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The power of the moving image to conjure marvelous worlds has
usually been to understand it in terms of 'move magic'. On film, a
fascination for enchantment and wonder has transmuted older beliefs
in the supernatural into secular attractions. But this study is not
about the history of special effects or a history of magic. Rather,
it attempts to determine the influence and status of secular magic
on television within complex modes of delivery before discovering
interstices with film. Historically, the overriding concern on
television has been for secular magic that informs and empowers
rather than a fairytale effect that deceives and mystifies. Yet,
shifting notions of the real and the uncertainty associated with
the contemporary world has led to television developing many
different modes that have become capable of constant hybridization.
The dynamic interplay between certainty and indeterminacy is the
key to understanding secular magic on television and film and
exploring the interstices between them. Sexton ranges from the
real-time magic of street performers, such as David Blaine, Criss
Angel, and Dynamo, to Penn and Teller's comedy magic, to the
hypnotic acts of Derren Brown, before finally visiting the 2006
films The Illusionist and The Prestige. Each example charts how the
lack of clear distinctions between reality and illusion in modes of
representation and presentation disrupt older theoretical
oppositions. Secular Magic and the Moving Image not only
re-evaluates questions about modes and styles but raises further
questions about entertainment and how the relations between the
program maker and the audience resemble those between the conjuror
and spectator. By re-thinking these overlapping practices and
tensions and the marking of the indeterminacy of reality on media
screens, it becomes possible to revise our understanding of
inter-medial relations.
The power of the moving image to conjure marvelous worlds has
usually been to understand it in terms of 'move magic'. On film, a
fascination for enchantment and wonder has transmuted older beliefs
in the supernatural into secular attractions. But this study is not
about the history of special effects or a history of magic. Rather,
it attempts to determine the influence and status of secular magic
on television within complex modes of delivery before discovering
interstices with film. Historically, the overriding concern on
television has been for secular magic that informs and empowers
rather than a fairytale effect that deceives and mystifies. Yet,
shifting notions of the real and the uncertainty associated with
the contemporary world has led to television developing many
different modes that have become capable of constant hybridization.
The dynamic interplay between certainty and indeterminacy is the
key to understanding secular magic on television and film and
exploring the interstices between them. Sexton ranges from the
real-time magic of street performers, such as David Blaine, Criss
Angel, and Dynamo, to Penn and Teller's comedy magic, to the
hypnotic acts of Derren Brown, before finally visiting the 2006
films The Illusionist and The Prestige. Each example charts how the
lack of clear distinctions between reality and illusion in modes of
representation and presentation disrupt older theoretical
oppositions. Secular Magic and the Moving Image not only
re-evaluates questions about modes and styles but raises further
questions about entertainment and how the relations between the
program maker and the audience resemble those between the conjuror
and spectator. By re-thinking these overlapping practices and
tensions and the marking of the indeterminacy of reality on media
screens, it becomes possible to revise our understanding of
inter-medial relations.
Seeing It on Television: Televisuality in the Contemporary US
'High-end' Series investigates new categories of high-end drama and
explores the appeal of programmes from Netflix, Sky Atlantic/HBO,
National Geographic, FX and Cinemax. An investigation of
contemporary US Televisuality provides insight into the appeal of
upscale programming beyond facts about its budget, high production
values and/or feature cinematography. Rather, this book focuses on
how the construction of meaning often relies on cultural discourse,
production histories, as well as on tone, texture or performance,
which establishes the locus of engagement and value within the
series. Max Sexton and Dominic Lees discuss how complex production
histories lie behind the rise of the US high-end series, a form
that reflects industrial changes and the renegotiation of formal
strategies. They reveal how the involvement of many different
people in the production process, based on new relationships of
creative authority, complicates our understanding of 'original
content'. This affects the construction of stylistics and the
viewing strategies required by different shows. The cultural, as
well as industrial, strategies of recent television drama are
explored in The Young Pope, The Knick, Stranger Things, Mars,
Fargo, The Leftovers, Boardwalk Empire, and Vinyl.
Seeing It on Television: Televisuality in the Contemporary US
'High-end' Series investigates new categories of high-end drama and
explores the appeal of programmes from Netflix, Sky Atlantic/HBO,
National Geographic, FX and Cinemax. An investigation of
contemporary US Televisuality provides insight into the appeal of
upscale programming beyond facts about its budget, high production
values and/or feature cinematography. Rather, this book focuses on
how the construction of meaning often relies on cultural discourse,
production histories, as well as on tone, texture or performance,
which establishes the locus of engagement and value within the
series. Max Sexton and Dominic Lees discuss how complex production
histories lie behind the rise of the US high-end series, a form
that reflects industrial changes and the renegotiation of formal
strategies. They reveal how the involvement of many different
people in the production process, based on new relationships of
creative authority, complicates our understanding of 'original
content'. This affects the construction of stylistics and the
viewing strategies required by different shows. The cultural, as
well as industrial, strategies of recent television drama are
explored in The Young Pope, The Knick, Stranger Things, Mars,
Fargo, The Leftovers, Boardwalk Empire, and Vinyl.
Before it reached television, science fiction existed on the
printed page, in comic books, and on movie screens for decades.
Adapting science fiction to the new medium posed substantial
challenges: Small viewing screens and limited production facilities
made it difficult to achieve the sense of wonder that had become
the genre's hallmark. Yet, television also offered unprecedented
opportunities. Its serial nature allowed for longer, more complex
stories, as well as developing characters and building suspense
over time. Producers of science fiction television programming
learned to create adaptations that honored the source
material-literature, comics, or film-while taking full advantage of
television's unique aesthetic. In Adapting Science Fiction to
Television: Small Screen, Expanded Universe, Max Sexton and Malcolm
Cook examine how the genre evolved over time. The authors consider
productions in both the UK and the United States, ranging from Walt
Disney's acclaimed "Man in Space" in the 1950s to the BBC's
reimagined Day of the Triffids in the 1990s. Iconic characters from
Flash Gordon and Captain Nemo to Superman and Professor Quatermass
all play a role in this history, along with such authors as E. M.
Forster and Wernher von Braun. The real stars of this study,
however, are the pioneering producers and directors who learned how
to bring imagined worlds and fantastic stories into living rooms
across the globe. The authors make the case that television has
become more sophisticated, capable of taking on larger themes and
deploying a more complex use of the image than other media. A
unique reappraisal of the history and dynamics of the medium,
Adapting Science Fiction Television will be of interest not only to
scholars of science fiction, but to anyone interested in the early
history of television, as well as the evolution of its unique
capacity to tell stories.
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