Description
Book SynopsisA rare look at the role of special effects in creating fictional worlds and transmedia franchises
From comic book universes crowded with soaring superheroes and shattering skyscrapers to cosmic empires set in far-off galaxies, today's fantasy blockbusters depend on visual effects. Bringing science fiction from the studio to your screen, through film, television, or video games, these special effects power our entertainment industry. More Than Meets the Eye delves into the world of fantastic media franchises to trace the ways in which special effects over the last 50 years have become central not just to transmedia storytelling but to worldbuilding, performance, and genre in contemporary blockbuster entertainment.
More Than Meets the Eye maps the ways in which special effects build consistent storyworlds and transform genres while traveling from one media platform to the next. Examining high-profile franchises in which special effects have played a constituti
Trade Review
Elegantly written and extensively researched, More Than Meets the Eye makes an impressive contribution to digital and special effects studies. Bob Rehak moves beyond critical perspectives that have dominated this area of inquiry, exploring how special effects have a life of their own beyond momentary appearances in films and television programs. Studying both analog and digital effects and their continuing interface, he finds that they create vast narrative networks across media, platforms, and time, speaking to a variety of concerns in media studies from authorship and convergence culture to performance and fan labor. That he is able to bring exciting new concepts to bear on canonical media franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings is a testament to the provocative originality of this book. -- Barbara Klinger,author of Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home
Rehak has produced the kind of history that film and media studies needsrightnow, and his book displays elegance and serious intellectual chops in equal measure. Hes unafraid of theory or his predecessors, hes alert to both the big picture and nuances of form, and his scholarshipin numerous areasis thorough. More Than Meets the Eye is hugely original and a pleasure to read. -- Scott Bukatman,author of Hellboy’s World: Comics and Monsters on the Margins
