Description
Book SynopsisJulie A. Turnock tracks the use and evolution of special effects in 1970s filmmaking, a development as revolutionary to film as the form’s transition to sound in the 1920s.
Trade ReviewWith consummate research and clear explanations, Turnock shows how the special effects revolution actually took place before CGI and how the way the blockbusters of the late sixties and seventies, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, introduced new conceptions of cinema's relation to reality and fantasy-and how it relates to the cinema of today. -- Tom Gunning, author of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity Turnock's contribution is rich at multiple levels... Plastic Reality well merits pride of place within the burgeoning area of special effects study. Film Quarterly
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Before 1977 1. Optical Animation: Special Effects Compositing Up to 1977 2. Before Industrial Light and Magic: The Independent Hollywood Special Effects Business, 1968-1975 Part II: Circa 1977: Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind 3. The Expanded Blockbuster: The Auteurist Aesthetics of 1970s Special Effects-Driven Filmmaking 4. "The Buck Stops at Opticals": Special Effects Technology on Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind 5. A More Plastic Reality: The Design and Conception of Star Wars and West Coast Experimental Filmmaking 6. "More Philosopical Grey Matter": The Production and Aesthetic of Close Encounters of the Third Kind Part III: The 1980s and Beyond 7. Optical Special Effects into the 1980s: A Well-Oiled Machine 8. "Not-too-Realistic" and Intensified Realistic Approaches in the 1980s: Traditional Stop Motion and Showscan Conclusion: World-Building and the Legacy of 1970s Special Effects in Contemporary Cinema Notes Bibliography Index
