Film enthusiasts are always willing to talk about films due to the sheer passion they have for the subject. Well thanks for the internet www.fxhome.com were formed and to this day holds over a million members which just keeps on growing.
Now I should really give you some history on the actual company. Formed in 2001 by two chaps, Joshua Davies and Toby Walsh, they started up FXhome so they could sell their film making post production product Alam DV which has now been transformed into Effectslab, sooner or later the websites user forum built up as did the team and to this day they now have various products and a busy yet friendly team of staff and an entertaining bunch of forum users who’ll make your day one way or another.
With me being a film enthusiast I am obviously a member to this website and have been since 2006, and I have to say the community that has grown has been tremendous as well as the products which have developed wonderfully over the years. The software itself can create some pretty stunning effects and the community can create their own effects in the program and then send the “preset” off to FXhome which will then be made available for download by other product users. The products certainly suit a variety of needs, with Effectslab Pro, Compositelab Pro and Visionlab Studio focusing on the moving image areas allowing you to do green screening, compositing and visual effects and with Photokey allowing photographers to create great looking photos from a green screened photo.
I’ll start off with the cinema which is perhaps the most important feature to the users. The cinema is where users who have used an FXhome product such as Visionlab Studio, Composite Lab Pro, Effects Lab Pro and more available from the company can upload a homemade movie off theirs, no matter if it’s that ridiculously bad that you want to gouge your eyeballs out of their sockets or whether it’s that glorious to watch you feel like you’re in a field of daisies on a sunny day you will always get the members of the community sharing their thoughts on your work be it good or bad criticism. So the cinema is a pretty nice place to be on FXhome and also it feels professional with the long and short reviews hitting the films and the option for the users to rate the film out of 5 stars, however you will get the occasional silly video which is just a pointless effects test which belongs on YouTube.
Besides the cinema though the forums also offer support topics and general banter topics and this is where the community really shines through and also why it makes FXhome more of a unique place to be when it comes to socialising about films. Generally the community link a lot of external websites holding trailers, information about films or current news around the world and discuss the topic in a well behaved manner with the moderators with their fingers ready on the “Smack the Bad User” button. The users come in all shapes and sizes, you get the clowns who you tend to blame for making the topic go off topic either in a good or bad way, the irritating argumentative YouTuber style user but mostly you get a lot of regulars staying on topic or insulting each other and all while remaining friendly (sometimes). In my experience, respect and be respected is the rule that floats around FXhome’s forums and at least 90% of users respect that rule, some do attempt to break it but then the community comes together to give them a what for. There are both amateurs and professionals amongst us in the forums but that doesn’t really affect how the pros treat for amateurs. Some users have gone off to join big time production companies and places such as the BBC and Pinewood Studios and more nationwide, some of them though have just created professional films right on their own doorstep with an FXhome product, a camcorder, actors and a sandwich. One of the latest successes has been Marco Von Moo’s (Sollthar) feature, Nightcast, another has been Recon 22 by Christian Viel (JohnCarter) and another was a short film Project One by Joby Stephens (er-no).
All have been hailed by the community because they were made by someone who has grown with the community bringing a tanker full of respect and inspiration for not only the users but also to FXhome as these type of projects seem to inspire FXhome to keep on improving their software and even try making their own film. FXhome has created such a friendly community, in fact I’m pretty sure the community could be considered as family if you put up with them long enough.
