Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 934, Watching Special Effects.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 934.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is ESLPOD.com.
Go there, become a member of ESL Podcast and download the very useful learning guide that comes with this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Jack and Chrissy about watching a movie with special effects.
Let's get started.
Wow, that movie was amazing, but I can't believe that they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
I bet the French are really pissed.
You're kidding, right?
They didn't really blow up the Eiffel Tower.
They used special effects to make it look that way.
Are you sure?
It really looked like the real thing.
They used a scale model or a computer-generated image of the Eiffel Tower and added some pyrotechnics or other visual effects to create what you saw on the screen.
It's like a big optical illusion.
I can't believe you really thought they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
Oh no, I didn't.
I was just kidding.
But you have to admit that it was pretty cool that they got the real President of the United States to kill that monster, right?
You must be messing with my mind again.
That wasn't the President.
That was an actor wearing prosthetics and makeup standing in front of a green screen.
They added the monster later in post-production.
Oh, right, sure.
But you have to hand it to them for moving a section of the Great Wall of China to New York City, right?
Oh, boy.
Our dialogue begins with Chrissy saying That movie was amazing, but I can't believe that they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
I bet the French are really pissed.
To blow up something, is to destroy it, to make it explode.
Blow up is a two-word phrasal verb, of course.
It's used here to indicate that something was destroyed, usually with a bomb or some sort of explosive.
Chrissy is saying that in the movie, They blew up the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower is the most famous monument of Paris, the most famous site in Paris.
That's why Chris says, I bet the French are really pissed.
To be pissed.
P-I-S-S-E-D is something of a vulgar term which we don't normally talk about on the episodes here, but it's here in our dialogue, so I'll explain that.
It means to be angry, to be very, very angry or upset.
However, it's not a word you should use normally, especially in front of your boss or in front of your family.
A much better expression here would be angry or upset, which is what this word means.
Jack says, you're kidding, right?
Meaning, you're joking, right?
He says they didn't really blow up the Eiffel Tower.
They used special effects to make it look that way.
Special effects are techniques that are used in television and movie production to think something is happening even though in reality it isn't.
In this case, it looks like the Eiffel Tower is being destroyed in the movie.
But Jack says, no, that did not actually happen.
They used special effects.
He says they use special effects to make it look that way.
He means they use special effects so that it appears as though the Eiffel Tower were destroyed.
Chrissy says, are you sure it really looked like the real thing?
Immediately, we get the sense that Chrissy might not be the most intelligent person in this conversation.
Jack says they used a scale model or a computer generated image of the Eiffel Tower and added some pyrotechnics or other visual effects to create what you saw on the screen.
There are several examples.
Somewhat difficult terms in that sentence.
Let's go back to the beginning where Jack says they used a scale, S-C-A-L-E, model, M-O-D-E-L.
A scale model would be a small representation of an object, but it's not the real object.
If you go to Paris, you can probably buy a little Eiffel Tower that's maybe three inches tall.
It's not the actual Eiffel Tower.
It's what you might call a scale model.
It looks exactly the same, but it is made to be a very small size.
That's what Jack is saying they used in this movie.
Or he says they used a computer generated image.
A computer generated image would be something that you would create using software on your computer.
Jack says also that they added some pyrotechnics or other visual effects.
Pyrotechnics.
P-Y-R-O-T-E-C-H-N-I-C-S means fireworks, explosions that produce bright lights and colors and typically fire.
That's pyrotechnics.
Jack says they may have used pyrotechnics or visual effects.
Visual effects are just special effects that are not sound but something that you see.
Visual, V-I-S-U-A-L, refers to that which you can see or something that can be seen.
Jack continues saying, It's like a big optical illusion.
An illusion, I-L-L-U-S-I-O-N, is something that looks real but it isn't.
An optical O-P-T-I-C-A-L illusion is something that makes your eyes think something is going on, when it isn't really going on.
It looks like it's one thing, but it in fact is another thing.
That would be an optical illusion.
Jack says, I can't believe you really thought they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
Jack can't believe that Chrissy could be that stupid.
But Chrissy says, oh, no, I didn't.
I was just kidding.
Now Chrissy says that she wasn't serious, that she knew that they didn't really blow up the Eiffel Tower.
Right.
When we use that word right with the intonation that I just used, you're really saying I don't believe you.
I don't think that's true.
Chrissy says.
You have to admit that it was pretty cool that they got the real president of the United States to kill that monster, right?
So now Chrissy says something else incredibly stupid.
She says that the real president of the United States killed the monster in the movie.
A monster.
M-O-N-S-T-E-R is a large ugly, imaginary creature, an animal that That doesn't really exist, but that you are very scared of.
If you remember the movie Frankenstein, Frankenstein was what we would call a monster.
Kind of like my neighbor.
Jack says, you must be messing with my mind again.
Jack is saying to Chrissy that she is messing with his mind.
To mess M-E-S-S with someone's mind means to try to trick another person, try to fool another person, try to get someone to believe something is true.
That really isn't true.
It's somewhat of an informal expression.
To mess with, in general, means to interfere with or to cause problems with.
It could be used in a physical sense.
To mess with someone would be perhaps to fight them, to hit them.
There's an old expression, don't mess with Texas.
Don't mess with Texas means don't get into a fight or criticize or anger anyone from the state of Texas.
The state of Texas, which is located in the south central part of the United States on the border with Mexico, has a reputation of being a state that has a lot of pride, where everything is bigger.
At least that's what they think in Texas.
But we're not dealing with Texas here.
We're dealing with Chrissy.
Jack says that wasn't the president.
That was an actor wearing prosthetics and makeup standing in front of a green screen.
Prosthetics P-R-O-S-T-H-E-T-I-C-S are artificial body parts used sometimes for people who lose their arms or lose one of their legs.
Here, it's something that an actor would put on to make him look different.
Makeup is something you would put typically on your face to make you look different.
Women put makeup on to make them look more beautiful.
A green screen is a wall that is green.
A green screen is used in movie and television production in order to put a different background behind the person, but that is done after you actually make the film, after you actually film the video.
You then can go back if the background is green and change what is behind the person so that it looks like something different.
Jack says they added the monster later in post-production.
Post-production is the final stages, the final steps in making a movie or a television show or a record or a podcast.
Post-production is what happens after you do the recording.
It's all of the things that happen to get the...
Recording, whether it's audio or visual, ready to release, ready to publish.
Chrissy says, oh, right, sure.
But you have to hand it to them for moving a section of the Great Wall of China to New York City, right?
The expression to hand H-A-N-D it to someone means to compliment them, to say that they did something very well.
Chrissy is saying that in the movie...
They took a section of the Great Wall of China and moved it to New York City.
That's what Chrissy thinks.
That's why she says you have to hand it to them.
You have to congratulate the people who made the movie for doing such an amazing thing.
Of course, that's not actually what happened, but that's what Chrissy thinks.
That's why Jack ends our dialogue by saying, oh boy.
That expression, oh boy, is when you are frustrated, or you can't believe how stupid the other person is, or you can't believe the crazy ideas that the other person has.
Chrissy certainly has some crazy ideas.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wow, that movie was amazing.
But I can't believe that they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
I bet the French are really pissed.
You're kidding, right?
They didn't really blow up the Eiffel Tower.
They used special effects to make it look that way.
Are you sure?
It really looked like the real thing.
They used a scale model or a computer-generated image of the Eiffel Tower and added some pyrotechnics or other visual effects to create what you saw on the screen.
It's like a big optical illusion.
I can't believe you really thought they blew up the Eiffel Tower.
Oh no, I didn't.
I was just kidding.
But you have to admit that it was pretty cool that they got the real President of the United States to kill that monster, right?
You must be messing with my mind again.
That wasn't the President.
That was an actor wearing prosthetics and makeup standing in front of a green screen.
They added the monster later in post-production.
Oh, right, sure.
But you have to hand it to him for moving a section of the Great Wall of China to New York City, right?
Oh, boy.
We hope that our scriptwriter never messes with our minds.
I don't think she would.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
