Those observing the proliferation of three-dimensional (3D) films in US theaters wonder whether 3D will become ‘the new normal’ – the way that most films are produced and watched. Although skeptics abound, no one can answer this question with certainty now. But, if we consider this phrase from a different angle, it promises a more immediately revealing analysis of contemporary 3D cinema. Despite its appearance of born-again novelty, 3D has quickly established a highly codified stylistic repertoire. This repertoire is evidenced in the relationship that 3D US feature films have to classical Hollywood and contemporary film and image-making strategies. As it achieves its spatial effects, 3D obeys, wrestles with, and amplifies certain standard aspects of storytelling, visual style, and genre. Studying recent movies, including blockbusters, this article argues that 3D’s mixture of media heritages distills a highly conventionalized 3D aesthetic or a new stylistic normal.
This special issue concentrates on a dominant trend in contemporary transnational crime television: quality dramas featuring serial criminals who break the bodies/psyches of young women or children, thereby attracting the inquiries of female detectives who have suffered trauma themselves. This trend has generated resources, industrial partnerships, avid viewers, and, importantly for the authors here, feminist commentary across continents. We reframe the debate over whether these shows are feminist or misogynist by exploring staples of transnational language that underwrite their popularity in disparate national markets. In fact, we address the paradoxical gender-based violence and female empowerment at their core as crucial to their transnational legibility by tracking recurring elements that circulate a gendered and raced lingua franca rooted in fundamentals of media aesthetics: strategies of storytelling and genre, modes of perception, and the production of affect. Ultimately, these programs raise questions about cultural currencies of televised feminism in the digital era.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.