I didn't really expect to write about ILM for this book.

I thought it was going to be a kind of broader-based story about the effects industry,

and it turns out that ILM had their fingers in everything. Hello and welcome to Tech Won't Save Us.

I'm your host, Paris Marks, and this week my guest is Julie Turnick.

Julie is the author of The Empire of Effects, Industrial Light and Magic, and the rendering

of realism.

She also wrote Plastic Reality, Special Effects, Technology, and the Emergence of 1970s Blockbuster Aesthetics. She also wrote plastic reality, special effects, technology, and the emergence of

1970s blockbuster aesthetics. She's an associate professor of media and cinema studies at the

University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. Before we get into this week's episode, just a heads

up that I'll be speaking at the Marxism Festival in Dublin, Ireland, on November 19th, if you're

around, and I will also be speaking at the Lighthouse Book Festival in Dublin, Ireland, on November 19th, if you're around. And I will also be speaking

at the Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh on November 24th with Gemma Milne. So, you know, if you're in

either of those cities and you want to join us, please feel free to do so. I'll put the information

in the show notes. I may also have something coming up in London on November 25th. If it does end up happening, I'll put the information about that in the show notes. I may also have something coming up in London on November 25th. If it does end up

happening, I'll put the information about that in the show notes as well. Now, you might have

noticed recently that there's been a lot of attention being given to the visual effects

industry as more and more workers speak out about the working conditions in that industry.

And a lot of those stories are quite similar to what we've

heard from the video games industry before that, you know, crunch, overwork, these sorts of

issues. And so I wanted to dig into that a little bit further, and I thought that this conversation

with Julie would be a good way to kick it off, because Julie explores the history of this industry,

where these practices came from

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