Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film
Computer-generated effects are often blamed for bad Hollywood movies. Yet when a critic complains that «technology swamps storytelling» (in a review of Van Helsing, calling it «an example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood computer-generated effects movies»), it says more about the weakness of the story than the strength of the technology. In Digital Storytelling, Shilo McClean shows how digital visual effects can be a tool of storytelling in film, adding narrative power as do sound, color, and «experimental» camera angles–other innovative film technologies that were once criticized for being distractions from the story. It is time, she says, to rethink the function of digital visual effects.