This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Matrix, S. E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

‘We’re Okay with Fake’: Cybercinematography and the Spectre of Virtual Actors in S1MØNE

Department of Film and Media Culture at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, sidneyevematrix{at}yahoo.com

This article considers Andrew Niccol’s comedic cyberpunk film S1MØNE, a story about the development of computer-generated animated actors. When a has-been Hollywood director secretly uploads a digital actress to save his career, passing her off as real, fans fall for the trick and delight in the newest ‘It girl’. Soon the synthespian’s celebrity eclipses the director’s fame, yet he finds it impossibly difficult to delete the program and get the genie back into the bottle. Niccol’s film is part cinematic fable and part philosophical inquiry into how the use of virtual actors (‘vactors’) in Hollywood cinema will affect filmmakers, actors and audiences.

Key Words: Andrew Niccol • avatar • cyberculture • cyberpunk • digital animation • Final Fantasy • IDORU • SF film • synthespian • technopuppet • virtual gender

Animation, Vol. 1, No. 2, 207-228 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1746847706068905


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?