Special Effects

Still in Search of Wonder

By: Michele Pierson

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Hardcover | 23 May 2002 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
256 Pages

Age
22+

Dimensions(cm)
2.35 x 1.63 x 0.21

Hardcover

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Designed to trick the eye and stimulate the imagination, special effects have changed the way we look at films and the worlds created in them. Computer-generated imagery (CGI), as seen in Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Men in Black, and The Matrix, is just the latest advance in the evolution of special effects. Even as special effects have been marveled at by millions, this is the first investigation of their broader cultural reception. Moving from an exploration of nineteenth-century popular science and magic to the Hollywood science fiction cinema of our time, Special Effects examines the history, advancements, and connoisseurship of special effects, asking what makes certain types of cinematic effects special, why this matters, and for whom. Michele Pierson shows how popular science magazines, genre filmzines, and computer lifestyle magazines have articulated an aesthetic criticism of this emerging art form and have helped shape how these hugely popular on-screen technological wonders have been viewed by moviegoers.

Industry Reviews

It is something of a cliche to think of special effects as 'movie magic,' but Pierson helps us to understand the substance behind that cliche, tracing our current fascination with computer-generated imagery back to discourses about magic and popular science in the late nineteenth century. Much as these earlier magicians helped to excite public interest and shape popular perceptions of emerging technologies, Pierson shows how CGI has become one of the most visible aspects of the digital revolution and how effects-laden films have often sought to examine their own precarious position somewhere between simulation and reality. -- Henry Jenkins, Director, Comparative Media Studies Program, MIT author of Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participator Intriguing... This is not a 'nuts and bolts'history of onscreen magic, but a specific analysis of the 'cultural reception'that visual effects have enjoyed throughout the history of cinema. American Cinematographer [A] ground-breaking book... Pierson's journey through the history of special effects offers us an important new perspective which has previously been left out of cinema-related academia and formal criticism. -- John McGowan-Hartmann Senses of Cinema

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Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Special Effects and the Popular Media	p. 1
Magic, Science, Art: Before Cinema	p. 11
Natural Magic	p. 17
Science Fictions	p. 22
Scientific American	p. 33
Millennial Magic	p. 46
From Cult-Classicism to Technofuturism: Converging on Wired Magazine	p. 52
The Limits of Convergence	p. 58
Photon and Stop-Motion Animation	p. 66
Corporate Futurism/Technofuturism	p. 77
Home Production	p. 89
The Wonder Years and Beyond: 1989-1995	p. 93
On Genre	p. 101
Reinventing the Cinema of Attractions	p. 118
Digital Art Effects	p. 123
Retrofuture/Retrovision	p. 131
Crafting a Future for CGI	p. 137
The Case of Editing	p. 140
Disaster Strikes	p. 145
An Aesthetics of Scarcity	p. 149
The Public Life of Numbers	p. 155
Conclusion: The Transnational Matrix of SF	p. 159
Notes	p. 169
Bibliography	p. 201
Index	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Special Effects

Still in Search of Wonder

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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