The Postracial Fantasies of Digital Visual Effects
In this new book project, I examine how digital visual effects in Hollywood films construct ideas about race. I look at both onscreen depictions and the production process, focusing on films that use performance capture and de-aging technologies. I argue that despite digital technologies potentially allowing for colorblind casting and digital character design, instead these […]
Blackface, Happy Feet: The Politics of Race in Motion Capture and Animation
Focusing on the animated, musical feature Happy Feet (George Miller, 2006), this essay explores the implications of the use of motion capture for the representation of black performance. As an optical-digital hybrid, motion capture combines records of actual movement with digitally created images and environments. The technology renders the performer simultaneously visible and invisible: real […]