Arrival released a visual effects video showing glimpses of how the film was made to look the way it does.
Seeing video like this makes me appreciate all the more what actors are asked to do. They fill in the blanks of what is around them, often nothing but a green screen, and convince us what we are seeing is what they are seeing.
Sound effects work hand in hand with the illusion. If we, the audience, see a helicopter and hear a helicopter, we accept that there is a helicopter there. Again, respect for actors. They project an emotion the audience finds convincing when there’s nothing to invoke it in them but their own inner talent.
Respect for actors, but also respect for the Arrival video effects technological geniuses doing their visually believable magic with a computer.