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 […]
Race and the Digital Face: Facial (Mis)recognition in Gemini Man
Ang Lee’s 2019 film Gemini Man features the most realistic digital human to grace the cinematic screen, specifically a computer-generated version of young Will Smith who battles his more aged self throughout the film. And for the first time in film history, this photorealistic digital human is Black. This essay explores why this groundbreaking achievement […]
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 […]