Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.
“The buildings that I build very often have a dreamlike reality. I don't mean by that they have a fantasy quality at all, in fact quite the reverse. They contain in some degree the ingredients that give dreams their power... stuff that's very close to us.”
“A writer who is in a hurry to be understood today or tomorrow runs the danger of being misunderstood the day after tomorrow.”