Iranian digital film-making, which has emerged and developed since 2000 in the Iranian cinematic context, mainly follows a trend based on the nature of new media. However, this trend is subject to fluctuation because of specific aspects of Iranian cinema. In addition, due to the realistic cinematic culture of Iran and the presence of Iranian neorealism film-makers, we face the emergence of a new kind of film-making which has certain international effects in world cinema. These film-makers have found a new method to approach reality and represent it in their films. On the other hand, this new cinematic reality contains more elements from a representation of reality than the analogue one, due to the power of digital cameras and technology. In this research, firstly I investigate the emergence of digital film-making in Iran, which may be unique to some extent compared to other parts of world cinema, and I show the gradual development of this phenomenon up to 2013. This investigation will reveal which parts of Iranian cinema have undergone the most changes. In the next steps, I focus on Iranian neorealism (Iranian art house cinema) and also on Iranian big-budget films. In the former, I focus on changes in the ‘representation of reality’, which I argue is the main characteristic of this mode, and in the latter I show the newly established relationship between governmental desire and the new digital special effects. Thus, I believe I will cover most of the changes that have been occurring in Iranian cinema due to the digitalisation process.

One of the main problem areas within computer graphics is simulating natural phenomena’s, working with fluid solvers, and particle systems. In the special effects industry, there is a demand for mimicking appearance of common special effect such as fire, smoke, and water. Autodesk Maya and FumeFx are used for exploring those methods in creating smoke and fire simulations and implementing those into a large dynamic system, while researching the possibility to efficiently control and modify an entire dynamic system on a per object level. Final production renders results are from both Maya and FumeFx.

This thesis builds upon the existing scholarship of theatrical historians such as Robert D. Hume, Judith Milhous and Jocelyn Powell, and seeks to broaden the notion of the term spectacle in relation to Restoration theatrical performances, as defined by Milhous as scenery, machinery, large cast sizes and music. By arguing that we should not see spectacle in Restoration theatre merely in terms of machinery and scenery, as some have done, but that it properly includes a wider range of elements, such as puppetry and performers, the thesis contends that spectacle on the Restoration stage was more of an integral aspect of theatrical development than previously thought. Through drawing on the wide aspects of theatrical presentation, including setting, stage use, mechanics, costumes and properties, puppetry and performers, this thesis examines how the numerous aspects of the Restoration performance, both in their singularity and as a collective, provided a performance driven by spectacle in order to create an appealing entertainment for its audience. In order to navigate and appreciate the complexity of theatrical performance in this period, the thesis has been divided into key aspects of theatrical presentation, each of which are argued to offer a variant of spectacle. The early chapters of this thesis relate to the material, or non-human, attributes of the stage to consider how the developing nature of performance was shaped by the use of extensive scenery, machinery, puppetry, and elaborate set pieces to provide much of the period s visual, scenographic and theatrical wonder. These chapters build on the definition for spectacle which has previously been used to examine Restoration performance. For the latter chapters, this thesis will shift its focus to consider the role of actresses and actors, to understand how they contributed to the broader impact of the stage, and how they developed in line with the material and mechanical advances. Finally, to demonstrate the collective impact of these elements of performance, the thesis concludes with a detailed exploration of Aphra Behn s The Emperor of the Moon (1687), examining the performative impact of her use of spectacle. In order to identify and support the re-examination of the term spectacle in relation to Restoration theatre, evidence will be drawn from a wide range of play scripts, surviving diary records, accounts, illustrations and newspaper articles. Additionally, the thesis explores a range of different practices, developments and literary and dramatic types, drawn from the English theatre and those European traditions which influenced it in order to provide a more representative examination of spectacle in the period. Importantly, the thesis s core purpose will be to demonstrate that the notion of spectacle is more central to Restoration theatre than is often believed.

This thesis investigates the development of an animatronic robot with the objective of showing how modern animatronic models created as special effects have roots in models created during the scientific and mechanical revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is noted that animatronic models that are available today have not been described in any great detail and most are covered by industrial secrecy. This project utilises technologies developed during the latter part of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st century to create the design of the animatronic robot. The objective of the project is to bring effective designs for animatronic robots into the public domain. The project will investigate a large variety of different mechanisms and apply them to various functioning parts of the model, with the design and method of each of these functions discussed. From this, one main part of the project, the jaw, will receive the focus of construction. Once the construction is complete this will be evaluated against what improvements and changes could be made for future iterations, with a revised design produced based on what has been learned.

Iranian digital film-making, which has emerged and developed since 2000 in the Iranian cinematic context, mainly follows a trend based on the nature of new media. However, this trend is subject to fluctuation because of specific aspects of Iranian cinema. In addition, due to the realistic cinematic culture of Iran and the presence of Iranian neorealism film-makers, we face the emergence of a new kind of film-making which has certain international effects in world cinema. These film-makers have found a new method to approach reality and represent it in their films. On the other hand, this new cinematic reality contains more elements from a representation of reality than the analogue one, due to the power of digital cameras and technology. In this research, firstly I investigate the emergence of digital film-making in Iran, which may be unique to some extent compared to other parts of world cinema, and I show the gradual development of this phenomenon up to 2013. This investigation will reveal which parts of Iranian cinema have undergone the most changes. In the next steps, I focus on Iranian neorealism (Iranian art house cinema) and also on Iranian big-budget films. In the former, I focus on changes in the ‘representation of reality’, which I argue is the main characteristic of this mode, and in the latter I show the newly established relationship between governmental desire and the new digital special effects. Thus, I believe I will cover most of the changes that have been occurring in Iranian cinema due to the digitalisation process.

O objeto do estudo deste trabalho são as imagens de efeitos especiais digitais em computação gráfica (Computer Graphic Image - CGI) inseridas em narrativas cinematográficas da atualidade, principalmente a partir dos anos 1990, com a pluralidade de novas formas de viabiliza-lás baseadas em simulação e no contexto de uma sociedade em mutação nas formas de criação e reprodução técnica do audiovisual. A indagação proposta é identificar se os efeitos especiais simulados por CGI e as imagens decorrentes são apenas reconfiguração de velhas práticas e técnicas modernizadas tecnologicamente, ou estão neles embutidos novos modelos de compreensão do mundo na atualidade, se há um regime visual rearticulando o imaginário na pós-modernidade com nova relação entre representação e simulação. Essas articulações podem abrir espaços para se repensarem as relações atuais com as imagens digitais em um contexto entre a razão e a técnica, na óptica moderna, e o tempo presente e o prazer, na dimensão pós-moderna. O objetivo do presente estudo é estabelecer um diálogo com os efeitos especiais de segunda geração ou Digital Visual Effect (DVFx) para além de sua aplicabilidade prática somente como ferramenta para a linguagem narrativa em filmes mas desenvolver novas articulações entre o visível e o dizível, as possíveis visibilidades dos efeitos especiais como um novo regime visual na arte cinematográfica. O estudo avança para além de uma historicidade ao entender que as possibilidades trazidas pela tecnologia de computação gráfica (CG) produziram uma significativa renovação das possibilidades visuais no cinema contemporâneo, o que com certeza reflete e refletirá ainda mais na forma de consumo dos produtos audiovisuais produzidos a partir da ampliação do uso dessas tecnologias digitais e seu paralelo com estética, a arte e a cultura. A desocultação do processo criativo presente na técnica abre portas para a compreensão renovada do imaginário social e especialmente às formas de sua manifestação no campo das artes e da cultura. A metodologia empregada neste estudo será baseada em dados secundários desde livros e autores, pequenos trechos de filme, frames e até aplicações tecnológicas para demonstrar as configurações trazidas pelos efeitos especiais em computação gráfica (CG). * frames: é cada um dos quadros ou imagem fixa de um produto audiovisual. / The object of study are the images of digital special effects in computer graphics (Computer Graphic Image - CGI) inserted in film narratives of today, mainly from the 1990s, with the plurality of new ways to make them viable based on simulation and in the context of a changing society in ways of creating and technical audiovisual playback. The proposed inquiry is to identify whether the special effects simulated by CGI and the resulting images are just rewriting practices and old techniques technologically upgraded, or are embedded in them new models of understanding the world today, if there is a visual scheme rearticulating the imaginary postmodern with new relationship between representation and simulation. These joints can open spaces to rethink the current relations with the digital images in a context between reason and the technique in modern optics, and the present time and pleasure, in the postmodern dimension. The aim of this study is to establish a dialogue with the special effects of second generation or Digital Visual Effect (DVFx) in addition to its practical applicability only as a tool for narrative language in movies but develop new links between the visible and the speakable, the possible visibility of special effects as a new visual regime in cinematic art.). The study goes beyond a historicity to understand that the opportunities brought about by computer graphics technology (CG) produced a significant renewal of visual possibilities in contemporary cinema, which certainly reflects and further reflected in the form of consumption of the produced audiovisual products from the expanded use of these digital technologies and its parallel with aesthetics, art and cultura.A unblinding of the creative process in this technique opens the door to a renewed understanding of the social imaginary and especially the forms of its manifestation in the arts and culture. The methodology used in this study is based on secondary data from books and authors, small snippets of film, frames and even technological applications to demonstrate the settings brought by special effects in computer graphics (CG). * Frames: is each of the frames or still image of an audiovisual product.

O objeto do estudo deste trabalho são as imagens de efeitos especiais digitais em computação gráfica (Computer Graphic Image - CGI) inseridas em narrativas cinematográficas da atualidade, principalmente a partir dos anos 1990, com a pluralidade de novas formas de viabiliza-lás baseadas em simulação e no contexto de uma sociedade em mutação nas formas de criação e reprodução técnica do audiovisual. A indagação proposta é identificar se os efeitos especiais simulados por CGI e as imagens decorrentes são apenas reconfiguração de velhas práticas e técnicas modernizadas tecnologicamente, ou estão neles embutidos novos modelos de compreensão do mundo na atualidade, se há um regime visual rearticulando o imaginário na pós-modernidade com nova relação entre representação e simulação. Essas articulações podem abrir espaços para se repensarem as relações atuais com as imagens digitais em um contexto entre a razão e a técnica, na óptica moderna, e o tempo presente e o prazer, na dimensão pós-moderna. O objetivo do presente estudo é estabelecer um diálogo com os efeitos especiais de segunda geração ou Digital Visual Effect (DVFx) para além de sua aplicabilidade prática somente como ferramenta para a linguagem narrativa em filmes mas desenvolver novas articulações entre o visível e o dizível, as possíveis visibilidades dos efeitos especiais como um novo regime visual na arte cinematográfica. O estudo avança para além de uma historicidade ao entender que as possibilidades trazidas pela tecnologia de computação gráfica (CG) produziram uma significativa renovação das possibilidades visuais no cinema contemporâneo, o que com certeza reflete e refletirá ainda mais na forma de consumo dos produtos audiovisuais produzidos a partir da ampliação do uso dessas tecnologias digitais e seu paralelo com estética, a arte e a cultura. A desocultação do processo criativo presente na técnica abre portas para a compreensão renovada do imaginário social e especialmente às formas de sua manifestação no campo das artes e da cultura. A metodologia empregada neste estudo será baseada em dados secundários desde livros e autores, pequenos trechos de filme, frames e até aplicações tecnológicas para demonstrar as configurações trazidas pelos efeitos especiais em computação gráfica (CG). * frames: é cada um dos quadros ou imagem fixa de um produto audiovisual. / The object of study are the images of digital special effects in computer graphics (Computer Graphic Image - CGI) inserted in film narratives of today, mainly from the 1990s, with the plurality of new ways to make them viable based on simulation and in the context of a changing society in ways of creating and technical audiovisual playback. The proposed inquiry is to identify whether the special effects simulated by CGI and the resulting images are just rewriting practices and old techniques technologically upgraded, or are embedded in them new models of understanding the world today, if there is a visual scheme rearticulating the imaginary postmodern with new relationship between representation and simulation. These joints can open spaces to rethink the current relations with the digital images in a context between reason and the technique in modern optics, and the present time and pleasure, in the postmodern dimension. The aim of this study is to establish a dialogue with the special effects of second generation or Digital Visual Effect (DVFx) in addition to its practical applicability only as a tool for narrative language in movies but develop new links between the visible and the speakable, the possible visibility of special effects as a new visual regime in cinematic art.). The study goes beyond a historicity to understand that the opportunities brought about by computer graphics technology (CG) produced a significant renewal of visual possibilities in contemporary cinema, which certainly reflects and further reflected in the form of consumption of the produced audiovisual products from the expanded use of these digital technologies and its parallel with aesthetics, art and cultura.A unblinding of the creative process in this technique opens the door to a renewed understanding of the social imaginary and especially the forms of its manifestation in the arts and culture. The methodology used in this study is based on secondary data from books and authors, small snippets of film, frames and even technological applications to demonstrate the settings brought by special effects in computer graphics (CG). * Frames: is each of the frames or still image of an audiovisual product.

Estudo centrado nas trucagens eletrônicas digitais utilizadas por Peter Greenaway a partir dos anos 80, no âmbito das tradições cinematográficas e da evolução tecnológica audiovisual. Conceitua-se suas intervenções técnicas e artísticas no campo dos efeitos especiais e das trucagens cinematográficas. O método de análise utilizado combina a dramaturgia da forma, enunciada por Sergei Eisenstein, com as tradições artísticas das composições do visual music, iniciado nos anos 20, e as teorias da física mecânica e seus movimentos ondulatórios. As reflexões construídas nessa pesquisa nos permitem reconhecer um amplo sistema de referências utilizado por Greenaway para desenvolver a sua dramaturgia da forma a partir das trucagens eletrônicas digitais. Diversas categorias propostas por Eisenstein foram revigoradas por Greenaway e estão sendo enriquecidas com novas formulações que apontam para o desenvolvimento de uma prática inovadora na cinematografia em geral. / Study focused on electronic digital trick-film used by Peter Greenaway from the\'80s, under the traditions of film and audiovisual technology developments. The concept is its technical and artistic interventions in the field of special effects and trick-films. The analysis method used combines the form dramaturgy, provided by Sergei Eisenstein with the artistic traditions of the visual music compositions, starting in the 20s, and the theories of physics and mechanical wave motion. The reflections made in this study allow us to recognize an extensive system of references used by Greenaway to develop their theater the way from trucagens electronic fingerprints. Categories proposed by Eisenstein were reinvigorated by Greenaway and are enriched with new formulations that point to the development of an innovative practice in the film industry in general.

This dissertation excavates the work of early special effects cinematographer Norman O. Dawn in order to explore film spectatorship, the ephemerality of the cinematic image, and motion picture preservation and archival practices. Best known for his innovations of glass and matte shot techniques, Dawn produced 861 composite images while working in the U.S. film industry between 1906 and 1954. Although technological film historians acknowledge the importance of Dawn’s innovations to the development of motion picture special effects, the composite images themselves as well as the films for which they were produced remain in relative obscurity. Rather than attempting to recover these objects for inclusion in an existing film canon, my research interrogates their obscurity by analyzing Dawn’s special effects processes against the broader economic concerns that inform the dominant practices of the US film industry during the first half of the twentieth-century. My research begins with the Norman O. Dawn collection housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, which is the most comprehensive historical record of Dawn’s work in the film industry. Constructed by Dawn himself between 1962 and 1974, this collection consists of 164 poster-sized collages of archival ephemera that illustrate the special effects processes employed in the production of 235 composite images for eighty-five films. While these eighty-five film titles constitute a tentative corpus upon which to base my research, seventy of these films are lost, which raises questions concerning the relationship between motion picture preservation and film history, specifically why these films have not been preserved while others have and to what extent the economic imperatives of the film industry have determined these conditions. I address these questions in my analysis of archival material related to these films, finding that they traverse several distinct domains of film practice—including early scenic footage for newsreels and the amusement park ride Hale’s Tours of the World, early one-reel travel films, silent-era studio shorts, serials, and B features, and poverty row and independently-produced silent and sound feature-length films—thereby situating Dawn’s special effects at the intersection of the early and contemporary cinematic modes often aligned in studies of cinematic special effects. I argue that this heterogeneous corpus points to a studio-era Hollywood cinema alternative to the classical model, largely forgotten because it is dominated by low-budget product intended to supplement more costly feature films. In contrast to the classical model, this alternate cinematic mode emphasizes the scenic and thrilling elements that characterize both early exhibitionist films and contemporary effects-driven blockbusters. In this context, Dawn’s special effects processes constitute a historically marginalized practice precisely because they are non-routine techniques that provide cost-effective means to produce otherwise economically infeasible scenes, and, as such, operate on the periphery of conventional film production.

The purpose of this dissertation is to chart how the development of visual effects has changed popular cinema¡¯s vision of the real, producing the powerful reality effect. My investigation of the history of visual effects studies not only the industrial and economic context of visual effects, but also the aesthetic characteristics of the reality effect. In terms of methodology, this study employs a theoretical discourse which compares the parallels between visual effects and the discourse of modernity/postmodernity, utilizing close textual analysis to understand the symptomatic meanings of key texts. The transition in the techniques and meanings of creating visual effects reflects the cultural transformation from modernism to postmodernism. Visual effects have developed by adapting to the structural transformation of production systems and with the advance of technology. The studio system strongly controlled the classical Hollywood cinema by means of the modern economic production system of Fordism. Breakdown of Hollywood classicism as a production system gave rise to the creation of digital effects with the rise of the concept of the blockbuster and with the development of computer technologies. I argue that the characteristic feature of time-space compression, occurring in the process of the transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation, clearly reflects that of compression of multi-layered time and space, generated in the development process from analog visual effects, such as trick, rear and front projection, to the digital effects, such as rotoscoping and CGI animation. While the aesthetics of analog visual effects, without computing, can be compared to a Fordist production system, digital effects, which hugely rely on CGI manipulation, are examples of flexible accumulation. As a case study of the local resistance or alternative of Hollywood today, I examine the effects-oriented Korean nationalist blockbuster. The Korean nationalist blockbuster films have sought large-scale filmmaking and presentation of spectacular scenes, including heavy dependence on the use of special effects, which is frequently considered a Hollywood style. This paradoxical combination of peculiar Korean subjects and Hollywood style can be viewed as a form of cultural jujitsu, taking advantage of the force of the dominant culture in order to resist and subvert it.