CGI — all episodes — Fantasy/Animation

Episode 77 - The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012) (with Tarja Laine)

The first instalment of The Hunger Games (2012) franchise, directed by Gary Ross, provides the focus of Episode 77 of the podcast, which looks at the film’s connections to ethics, rationality and affect, and what structures our emotional engagement with its narrative of totalitarian systems and panoptic visions. Joining Chris and Alex to examine the immersive world of Panem is Dr Tarja Laine, Assistant Professor in Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam and author of the new monograph Emotional Ethics of The Hunger Games (2021), as well as the books Bodies in Pain: Emotion and the Cinema of Darren Aronofsky (2015), Feeling Cinema: Emotional Dynamics in Film Studies (2011) and Shame and Desire: Emotion, Intersubjectivity, Cinema (2007).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJuly 5, 2021ETHICS, CGI, WORLDS, TECHNOLOGY, NATURE, POLITICSComment

Episode 76 - Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) (with Rupert Read)

The politics and proxies of James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster Avatar provide the focus for Chris and Alex in Episode 76, as they plug into Pandora to make sense of the relationships between the film’s ecological sensibilities and its technological prowess. Joining them is Rupert Read, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia who specialises in everything from the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to the contemporary climate crisis. Rupert was also a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion (authoring the 2020 book Extinction Rebellion: Insights from the Inside), and was a Green Party councillor from 2004-2011 (having stood for both national parliamentary and European elections).

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJune 21, 2021ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, REPRESENTATION, RACE, VISUAL EFFECTS, CGIComment

Episode 28 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, 2005) (with Stuart Messinger)

Episode 28 sees Chris and Alex joined in their world of pure imagination by Stuart Messinger, VFX Coordinator on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, 2005), to discuss the part-musical, full-fantasy and live-action/CGI adaptation of Roald Dahl’s popular story. Topics include Stuart’s work on the film in digital visual effects at the Moving Picture Company; the collaborative nature of multi-studio effects production on feature-length blockbusters; the practical and artistic challenges of animating live-action plates; the combination of 2D (matte) and 3D (sub-surface scattering) technologies; and the integration of realist aesthetics together with the surrealistic imagery and fantastic stylisations conjured by Dahl’s original 1964 story.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantAugust 26, 2019REMAKE, TIM BURTON, CGI, DIGITAL, PRODUCTIONComment

Episode 26 - King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005) (with Barry J.C. Purves)

For episode 26, Chris and Alex are joined by special guest Barry J.C. Purves, renowned stop-motion animator, director and screenwriter who is also the author of Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance (Burlington, MA: Focal Press, 2007). The focus of their conversation is the monster epic King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005), the digital VFX-heavy remake of the original 1933 film of the same name, and a film upon which Barry himself worked as part of the animation department.

Episode 25 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) (with Shaun Gunner)

Venturing to Middle-earth, and ably accompanied on this opening stage of their podcasting quest by Shaun Gunner, chairman of the Tolkien Society, Chris and Alex discuss the first of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations, The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Journeying from the Shire on the way to Mount Doom, episode 25 debates Tolkien’s ability to craft believable genealogies and histories in his high fantasy realms; cartography, map-making and the geographical consistency of fictional worlds; and the film’s relationship to post-millennial Hollywood franchises via technological developments in digital visual effects.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantJuly 15, 2019CGI, DIGITAL, ADAPTATION, FANTASY, SPECIAL EFFECTS, HIGH FANTASYComment