Abstract
A reoccurring object of study in 3D media is the human body, particularly the way its contours and volumetric depth are manifested in different ways from its depiction in 2D media. Whereas analogue stereoscopy attempted to closely replicate the physical characteristics of a performing body that was placed in front of two cameras, digital stereoscopy using CGI is able to create hybrid bodies that belong in part to the performer and in part to digital code. This chapter discusses 3D films that demonstrate the transformative capacity of human bodies in digital stereoscopic films with an emphasis on the way presence and proximity, as well as tactile and sensory visual fields, are maintained and reconfigured across these transformations.
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Notes
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We also see this character morph into the bodies of other human actors and some non-metal states and objects but the most widely discussed moments are the transitions to liquid metal.
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I am referring here to the theatrical viewing environment but these points are equally applicable to home viewing contexts.
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Although Tony Stark’s various transformations into Iron Man also enact alterations, he becomes Iron Man by wearing a high-tech suit rather than undergoing metamorphosis of the body in the same way as the other characters discussed in this chapter.
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This would include Pepper Potts who, by no means an antagonist at the beginning of the film, unwittingly becomes a dangerous weapon when her body morphs and the only resolution is for her body to be “fixed”.
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Lisa Purse notes the way the earlier X-Men films frame the metamorphosis of their “good” and “bad” characters so that the process of exploring the inhuman is carefully contained (2013, p. 67). I would add that this latest film is a little more flexible in its boundaries between good and bad morphing characters and how this interacts with their otherness.
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Ross, M. (2016). Transformative Bodies in 3D Cinema: Computer Generated Morphing and Extra-sensory Depth Cues. In: Spöhrer, M. (eds) Die ästhetisch-narrativen Dimensionen des 3D-Films. Neue Perspektiven der Medienästhetik. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09422-5_8
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