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Visions of Japanese Modernity: Articulations of Cinema, Nation, and Spectatorship, 1895-1925
by Aaron GerowJapan has done marvelous things with cinema, giving the world the likes of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu. But cinema did not arrive in Japan fully formed at the end of the nineteenth century, nor was it simply adopted into an ages-old culture. Aaron Gerow explores the processes by which film was defined, transformed, and adapted during its first three decades in Japan. He focuses in particular on how one trend in criticism, the Pure Film Movement, changed not only the way films were made, but also how they were conceived. Looking closely at the work of critics, theorists, intellectuals, benshi artists, educators, police, and censors, Gerow finds that this trend established a way of thinking about cinema that would reign in Japan for much of the twentieth century.
Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema (Film Studies)
by Wheeler Winston DixonVisions of the Apocalypse examines the cinema's fascination with the prospect of nuclear and/or natural annihilation, as seen in such films as Saving Private Ryan, Bowling for Columbine, We Were Soldiers, Invasion U.S.A., The Last War, Tidal Wave, The Bed Sitting Room, The Last Days of Man on Earth and numerous others. It also considers the ways in which contemporary cinema has become increasingly hyper-conglomerised, leading to films with ever-higher budgets and fewer creative risks. Along the way, the author discusses such topics as the death of film itself, to be replaced by digital video; the political and social tensions that have made these visions of infinite destruction so appealing to the public; and the new wave of Hollywood war films, coupled with escapist comedies, in the post-9/11 era. Encompassing both questions of physical and filmic mortality Visions of the Apocalypse is a meditation on the questions of time, memory and the cinema's seemingly unending appetite for spectacles of destruction.
Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema
by Dixon Wheeler WinstonVisions of the Apocalypse examines the cinema's fascination with the prospect of nuclear and/or natural annihilation, as seen in such films as Saving Private Ryan, Bowling for Columbine, We Were Soldiers, Invasion U.S.A., The Last War, Tidal Wave, The Bed Sitting Room, The Last Days of Man on Earth and numerous others. It also considers the ways in which contemporary cinema has become increasingly hyper-conglomerised, leading to films with ever-higher budgets and fewer creative risks. Along the way, the author discusses such topics as the death of film itself, to be replaced by digital video; the political and social tensions that have made these visions of infinite destruction so appealing to the public; and the new wave of Hollywood war films, coupled with escapist comedies, in the post-9/11 era. Encompassing both questions of physical and filmic mortality Visions of the Apocalypse is a meditation on the questions of time, memory and the cinema's seemingly unending appetite for spectacles of destruction.
Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema
by Dixon Wheeler WinstonVisions of the Apocalypse examines the cinema's fascination with the prospect of nuclear and/or natural annihilation, as seen in such films as Saving Private Ryan, Bowling for Columbine, We Were Soldiers, Invasion U.S.A., The Last War, Tidal Wave, The Bed Sitting Room, The Last Days of Man on Earth and numerous others. It also considers the ways in which contemporary cinema has become increasingly hyper-conglomerised, leading to films with ever-higher budgets and fewer creative risks. Along the way, the author discusses such topics as the death of film itself, to be replaced by digital video; the political and social tensions that have made these visions of infinite destruction so appealing to the public; and the new wave of Hollywood war films, coupled with escapist comedies, in the post-9/11 era. Encompassing both questions of physical and filmic mortality Visions of the Apocalypse is a meditation on the questions of time, memory and the cinema's seemingly unending appetite for spectacles of destruction.
Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History
by Robert A. RosenstoneCan filmed history measure up to written history? What happens to history when it is recorded in images, rather than words? Can images convey ideas and information that lie beyond words? Taking on these timely questions, Robert Rosenstone pioneers a new direction in the relationship between history and film. Rosenstone moves beyond traditional approaches, which examine the history of film as art and industry, or view films as texts reflecting their specific cultural contexts. This essay collection makes a radical venture into the investigation of a new concern: how a visual medium, subject to the conventions of drama and fiction, might be used as a serious vehicle for thinking about our relationship with the past. Rosenstone looks at history films in a way that forces us to reconceptualize what we mean by "history." He explores the innovative strategies of films made in Africa, Latin America, Germany, and other parts of the world. He journeys into the history of film in a wide range of cultures, and expertly traces the contours of the postmodern historical film. In essays on specific films, including Reds, JFK, and Sans Soleil, he considers such issues as the relationship between fact and film and the documentary as visionary truth. Theorists have for some time been calling our attention to the epistemological and literary limitations of traditional history. The first sustained defense of film as a way of thinking historically, this book takes us beyond those limitations.
Visions of Yesterday (Routledge Library Editions: Cinema)
by Jeffrey RichardsFilm is an important source of social history, as well as having been a popular art form from the early twentieth century. This study shows how a society, consciously or unconsciously, is mirrored in its cinema. It considers the role of the cinema in dramatizing popular beliefs and myths, and takes three case studies – American populism, British imperialism, German Nazism – to explain how a nation’s pressures, tensions and hopes come through in its films. Examining the American cinema is accomplished by analysing the careers of three great directors, John Ford, Frank Capra and Leo McCarey, while the British and German cinemas are studied by theme. The analysis of the British Empire as seen in film broke exciting new ground with a pioneering account of ‘the cinema of Empire’ when it was first published in 1973. With full filmographies and a carefully selected bibliography it is an outstanding work of reference and its lively approach makes it a delight to read. Reviews of the original edition: ‘A work of considerable force and considerable wit.’ – Clive James, Observer ‘…a work that is original, mentally stimulating and most pleasurable to read.’ – Focus on Film
Visitation: The Conjure Work of Black Feminist Avant-Garde Cinema
by Jennifer DeClueIn Visitation, Jennifer DeClue shows how Black feminist avant-garde filmmakers draw from historical archives in order to visualize and reckon with violence suffered by Black women in the United States. DeClue argues that these filmmakers—including Kara Walker, Kara Lynch, Tourmaline, and Ja’Tovia Gary—create spaces of mourning and reckoning rather than voyeurism and pornotropy. Through their use of editing, performance, and cinematic experimentation, these filmmakers intervene in the production of Blackness and activate new ways of seeing Black women and telling their stories. Theorizing these films as a form of conjure work, DeClue shows how these filmmakers raise the specters of Black women from the past and invite them to reveal history from their point of view. In so doing, Black feminist avant-garde filmmakers channel spirits that haunt archives and create cinematic arenas for witnessing Black women battling for survival during pivotal and exceedingly violent moments in US history.Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient
Visual Alterity: Seeing Difference in Cinema
by Randall HalleReconsidering the dynamics of perception Using cinema to explore the visual aspects of alterity, Randall Halle analyzes how we become cognizant of each other and how we perceive and judge another person in a visual field. Halle draws on insights from philosophy and recent developments in cognitive and neuroscience to argue that there is no pure "natural" sight. We always see in a particular way, from a particular vantage point, and through a specific apparatus, and Halle shows how human beings have used cinema to experiment with the apparatus of seeing for over a century. Visual alterity goes beyond seeing difference to being conscious of how one sees difference. Investigating the process allows us to move from mere perception to apperception, or conscious perception. Innovative and insightful, Visual Alterity merges film theory with philosophy and cutting-edge science to propose new ways of perceiving and knowing.
Visual and Performing Arts Collaborations in Higher Education: Transdisciplinary Practices (The Arts in Higher Education)
by Julia Listengarten Keri WatsonThis book examines the role of the visual and performing arts in higher education and argues for the importance of socially engaged transdisciplinary practices, not just to the college curriculum but also to building an informed and engaged citizenry. The first chapter defines and offers an outline for conducting transdisciplinary research. Chapters two through five present examples of transdisciplinary projects facilitated in Central Florida between 2017 and 2022. Topics and methodological frameworks include ecocriticism and climate change, migration, poverty, and displacement, ageing and disability, and systemic racism and mass incarceration. Each chapter includes descriptions of the projects and outlines how they integrated the essential learning outcomes articulated by the American Association of Colleges and Universities in the Liberal Education and America’s Promise report. A concluding chapter offers reflections on the value of transdisciplinary collaborative work and poses questions for further discussions on the role of the arts in higher education. The book is designed for graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and non-academics interested in engaging in transdisciplinary projects to address complex societal issues.
Visual Character Development in Film and Television: Your Character is Your Canvas
by Michael Hanly Elisabeth RowneyThis book takes a unique look at visual character development in motion pictures and television by using famous works of art combined with modern works of film and television to demonstrate how to weave a visual tale. In a single shot or scene, what should we reveal about a character? What should we conceal? How can we show a character’s progression over time? In Visual Character Development in Film and Television, authors Michael Hanly and Elisabeth Rowney explain how to create compelling visual characters for the screen by analyzing fine art aesthetics and combining them with modern cinematic techniques. Full-color chapters cover character-driven approaches to costume design and makeup application, production design, cinematography and lighting, plot development, editing considerations, and more. By exploring how surroundings, habits, lifestyles – even the color of a sweater – can tell us more about a character on the screen than what can be said in dialogue alone, this book will prove a valuable resource for anyone wanting to take their filmmaking to the next level.
Visual Communication for Social Work Practice: Power, Culture, Analysis (Routledge Advances in Social Work)
by Sonia M. TascónHow are we to understand how the dominance of visual images and representations in late modernity affects Social Work practice, research and education? Social workers are increasingly using still and moving images to illustrate their work, to create new knowledge, and to further specific groups’ interests. As a profession in which communication is central, visual practices are becoming ever more significant as they seek to carry out their work with, and for, the marginalised and disenfranchised. It is time for the profession to gain more critical, analytical, and practical knowledge of visual culture and communication, in order to use and create images in accordance with its central principle of social justice. That requires an understanding of them beyond representation. As important as this is, it is also where the profession’s scholarly work in this area has remained and halted, and thus understanding of the work of images in our practices is limited. In order to more fully understand images and their effects – both ideologically and experientially – social workers need to bring to bear other areas of study such as reception studies, visual phenomenology, and the gaze. These other analytical frames enable a consideration not only of images per se, but also of their effect on the viewer, the human spectators, and the subjects at the heart of Social Work. By bringing understandings and experiences in Film, Media, and Communications, Visual Communication for Social Work Practice provides the reader with a wide range of critically analytical frames for practitioners, activists, educators, and researchers as they use and create images. This invites a deeper knowledge and familiarity with the power dimensions of the image, thus aligning with the social justice dimension of Social Work. Examples are provided from cinema, popular media, but more importantly from Social Work practitioners themselves to demonstrate what has already been made possible as they create and use images to further the interpersonal, communal, and justice dimensions of their work. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and social workers, particularly those with an interest in critical and creative methodologies.
Visual Culture
by Norman Bryson Michael Ann Holly Keith Moxey"We can no longer see, much less teach, transhistorical truths, timeless works of art, and unchanging critical criteria without a highly developed sense of irony about the grand narratives of the past," declare the editors, who also coedited Visual Theory: Painting and Interpretation (1990). The field of art history is not unique in finding itself challenged and enlarged by cultural debates over issues of class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, and gender. Visual Culture assembles some of the foremost scholars of cultural studies and art history to explore new critical approaches to a history of representation seen as something different from a history of art.CONTRIBUTORS: Andres Ross, Michael Ann Holly, Mieke Bal, David Summers, Constance Penley, Kaja Silverman, Ernst Van Alphen, Norman Bryson, Wolfgang Kemp, Whitney Davis, Thomas Crow, Keith Moxey, John Tagg, Lisa Tickner.Ebook Edition Note: Ebook edition note: all illustrations have been redacted.
Visual Culture Wars at the Borders of Contemporary China: Art, Design, Film, New Media and the Prospects of “Post-West” Contemporaneity (Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics)
by Paul Gladston Beccy Kennedy-Schtyk Ming TurnerThis edited collection brings together essays that share in a critical attention to visual culture as a means of representing, contributing to and/or intervening with discursive struggles and territorial conflicts currently taking place at and across the outward-facing and internal borders of the People’s Republic of China. Elucidated by the essays collected here for the first time is a constellation of what might be described as visual culture wars comprising resistances on numerous fronts not only to the growing power and expansiveness of the Chinese state but also the residues of a once pervasively suppressive Western colonialism/imperialism. The present volume addresses visual culture related to struggles and conflicts at the borders of Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Taiwan as well within the PRC with regard the so-called “Great Firewall of China” and differences in discursive outlook between China and the West on the significances of art, technology, gender and sexuality. In doing so, it provides a vital index of twenty-first century China’s diversely conflicted status as a contemporary nation-state and arguably nascent empire.
The Visual Effects Arsenal: VFX Solutions for the Independent Filmmaker
by Bill ByrneBuild your VFX arsenal with quick-access, step-by-step instruction on how to create today's hottest digital VFX shots. This essential toolkit provides techniques for creating effects seen in movies such as 300, Spiderman 3, Predator and others, with lessons on how-to:* splatter blood or digitally lop someone's arm off* create a scene with actors running from an explosion* create the "twin effect" (same actor, same location, 2 performances)* produce space-ship dog fightsOrganized in a 'cookbook' style, this allows you to reference a certain effect in the index and immediately access concise instructions to create that effect. Techniques are demonstrated in each of the most popular software tools- After Effects, Final Cut Studio, Photoshop, and Combustion are all covered. Brilliant, 4-color presentation provides inspiration and stimulating visual guidance to the lessons presented, while the downloadable resources contain project media files enabling you to put concepts learned into immediate practice.
Visual Effects for Film and Television (Media Manual Ser.)
by Mitch Mitchell* An invaluable insight into the use of visual effects in film and television* Fully illustrated with diagrams to show you step-by-step techniques* Covers visual effects processes from front-of-camera to post-production* Integrated approach to film, video and digital techniques* Redefines the rules of photography so that they can be broken for effects* Shows the line of development from the oldest to the newest processes* A must for cinematographers, editors, designers and students of VFX alike * Everything you need to know to plan and supervise visual effects shots* Essential reading for anyone working in commercials/advertising photography or effectsWritten by an experienced professional, this manual is the essential guide to understanding the principles and background of modern visual effects.Visual effects are at the forefront of a digital revolution in the film and video industry and are becoming more and more important to movie language. This book teaches the practical techniques and skills required to incorporate effects successfully into both film and television production.
Visual Effects for Indie Filmmakers: A Guide to VFX Integration and Artist Collaboration
by Shaina Holmes Laurie Powers GoingThis book provides independent filmmakers and VFX artists with tools to work collaboratively and effectively on their low-budget films. Experts Shaina Holmes and Laurie Powers Going define common VFX needs and demystify the process of incorporating VFX into all stages of production. The book covers every step of the process, including when to consider using VFX, basics of 2D and 3D methodology, budgeting, virtual production, on-set supervision, and more. It provides tips and tricks to common VFX questions, such as color management and file types, along with practical solutions for the production team while on-set working with VFX scenes. The incorporation of testimonials from indie filmmakers and VFX/post production professionals brings a voice to both sides of the table and provides real-world scenarios for the techniques described. The book offers realistic lower-budget alternative solutions to achieving big-budget vision. This book is ideal for students on a micro budget and independent filmmakers on low to mid budgets working with visual effects for photorealistic film, TV, and short-form projects.
A Visual History of HIV/AIDS: Exploring The Face of AIDS film archive (Routledge Advances in the Medical Humanities)
by Elisabet Björklund Mariah LarssonThe Face of AIDS film archive at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, consists of more than 700 hours of unedited and edited footage, shot over a period of more than thirty years and all over the world by filmmaker and journalist Staffan Hildebrand. The material documents the HIV/AIDS pandemic and includes scenes from conferences and rallies, and interviews with activists, physicians, people with the infection, and researchers. It represents a global historical development from the early years of the AIDS crisis to a situation in which it is possible to live a normal life with the HIV virus. This volume brings together a range of academic perspectives – from media and film studies, medical history, gender studies, history, and cultural studies – to bear on the archive, shedding light on memories, discourses, trauma, and activism. Using a medical humanities framework, the editors explore the influence of historical representations of HIV/AIDS and stigma in a world where antiretroviral treatment has fundamentally altered the conditions under which many people diagnosed with HIV live. Organized into four sections, this book begins by introducing the archive and its role, setting it in a global context. The first part looks at methodological, legal and ethical issues around archiving memories of the present which are then used to construct histories of the past; something that can be particularly controversial when dealing with a socially stigmatized epidemic such as HIV/AIDS. The second section is devoted to analyses of particular films from the archive, looking at the portrayal of people living with HIV/AIDS, the narrative of HIV as a chronic illness and the contemporary context of particular films. The third section looks at how stigma and trauma are negotiated in the material in the Face of AIDS film archive, discussing ideas about suffering and culpability. The final section contributes perspectives on and by the filmmaker as activist and auteur. This interdisciplinary collection is placed at the intersection of medical humanities, sexuality studies and film and media studies, continuing a tradition of studies on the cultural and social understandings of HIV/AIDS.
The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830
by Diane Piccitto Terry F. RobinsonThe Visual Life of Romantic Theater examines the dynamism and vibrancy of stage spectacle and its impact in an era of momentous social upheaval and aesthetic change. Situating theatrical production as key to understanding visuality ca. 1780-1830, this book places the stage front and center in Romantic scholarship by re-envisioning traditional approaches to artistic and social creation in the period. How, it asks, did dramaturgy and stagecraft influence aesthetic and sociopolitical concerns? How does a focus on visuality expand our understanding of the historical experience of theatergoing? In what ways did stage performance converge with visual culture beyond the theater? How did extratheatrical genres engage with theatrical sight and spectacle? Finally, how does a focus on dramatic vision change the way we conceive of Romanticism itself? The volume’s essays by emerging and established scholars provide exciting and suggestive answers to these questions, along with a more capacious conception of Romantic theater as a locus of visual culture that reached well beyond playhouse walls.
Visual Methodology in Migration Studies: New Possibilities, Theoretical Implications, and Ethical Questions (IMISCOE Research Series)
by Amandine Desille Karolina Nikielska-SekulaThis open access book explores the use of visual methods in migration studies through a combination of theoretical analyses and empirical studies. The first section looks at how various visual methods, including photography, film, and mental maps, may be used to analyse the spatial presence of migrants. The second section addresses the processual building of narratives around migration, thereby using formats such as film and visual essay, and reflecting upon the ways they become carriers and mediators of both story and theory within the subject of migration. Section three focuses on vulnerable communities and discusses how visual methods can empower these communities, thereby also focusing on the theoretical and ethical implications of migration. The fourth section addresses the issue of migrant representation in visual discourses. Based on these contributions, a concluding methodological chapter systematizes the use of visual methods in migration studies across disciplines, with regard to their empirical, theoretical, and ethical implications. Multidisciplinary in character, this book is an interesting read for students and migration scholars who engage with visual methodologies, as well as practitioners, journalists, filmmakers, photographers, curators of exhibitions who address the topic of migration visually.
Visual Methods for Social Justice in Education
by Laura AzzaritoThis book makes a case for the usefulness of visual research methods for advancing a social justice agenda in education. The author aims to provide education researchers with a wide range of qualitative visual research tools to invoke different stories, voices, embodiments, and experiences of individuals from marginalized communities; to advance emancipatory research projects; to embrace interdisciplinary knowledge-building; and to counter-narrate Western forms of knowledge, cultures, and values for the reimagining of education for social change. It draws attention to the importance of visual methods in today’s neoliberal landscape of education to speak back to mainstream research and practices, especially when research participants lack words to describe, express, and represent what it means to be impacted by oppression and marginalization.
The Visual Music Film (Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture)
by Aimee MollaghanAdopting an interdisciplinary approach, The Visual Music Film explores the concept and expression of musicality in the visual music film, in which visual presentations are given musical attributes such as rhythmical form, structure and harmony.
Visual Occupations: Violence and Visibility in a Conflict Zone
by Gil Z. HochbergIn Visual Occupations Gil Z. Hochberg shows how the Israeli Occupation of Palestine is driven by the unequal access to visual rights, or the right to control what can be seen, how, and from which position. Israel maintains this unequal balance by erasing the history and denying the existence of Palestinians, and by carefully concealing its own militarization. Israeli surveillance of Palestinians, combined with the militarized gaze of Israeli soldiers at places like roadside checkpoints, also serve as tools of dominance. Hochberg analyzes various works by Palestinian and Israeli artists, among them Elia Suleiman, Rula Halawani, Sharif Waked, Ari Folman, and Larry Abramson, whose films, art, and photography challenge the inequity of visual rights by altering, queering, and manipulating dominant modes of representing the conflict. These artists' creation of new ways of seeing--such as the refusal of Palestinian filmmakers and photographers to show Palestinian suffering or the Israeli artists' exposure of state manipulated Israeli blindness --offers a crucial gateway, Hochberg suggests, for overcoming and undoing Israel's militarized dominance and political oppression of Palestinians.
Visual Representations of the Arctic: Imagining Shimmering Worlds in Culture, Literature and Politics (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Markku Lehtimäki Arja Rosenholm Vlad StrukovPrivileging the visual as the main method of communication and meaning-making, this book responds critically to the worldwide discussion about the Arctic and the North, addressing the interrelated issues of climate change, ethics and geopolitics. A multi-disciplinary, multi-modal exploration of the Arctic, it supplies an original conceptualization of the Arctic as a visual world encompassing an array of representations, imaginings, and constructions. By examining a broad range of visual forms, media and forms such as art, film, graphic novels, maps, media, and photography, the book advances current debates about visual culture. The book enriches contemporary theories of the visual taking the Arctic as a spatial entity and also as a mode of exploring contemporary and historical visual practices, including imaginary constructions of the North. Original contributions include case studies from all the countries along the Arctic shore, with Russian material occupying a large section due to the country’s impact on the region
Visual Sociology: Practices and Politics in Contested Spaces (Routledge Advances In Sociology Ser. #91)
by Dennis Zuev Gary BratchfordThis book provides a user-friendly guide to the expanding scope of visual sociology, through a discussion of a broad range of visual material, and reflections on how such material can be studied sociologically. The chapters draw on specific case-study examples that examine the complexity of the hyper-visual social world we live in, exploring three domains of the ‘relational image’: the urban, social media, and the aerial. Zuev and Bratchford tackle issues such as visual politics and surveillance, practices of visual production and visibility, analysing the changing nature of the visual. They review a range of methods which can be used by researchers in the social sciences, utilising new media and their visual interfaces, while also assessing the changing nature of visuality. This concise overview will be of use to students and researchers aiming to adopt visual methods and theories in their own subject areas such as sociology, visual culture and related courses in photography, new-media and visual studies.
The Visual Story: Creating the Visual Structure of Film, TV and Digital Media
by Bruce BlockIf you can't make it to one of Bruce Block's legendary visual storytelling seminars, then you need his book! Now in full color for the first time, this best-seller offers a clear view of the relationship between the story/script structure and the visual structure of a film, video, animated piece, or video game. You'll learn how to structure your visuals as carefully as a writer structures a story or a composer structures music. Understanding visual structure allows you to communicate moods and emotions, and most importantly, reveals the critical relationship between story structure and visual structure.The concepts in this book will benefit writers, directors, photographers, production designers, art directors, and editors who are always confronted by the same visual problems that have faced every picture maker in the past, present, and future.