Digital Storytelling: The Narrative Power of Visual Effects in Film

Computer-generated effects are often blamed for bad Hollywood movies. Yetwhen a critic complains that "technology swamps storytelling" (in a review of VanHelsing, calling it "an example of everything that is wrong with Hollywoodcomputer-generated effects movies"), it says more about the weakness of the storythan the strength of the technology. In Digita

Computer-generated effects are often blamed for bad Hollywood movies. Yetwhen a critic complains that "technology swamps storytelling" (in a review of VanHelsing, calling it "an example of everything that is wrong with Hollywoodcomputer-generated effects movies"), it says more about the weakness of the storythan the strength of the technology. In Digital Storytelling, Shilo McClean showshow digital visual effects can be a tool of storytelling in film, adding narrativepower as do sound, color, and "experimental" camera angles--other innovative filmtechnologies that were once criticized for being distractions from the story. It istime, she says, to rethink the function of digital visual effects.Effects artistssay--contrary to the critics--that effects always derive from story. Digital effectsare a part of production, not post-production; they are becoming part of the storydevelopment process. Digital Storytelling is grounded in filmmaking, thescriptwriting process in particular. McClean considers crucial questions aboutdigital visual effects-- whether they undermine classical storytelling structure, ifthey always call attention to themselves, whether their use is limited to certaingenres--and looks at contemporary films (including a chapter-long analysis of StevenSpielberg's use of computer-generated effects) and contemporary film theory to findthe answers. McClean argues that to consider digital visual effects as simplycontributing the "wow" factor underestimates them. They are, she writes, thelegitimate inheritors of film storycraft.