The Empire of Effects

Julie A. Turnock is Professor of Media and Cinema Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Plastic Reality: Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics.

Acknowledgments Introduction: The ILM Version 1. ILM Versus Everybody Else: Effects Houses in the Digital Age 2. Perfect Imperfection: ILM's Effects Aesthetics 3. Retconning CGI Innovation: ILM's Rhetorical Dominance of Effects History 4. Monsters are Real: ILM's International Standard of Effects Realism in the Global Marketplace 5. That Analog Feeling: Disney, Marvel Studios, and the ILM Aesthetic Conclusion: Unreal Engine: ILM in a Disney World Appendix: List of Films Mentioned in the Text Notes Bibliography Index

Turnock finds new ground to cover in The Empire of Effects...a captivating look at digital realism and the success of ILM. (The Film Stage) Turnock's expansive study of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and by turns of the wider special effects industry provides insight, nuance, and practical reactions to an industry that often dominates the filmmaking process and erodes the elements of story, direction, or performance...Highly recommended. (CHOICE) As a close study of [Industrial Light & Magic], the book is enlightening. But it's also about far more: Turnock chronicles the rise of the contemporary effects industry in the 1970s and '80s, the emergence of an oligopoly of studios based in California, and the way that mega-budget franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter came to shape the effects industry of today...By tracing the history of special effects since the 1970s, Turnock shows readers how the tools that shaped the counterculture's alternative visions lent themselves to a new set of labor relations in which a stronger, more concentrated corporate bloc took more and allowed less. (The Nation) Any historian of merit would commend and envy her usage of these primary source materials. (The Journal of American Culture) Both scholars and 'lay' readers will certainly benefit from this...instructive and original volume that will change the way we look at films. (Journal of Popular Film and Television)