In order to assign space value and enter it into an exchange economy, capitalism works to reduce it to an abstract plan. Writing about this process, Henri Lefebvre coins the term 'abstract space' and describes the logics of this kind of space in detail. These logics are also at work in the digitally animated spaces of virtual cinematography, such as those used in The Matrix Reloaded (Andy and Larry Wachowski, 2003). Creating totalized, predictable spaces and populating them with highly instrumental and manageable digital replacements of actors (sometimes known as synthespians), virtual cinematography takes space and individuals to be open to geometric abstraction. Using Lefebvre's work to interpret this virtual spatial production allows a critical evaluation of the motives and consequences of this kind of computer animation to take place, and emphasizes the manner in which virtual cinematography joins up with other visual systems of spatial representation and quantification.
This article conducts an analysis of contemporary 3D film style in narrative features, examining how stereoscopy has been married to existing cinematic form. Formal examinations of 3D sequences show them to work within systems of classical or intensified continuity while also generating patterns of meaning tied to the 3D format.
This article applies the insights of Michel de Certeau’s influential text of sociological analysis The Practice of Everyday Life to the action sequences of contemporary Hollywood cinema. In so doing it demonstrates the extent to which these sequences can be read as spectacular displays of the spatial appropriation that de Certeau suggests characterize everyday life. For de Certeau, the everyday is controlled by bureaucratic and out-of-reach structures, their strategies of control dependent on the production of restrictive spaces; the individual, however, is able to gain agency through self-directed movement within these structures. In this way, simple acts such as walking and cooking become expressions of personal freedom within capitalist society. This article will illustrate the affinity between de Certeau’s ‘pedestrian tactics’ and the more outlandish feats of the action protagonists of a variety of Hollywood blockbusters. These protagonists temporarily appropriate space from monolithic controlling entities in a similar manner, Die Hard 4.0 (Wiseman, 2007), the Bourne trilogy (Liman, 2002; Greengrass, 2004, 2007) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Bird, 2011) being representative examples of this process. Across these films independent individuals use ingenuity and improvisation to outmanoeuvre agents of systemic control, liberating themselves from spatial restrictions. In presenting such spectacular occupations the action genre and action sequence relate potentially alienating architectural spaces to the bodily coordinates of viewers, who can consequently take pleasure from the display of successful tactical actions within highly regulated environments. However, and in line with close readings of de Certeau, the article will conclude by investigating how tactics might be seen as inevitably and unavoidably subsumed within rigid strategic frameworks in the contexts of both everyday life and the action film.
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.