Research Seminar - A Wrench in the Works of the Dream Factory: Special/Visual Effects in the Hollywood Studio Era, 1915-1965
A Wrench in the Works of the Dream Factory: Special/Visual Effects in the Hollywood Studio Era, 1915-1965
Presented by: Prof Julie Turnock
Date: Friday 12 April 2024
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: Online via Zoom and in-person at the SCA Writer's Studio (Level 6, Michie Building)
Abstract
This seminar will feature material from my current work in progress, regarding the historical realist aesthetics and labor history of the midcentury Hollywood studios. Accounting for the differences among the various studios and other production entities of the era (although with an emphasis on RKO), I offer an historical account of this formative moment in American media history that argues that the unpredictability and variability of effects work are wrenches thrown into the “Dream Factory” works. Moreover, the project presents a polemic for considering the “specialness” of effects work not from the point of view of the film but from the position of the specially contracted labor.
Presenter
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.
About Research Seminar and Workshop Series
School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series
The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.
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