The Movie 'San Andreas' Is Sort of Hilarious without the Effects

Summer movie season is here, and so are the movies with the biggest budgets trying to up the wow factor against their cinematic competition. "San Andreas" is the latest disaster flick to showcase some of the best effects Hollywood has to offer right now. Sploid/Gizmodo did a few behind-the-scenes videos on how effectively shooting movies (in this case "San Andreas") with huge sets and practical effects can make even the best CGI look more realistic.

I don't know about you, but I sort of get a chuckle any time I see someone try and pretend they are in a disaster such as an earthquake. It sort of reminds me of the old "Star Trek" episodes where they would pretend the starship was being attacked (see below for reference) and they would just shake the camera for effect.

I also wrote an article a few weeks ago about "Mad Max: Fury Road" and its beautiful practical (non CGI) effects. As crazy as the post-production appears in these movies, the concepts aren't far from what some of the best composite photographers in the business do (Dave Hill has always been one of my favorites). They build partial sets and use real props, combining them into huge visual productions. Seeing this kind of behind-the-scenes content is really inspiring and gets me charged up to try some new techniques on the photography side of things.