The Colorful and Crazy World of Creative Effects Film

A new trend has been quietly building in the film world, a trend that is polarizing, exciting, and fresh. But mainly, it’s a trend that is drawing more people to film photography, and that’s always a good thing. What we’re dubbing “creative effects film” is a unique sub-genre of film that has maybe been pre-exposed to light for color light-leak effects, or maybe it’s been pre-exposed to include small drawings on every frame, or maybe it’s just false color film of some kind, which provides a surreal aesthetic. It’s a hard category to pin down by nature, due to its unabashed disregard for the tenets of straight photography. I guess you could call it the punk rock of the film world, or maybe it’s free jazz in all of its abstract glory. Whichever analogy you choose, let’s take a closer look at some of these creative effects films.

Lomography

I’ll start with Lomography, since it’s a somewhat unique case with this class of film, but also because it’s one of the elder statesmen and inspirations of this whole sub-genre. Lomography helped to pioneer this lo-fi, creative, colorful, grainy, and punchy look that has become so—dare I say—trendy for quite some time. Distinct among other creative effects films, Lomo’s films here are not pre-exposed, instead relying on other tactics to achieve their effects. Much like this maker’s cameras themselves, Lomography’s creative effects films have an acquired taste of false colors and surreal effects.