Plastic Reality: Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics

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Julie A. Turnock

Plastic Reality

Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics

Julie A. Turnock

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English

Columbia University Press
03 February 2015

Film movie production: technical skills

Series: Film and Culture Series

"Julie 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. Beginning with the classical studio era's early approaches to special effects, she follows the industry's slow build toward the significant advances of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which set the stage for the groundbreaking achievements of 1977.

Turnock analyzes the far-reaching impact of the convincing, absorbing, and seemingly unlimited fantasy environments of that year's iconic films, dedicating a major section of her book to the unparalleled innovations of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She then traces these films' technological, cultural, and aesthetic influence into the 1980s in the deployment of optical special effects as well as the ""not-too-realistic"" and hyper-realistic techniques of traditional stop motion and Showscan. She concludes with a critique of special effects practices in the 2000s and their implications for the future of filmmaking and the production and experience of other visual media."

By: Julie A. Turnock
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 539g
ISBN: 9780231163538
ISBN 10: 0231163533
Series: Film and Culture Series
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 03 February 2015
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Julie A. Turnock is assistant professor of media and cinema studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Reviews for Plastic Reality: Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics

With consummate research and clear explanations, Turnock shows how the special effects revolution actually took place before CGI and the way the blockbusters of the late sixties and seventies, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, opened the way to a new concept of cinema's relation to reality and fantasy--and how it relates to the cinema of today. -- Tom Gunning, University of Chicago and author of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity