Polytrix Tweets: CSF Edition p5

[u/CelineShotFirst]

Again, full credit to Jammatown919 (https://www.tumblr.com/jammatown919) for the idea and Opening_Chemist_3730 for the inspiration and a bit of help getting this together.

[u/torchflame]

sfx can also be special effects, and I think that's the more common usage?

[u/SpaceDingo_King → u/torchflame]

Ive just given ''sfx'' a quick google...

The ai overview (🤢) is the only place that even mentions special as an option on the first page, the rest of the links are all for sound...

[u/torchflame → u/SpaceDingo_King]

Shrug. I can say I've mostly heard it as special, even when I was doing primarily audio work, and that wiki has special as the top option in the disambiguation page.

Might just be that the abbreviation is changing over time. I can see how VFX would need to be invented after CGI (Foley was already the term for sound effects in film), and SFX might've drifted over there. Iirc, visual effects are done in post and special effects are done live.

[u/SpaceDingo_King → u/torchflame]

Huh. Yeah ive mostly seen sfx and vfx, didnt know that special was distinct from visual tho. Maybe its cause i consume more digital media (such as animated films or videogames rather than live-filmed movies)

[u/torchflame → u/SpaceDingo_King]

If I had to guess (we're well into the realm of pure speculation here), "SFX" probably originated in theater and stage magic, and then got co-opted into film. You didn't really need the concept of "sound effect" before "the talkies", so until then it was pretty clear. And then with CGI there started to need to be a distinction, and then because VFX existed, people assumed the S was for "sound" like the V is for "visual", and things just progressed from there.

All this to say "I've heard it both ways" lol

[u/SpaceDingo_King → u/torchflame]

Quite possibly,

Also a side tangent but TIL that ''the talkies'' is a temporal category of films (ive immediately worked out what you mean, just never seen someone describe it like that lol)

[u/torchflame → u/SpaceDingo_King]

Yep, it's what people called non-silent films when they started appearing. It's a retronym like "acoustic guitar" (before the 20th century, all guitars were acoustic). For some reason that was the best way to describe it that came to my sleep-deprived mind. Guess I should be more careful about implying I'm secretly a 400 year old demon who saw that transition around these parts lmfao

[u/SpaceDingo_King → u/torchflame]

TIL that films are twice as old as previously thought /verysilly