Reality & Effect: a Cultural History of Visual Effects
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Dissertations Department of Communication 5-3-2007 Reality & Effect: A Cultural History of Visual Effects Jae Hyung Ryu Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Ryu, Jae Hyung, "Reality & Effect: A Cultural History of Visual Effects." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_diss/13 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REALITY & EFFECT: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF VISUAL EFFECTS by JAE HYUNG RYU Under the Direction of Ted Friedman ABSTRACT The purpose of this dissertation is to chart how the development of visual effects has changed popular cinema’s vision of the real, producing the powerful reality effect. My investigation of the history of visual effects studies not only the industrial and economic context of visual effects, but also the aesthetic characteristics of the reality effect. In terms of methodology, this study employs a theoretical discourse which compares the parallels between visual effects and the discourse of modernity/postmodernity, utilizing close textual analysis to understand the symptomatic meanings of key texts. The transition in the techniques and meanings of creating visual effects reflects the cultural transformation from modernism to postmodernism. Visual effects have developed by adapting to the structural transformation of production systems and with the advance of technology. The studio system strongly controlled the classical Hollywood cinema by means of the modern economic production system of Fordism. Breakdown of Hollywood classicism as a production system gave rise to the creation of digital effects with the rise of the concept of the blockbuster and with the development of computer technologies. I argue that the characteristic feature of time-space compression, occurring in the process of the transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation, clearly reflects that of compression of multi-layered time and space, generated in the development process from analog visual effects, such as trick, rear and front projection, to the digital effects, such as rotoscoping and CGI animation. While the aesthetics of analog visual effects, without computing, can be compared to a Fordist production system, digital effects, which hugely rely on CGI manipulation, are examples of flexible accumulation. As a case study of the local resistance or alternative of Hollywood today, I examine the effects-oriented Korean nationalist blockbuster. The Korean nationalist blockbuster films have sought large-scale filmmaking and presentation of spectacular scenes, including heavy dependence on the use of special effects, which is frequently considered a Hollywood style. This paradoxical combination of peculiar Korean subjects and Hollywood style can be viewed as a form of cultural jujitsu, taking advantage of the force of the dominant culture in order to resist and subvert it. INDEX WORDS: Special Effects, Visual Effects, Digital Effects, CGI, Tricks, Modernism, Fordism, Postmodernism, Reality Effect, Time-space Compression, Trickality, Korean Blockbuster, Cultural Jujitsu, Korean Wave, Hallyu, Shiri , Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War , Welcome to Dongmakgol , 2009 Lost Memories REALITY & EFFECT: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF VISUAL EFFECTS by JAE HYUNG RYU A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2007 Copyright by Jae Hyung Ryu 2007 REALITY & EFFECT: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF VISUAL EFFECTS by JAE HYUNG RYU Major Professor: Ted Friedman Committee: Kathy Fuller-Seeley Angelo Restivo Alisa Perren Jung-Bong Choi Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2007 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, foremost, my advisor, Dr. Ted Friedman, for his unconditional support, guidance, and generosity. He is a dedicated teacher, but at times, I look to him as an older brother, and a good friend. If my advisor was not him, I could not stand here now. I love his passion for fostering scholarship, his consideration of students, and I admire his belief in his advisees. Dr. Friedman will be a model for my way of scholarship. I also wish to thank my everlasting mentor, Dr. Yong-soo Kim, who is Professor of School of Communication at Sogang University, Korea. He is a father in my academic life. He opened my eyes to film studies and led me to the way of learning. His continuous consideration and encouragement have provided the vital energy for my struggle in overseas. Dr. Kim has been and will be the cornerstone of my way of learning. I am grateful to my committee members, Dr. Kathy Fuller-Seeley for her kind mentoring and warm encouragement, Dr. Angelo Restivo for his precise reading and acute comments on the earlier draft of the Korean film chapter, Dr. Jung-Bong Choi for the critical suggestions derived from his wide range of knowledge, and Dr. Alisa Perren for her helpful comments and suggestions on the earlier drafts. Finally, infinite thanks go to my family: my parents, RYU Jong Yeol and PARK Kyung Sook; parents-in-law, CHOI Dong Kwon and RA Ssang Ju; my wife, CHOI Won-Jeong; my daughter, Jennifer Yujin RYU; and my soon-to-be son, Jason, who will arrive this June; my brother and brother-in-law, RYU Jae Yong and CHOI Hyuk Seung. Words cannot express how much I am loved by them and I love them. I wish to live as repaying their love. I dedicate my humble dissertation to my wonderful family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………… iv LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………………….. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………......... 1 1.1 Overview………..……………………………………………………… 1 1.2 Research Methodology…..………………………………………........... 8 1.3 Theoretical Framework…..……………………………………………... 11 2. VISUAL EFFECTS OF EARLY HOLLYWOOD………....…………………….. 49 2.1 Train Arriving at a Station (Louis and Auguste Lumières, 1895)……… 52 2.2 A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)……………………………. 56 2.3 The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924)……...………………………. 64 3. MODERNIST VISUAL EFFECTS……...………………………………………. 77 3.1 Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)……………………………... 82 3.2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)………………………. 88 3.3 Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)………………………………………... 100 3.4 Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)……………………………………... 108 4. POSTMODERNIST VISUAL EFFECTS…………………………..….………... 117 4.1 Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982)………………………………………….. 122 4.2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)…………………. 131 4.3 Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)……………………………....... 138 4.4 The Matrix (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1999)………………………. 146 vi 5. DIGITAL EFFECTS as CULTURAL JUJITSU: FUNCTIONS of DIGITAL EFFECTS in KOREAN NATIONALIST BLOCKBUSTER FILMS …………. 156 5.1 New Relationship between Hollywood and the Korean Film Industry in the Digital Empire…………………………………………………. 158 5.2 Korean Nationalist Blockbuster Films, Cultural Jujitsu……...………… 184 5.3 Cultural Jujitsu: Healing Trauma through Korean Nationalism with Hollywood Style……………………………………………………… 199 6. CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………. 223 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………... 227 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Attendances and Market Share of Korean and Foreign Films…………………….. 44 Table 2. The Productions and Screenings of Korean and Foreign Films…………………… 176 Table 3. The Average Production Cost of Korean Films……………………………………. 177 Table 4. The State of the Export of Korean Films’s Remake Copyright to Hollywood…….. 178 Table 5. Top Local Movies…………………………………………………………………... 185 Table 6. Selected Awards from Major International Film Festivals…………………………. 198 1 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview Special effects in cinema have presented the cutting edge technologies of their eras. They have even functioned as harbingers of future reality. Through examination of the direction of visual effects history, from the past to the present, we can imagine what the visual effects of the future may entail. The representation of the future by means of visual effects provides us with a vision of future reality. Thus, visual effects function as a measure of the times, of contemporaneous visions of reality and technology. The purpose of this dissertation is to chart how the development of visual effects has changed popular cinema’s vision of the real, producing an ever more powerful “reality effect.” I will examine the implications of visual effects in film, in particular in science fiction films (SF), and inquire about the function of their reality effect in contemporary culture. Key Terms In this project, I follow the industrial definition of the terms “visual effects ” and “physical effects .” “Visual effects” are “any visual manipulation of motion picture frames, whether accomplished in cameras, projectors, optical printers, aerial image printers, front and rear screen systems” (Smith, 1986, p. 270), and in digital composition with computers including computer graphic imagery (CGI). “Physical effects,” on the other hand, are “mechanical effects or practical effects that take place on the set during filming,