Topic: Special Effects and the Cinema

Catalog description

From the “magic” of early trick films to the wonders of science fiction films, and CGI illusions, special effects have shaped the cinematic experience in fundamental ways. Drawing on histories and theories of illusions and related experiences like wonder and the sublime, this course considers how and why individual films have used special effects to blur the boundaries between the real and the fake, the animate and the inanimate, life and death. Our goal is to see special effects differently, not simply as spectacular forms of entertainment, but as profound and illuminating spectacles that teach audiences about what the cinema is, how moving images work, and how the nature of technological innovation bears on enduring concerns about what it means to be human.