Chris Holliday
PhD Student
Email christopher.holliday@kcl.ac.uk
Film Studies Department
King's College London
Norfolk Building
Strand Campus
London
WC2R 2LS
Thesis Title
Beyond Infinity: The New Worlds of the Computer Animated Film.
Research Interests
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film style
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animation
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CGI
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computer animated film-making
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film aesthetics
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world creation.
Abstract
My PhD interrogates the visual codes of the Hollywood computer animated film, focusing on the contradictory elements of aesthetic design, style and technique across a variety of texts, from Toy Story and Antz to The Polar Express and Beowulf. I will navigate my discussion of the CG film across the following issues: the status of the CG film as an emerging and diverse genre; the application of cinephilia, star voices and character design; the situating of computer animated films within the realm of fictional world creation in cinema (citing in particular the fragmentary nature of the virtual space); and examining digitally animated ‘performance’ with regards to traditions of animated sound and comedy. By using close textual analysis, my aim is to promote and provide a framework for a critical engagement with the contemporary computer animated film, suggesting new methods by which it may be analysed which consider the craft of animated practice.