and many other devices that were newly created to make the movie as realistic as possible.
Lucas's special effects company, Industrial Light and Magic, now hires out its services to other filmmakers. Many films, however, neither create nor subcontract their special effects; instead they simply borrow them already on film, for a modest fee, from a special-effects library. It's for this reason you may think you saw the same building collapse in two different movies.
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