Practical Advice for Practical Effects With the 'Snatchers' Directors

Unpacking the satisfying gore of our favorite SXSW creatur feature films and how they pulled it off.

Practical Advice for Practical Effects With the 'Snatchers' Directors

'Snatchers'

Courtesy of SXSW

How do you marry practical and visual effects without bumping the audience? That’s what the team behind the film, Snatchers did. Snatchers is a horror-comedy film about a teen girl who wakes up nine months pregnant with an alien.

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In today’s episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins and Jason Hellerman speak with filmmakers Stephen Cedars and Benji Kleiman to discuss:

Practical effects - what are they?
Some of our favorite practical effects in film
How practical effects can be more effective than CGI
Scaring away Bob Murawski with the smell of farts
Finding a balance between CGI and practical effects
How Stephen and Benji approach writing sketches
Transitioning into making feature films

SNATCHERS Official Trailer

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_{This episode of The No Film School Podcast was produced by GG Hawkins.}

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All the above considered, it's no surprise to see Duplass take to social media with an encouraging statement following the recently announced 2025 Sundance lineup this past Wednesday. Duplass, hot off positive reviews for the recently released The Creep Tapes on Shudder, warmly comforted filmmakers that if you happened to apply to Sundance and weren't selected, hey, that's okay. They curate 15,775. It happens.

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