How to add special effects to a short film?

If a film like Man of Steel (2013) was shot on film instead of digital, how do they add digital visual effects to the scene?

• Answer:

  Film still has a significant place in visual effects projects which have considerable CGI, and the processes and methodology for using film elements is very robust. Digital effects in motion pictures predate by many years the relatively new advent of digital cameras capable of matching (well, rivaling) film cameras in quality, so mixing digital techniques with "analog" footage is nothing new or unusual. - After film is developed it is scanned into a digital form, typically via the Telecine process... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine ...from which point it is treated similarly to digitally shot footage. - Film still has some important advantages over shooting digital: it contains a vast range of values and color compared to digital (much of the art of film scanning/telecine comes from deciding what information to preserve or throw away when converting to digital) and there is a lovely organic response to light, natural grain etc which typically is added to digital film after the fact and with varying quality. Shooting digitally greatly streamlines the filmmaking process, but only recently has it been seen as acceptable in quality. - Modern and increasingly used virtual set techniques and on-set data acquisition are still possible when shooting film... film cameras have a "video tap" which lets filmmakers view video through the lens of the camera, so using film is no barrier in this regard. Most motion picture professionals appreciate the simplicity of shooting digital, but are nonetheless quite nostalgic about film, and achieving the beauty and creative possibilities of a truly masterful piece of filmed footage digitally is an ongoing challenge, a current "holy grail" which only recently has been even remotely possible.