Special Effects on the Screen: Faking the View from Méliès to Motion Capture

Published by Amsterdam University Press 2022

Special Effects on the Screen

Faking the View from Méliès to Motion Capture

Edited by: Martin Lefebvre and Marc Furstenau

Volume 2 in the series Cinema and Technology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048530205

Overview
Contents

About this book

Since the very first days of cinema, audiences have marveled at the special effects imagery presented on movie screens. While long relegated to the margins of film studies, special effects have recently become the object of a burgeoning field of scholarship. With the emergence of a digital cinema, and the development of computerized visual effects, film theorists and historians have been reconsidering the traditional accounts of cinematic representation, recognising the important role of special effects. Understood as a constituent part of the cinema, special effects are a major technical but also aesthetic component of filmmaking and an important part of the experience for the audience. In this volume, new directions are charted for the exploration of this indispensable aspect of the cinematic experience. Each of the essays in this collection offers new insight into the theoretical and historical study of special effects. The contributors address the many aspects of special effects, from a variety of perspectives, considering them as a conceptual problem, recounting the history of specific special effects techniques, and analysing notable effects films.

Author / Editor information

Lefebvre Martin :

Martin Lefebvre is Professor and Chair of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University (Montréal, Canada). He is Editor-in-Chief of Recherches sémiotiques/Semiotic Inquiry and has published widely on semiotics and film. He is the author of Truffaut et ses doubles (Vrin, 2013) and has edited several volumes including Techniques et technologies du cinéma (with A. Gaudreault; PUR, 2015); Landscape and Film (Routledge, 2007); and Eisenstein: l’ancien et le nouveau (with D. Chateau & F. Jost; Sorbonne, 2001).Furstenau Marc :

Marc Furstenau is Associate Professor and Head of the Film Studies Program in the School for Studies in Art and Culture, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). He is the editor of The Film Theory Reader: Debates and Arguments (Routledge, 2010) co-editor of Cinema and Technology: Cultures, Theories, Practices (Palgrave, 2008) and author of the forthcoming book The Aesthetics of Digital Montage (Amsterdam University Press).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
Introduction Martin Lefebvre and Marc Furstenau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
Concepts
1. Mind(ing) the Gap Martin Lefebvre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
2. Images as Visual Effects John Belton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
3. The Pragmatics of Trucage: Between Feigning and Fiction François Jost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
4. Realism, Illusion, and Special Effects in the Cinema Marc Furstenau Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Techniques
5. .Trick-o-logics 1810/1910: The Magic of Tricks and Special Effects Between: the Stage and the Screen Frank Kessler and Sabine Lenk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
6. Those Ordinary “Special Effects” François Albera Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
7. Black Magic: The “Space Between the Frames” in Cinematic Special Effects Donald Crafton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
8. Photography and the Composite Image , or A Portrait of Méliès as Bergsonian Filmmaker Benoît Turquety Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
9. From Trick to Special Effect : Standardization and the Rise of Imperceptible Cinematic Illusions Katharina Loew Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
10. Special Effects and Spaces of Communication: A Semio-Pragmatic Approach Roger Odin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
11. Image Capture, or The Control of Special Effects Philippe Marion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	325
Films
12. Murnau’s Sunrise: In-Camera Effects and Effects Specialists Janet Bergstrom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
13. King Kong, An Open Perspective Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	379
14. Uncanny Visual Effects, Postwar Modernity, and House of Wax 3D Kristen Whissel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
15. Oblivion: Of Time and Special Effects Sean Cubitt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	433
Envoi
16. The Effect of Miracles and the Miracle of Effects : Bazin’s Faith in Evolution Dudley Andrew Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	451
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	475
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	499

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 518
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 63
Keywords: Special effects; film theory; film history; film-philosophy

eBook

Published: October 4, 2022
ISBN: 9789048530205