Description
Book Synopsisexamines contemporary films, including
Avatar,
The Matrix, and
The Lord of the Rings movies, revealing the films astonishing computer-generated visual effects as central to their narratives.
Trade Review“The narrative is engaging, and Whissel's analysis of the effects emblem makes a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature of the field. . . . Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.” -- B. H McMillin * Choice *
“
Spectacular Digital Effects seeks to redeem oft-maligned computer-generated imagery in blockbuster cinema, arguing that the spectacle of digital effects enhances rather than detracts from the narrative. This aim is a much-needed move for balance in the field of media studies, and the conceptual framework, based in the historical study of emblems used in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, is a new and interesting way to think through digital effects.” -- Laura Felschow * Velvet Light Trap *
“[B]y offering a focused analysis of the allegorical potential of effects sequences,
Spectacular Digital Effects does more than expand a field that has recently received a great deal of attention in film and media studies. The book makes a valuable contribution to developing a new conversation about the complexities of spectacular effects in the cinema.” -- Colin Williamson * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *
"Whissel’s book is an illuminating study and a reminder that onscreen spectacle can deliver philosophical as well as visceral heft." -- Ben Kooyman * Media International Australia *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The New Verticality 21
2. The Digital Multitude as Effects Emblem 59
3. Vital Figures: The Life and Death of Digital Creatures 91
4. The Morph: Protean Possibility and Algorithmic Control 131
Conclusion 171
Notes 185
Bibliography 199
Index 207
