Documentary from Media Education Foundation
From Uncanny Valleys to CG’ed faces and bodies (in Photoshopped Values), discussions of the effect of digital technologies on how our media shapes our views on the human form and how people view and judge others have been highlighted a number of times in these pages. In the Washington Post article Hollywood’s secret beauty trick: The special effects facelift, Stephanie Merry highlights the well-hidden world of visual effects with actors and how they are used to alter the ways we see people on the screen and how they shift expectations of the general public relative to how all of us look — from small and big screens to real life. The recent case of Pee Wee Herman’s return to the big screen and his transformations by makeup wizard Ve Neill (of SyFy’s Face Off as well) along with the digital sheen by CG artists is employed as a rare example of truth telling in a field built on deception. Along with the article, the video from Flawless FX that accompanies the piece will be a real eye-opener to many students. Or most anyone else outside of the well-guarded vaults (or servers) of raw footage and VFX production houses.
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