Practical, on-set physical effects — explosions, pyrotechnics, mechanical rigs, water, smoke, fire. Captured in-camera, not in post-production.
The real magic happens on set — and that's meant literally. While your VFX supervisor will digitally enhance things later in post-production, the Special Effects supervisor and their team create physical effects that the camera records live. This is the craft: explosions that actually detonate. Water that truly flows. Smoke that moves in front of the lens — not as a particle simulation, but as matter in space.
The reason this is still gold: The camera sees light reflecting off real surfaces. Shadows fall correctly. Actors react to real heat, real vibrations, real noise — their performance is authentic because the danger and the environment are real. When a facade collapses, when debris flies, when fire blazes — it doesn't cost rendering time, it costs your film stock and the production designer's insurance.
In practice, this means the SFX supervisor plans every second with pyrotechnicians, stunt coordinators, and stage managers. Amounts of explosives are calculated, safety perimeters are drawn. A pyrotechnic explosion on set sometimes takes weeks of preparation and lasts seconds — and when the camera is rolling, you need to get the performance in one or two takes. Digital enhancement is possible, but expensive.
The modern gray area: Hybrid work is standard. You practically ignite 70% of the explosion because the light is authentic and sits realistically on the actors and the environment. The remaining 30% — perfect geometry, volumetric spread, digital enhancement — comes from post. This is called plate work: you shoot clean, lit base shots that your VFX house can later enhance.
Your job as a DoP is to light and frame SFX shots so that the practical effects work. No overexposed explosions that are unusable in editing. Clear lines so that the pyrotechnics make sense within the frame. And above all: communication with the SFX lead — because if your camera has to expose 3 stops darker, the fire will no longer look like fire.