Co-Producing Futures: The Making of "Hollywood’s" Apocalyptic Aesthetic in South Africa

• In Event: Media Studies Interruptions of STS - IV

Abstract

The recent boom experienced by South Africa’s “film-service” economy has made visible a trend in big-budget science fiction films that use southern African locations and landscapes to ‘double’ as futuristic Euro-American settings. Located primarily in the Western Cape province, this economy facilitates production companies based in the US and UK to create films and TV-series that are often post-apocalyptic or dystopian in tone. Examples include Dredd 3D, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dark Tower, Maze Runner 3, Resident Evil 6, and episodes of Black Mirror. By filming in South Africa, projects become official co-productions of all participating countries, making them eligible for substantial rebates through an international system of tax-incentives that has encouraged the globalization of ‘Hollywood’ and, increasingly, Silicon Valley. Following two years of fieldwork, I give ethnographic attention to the South African-based labor responsible for making the imaginary worlds of these films. In this paper, I look specifically to practices of locations-scouting, set-building, and visual effects to describe the material and digital processes of capturing, extrapolating, and reconfiguring post-colonial/post-apartheid landscapes as a means of “visual extraction.” Bringing the transnational nature of contemporary film-work to bear on cinematic visions that inform global imaginaries of economic and environmental collapse, I emphasize how the South African film-site impresses upon, or haunts, the filmic-worlds for which it serves as aesthetic foundations.

Author

• Jessica Dickson, Harvard University