Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality

Acknowledgments

I have had the opportunity and pleasure to work out some of the ideas in these pages at the 2010 conferences of the Society for Cognitive Study of the Moving Image and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Speaking invitations to Lund University in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark afforded me with additional opportunities to develop the material. I thank Eric Hedling and Johannes Riis for their hospitality and to the lively audiences in Lund and Copenhagen. VFX industry journalist Joe Fordham, who has written about visual effects for more than a decade in the pages of Cinefex magazine, graciously read through the manuscript and offered keen insights on digital aesthetics and the effects industry and corrected a few infelicities of expression. Joe’s good cheer is complimented by his fine taste in cinema. I extend a heartfelt thanks to Joe for his invaluable assistance. Paul Harrill brought a digital filmmaker’s perspective to chapter 2. He kindly read the material on digital cinematography, corrected some gaffes, and pointed me in the right direction regarding some key topics. Paul’s appreciation for the interplay between aesthetics and technology was a great help to me in parsing this material. Patricia Raun read chapter 3 from the standpoint of a professional actor, and she kindly took time from her schedule to give me a working actor’s perspective on performance in the digital domain and how this differs from what an actor creates and contributes in live theater. Thank you, Patty. Some of the material in chapter 1 was previously published as “Through the Looking Glass: Philosophical Toys and Digital Visual Effects,” Projections 4:2 (Winter 2010). I thank Projections’ editor Ira Konigsberg for his permission to use that material here. I thank also Leslie Mitchner, who loved the idea for the book from the start. Leslie is a great editor and someone with whom it is always a pleasure to work. ix A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S DIGITAL VISUAL EFFECTS IN CINEMA ...