The Digitization of Cinematic Visual Effects: HollywoodтАЩs Coming of Age, by Rama Venkatasawmy, analyzes how the Hollywood cinema industryтАЩs visual effects applications have not only motivated the expansion of filmmaking praxis, they have also influenced the evolution of viewing pleasures and spectatorship experiences. Following the digitization of their associated technologies, VFX have been responsible for multiplying the strategies of representation and storytelling, as well as extending the range of stories that can potentially be told onscreen. By the same token, the visual standards of the Hollywood filmтАЩs production and exhibition have been growing in sophistication. On the basis of displaying groundbreaking VFXтАФimmaculately realized through the application of cutting-edge technologies and craftsmanshipтАФand of projecting such a significant degree of visual innovation and originality, certain Hollywood movies have established techno-visual trends and industrial standards for subsequent filmmaking practice.
Hollywood cinemaтАЩs entry into the digital realm is intertwined with the intensification of conglomeratic practices within the movie business, the domain of techno-scientific R&D in filmmaking, and the unification of corporate media, information technology, and entertainment. Hence, the standardization of, and convergence toward, the digital medium is emblematic of Hollywood cinemaтАЩs techno-industrial evolution in the late twentieth century. Accordingly, this volume identifies various synergies and partnershipsтАФbetween VFX providers, movie studios, graphic designers, and moreтАФthat have emerged from a progressive growth of awareness in Hollywood of the digital mediumтАЩs potential.