mainstream interest in virtual reality, and inStar
Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, in which direc-
tor George Lucas included fully created CGI charac-
ters, including the controversial Jar Jar Binks.
Impact CGI challenged how thoughts and ideas
are communicated in visual forms. By the end of
the 1990’s, filmmakers were using the technology
to create interpretations of reality. There was an ex-
plosion of productions with high-quality, creatively
diverse 3-D computer animation. Science fiction in-
volved the public again in imagining other worlds
and creatures and in looking for a future that may
be more fantastical than had been imagined in a
long time.
Even though CGI techniques have become
cheaper and more accessible, directors and actors
still prefer the live set energy combined with tech-
nology. Audiences now expect CGI usage and can-
not always tell when it is used because the integra-
tion has become so seamless.
Further Reading
Britton, Peter. “The WOW Factor.”Popular Science
243, no. 5 (November, 1993): 86. Discusses the
use of digital effects in several films as well as the
potential future of filmmaking.
Butler, Jeremy G. Television: Critical Methods and
Applications. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum,
- An extensive discussion of CGI and its im-
pact on television.
Craig, J. Robert. “Establishing New Boundaries for
Special Effects: Robert Zemeckis’s Contact and
Computer-Generated Imagery.”Journal of Popular
Film and Television28, no. 4 (Winter, 2000): 158.
Good background on the history of CGI in film
and television.
Kerlow, Isaac V.The Art of 3D Computer Animation and
Effects. 3d ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, - First chapter offers a good history and in-
teresting time line. Numerous illustrations.
Pierson, Michele.Special Effects: Still in Search of Won-
der. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Several sections discuss computer-generated im-
agery and its use in films, as well as the impact of
the technology on culture.
Virginia L. Salmon
See also Computers; Film in Canada; Film in the
United States;Forrest Gump;Jurassic Park;Matrix, The;
Pixar; Science and technology;Star Wars: Episode I—
The Phantom Menace; Television;Terminator 2: Judg-
ment Day;Titanic. Charlottetown Accord
Identification Failed effort to amend the
Canadian constitution
Date Submitted to a public referendum on
October 26, 1992
The Charlottetown Accord was an ultimately unsuccessful
effort to reform the Canadian constitution.
The roots of the Charlottetown Accord lay in 1982,
when the government of Canada amended the Ca-
nadian constitution. It did so without the support of
the government of the province of Quebec. Al-
though the new constitution still applied to Quebec,
many Québécois, including the provincial govern-
ment, remained alienated. As a result, in the late
1980’s, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made an at-
tempt at constitutional reform that became known
as the Meech Lake Accord. The effort died in 1990
when it failed to be ratified by all of the provinces by
a required deadline.
The Charlottetown Accord would be Mulroney’s
next endeavor at constitutional reform. A series of
commissions led into discussions among the provin-
cial and territorial governments and organizations
representing Canada’s aboriginal peoples, who had
been ignored when the Meech Lake Accord was ne-
gotiated. An agreement was eventually reached and
signed in the city of Charlottetown. This proposal
would have amended the Canadian constitution
and, in the process, provided more powers to the
provinces, including over cultural matters and cer-
tain types of natural resources. It also offered major
reform to the Canadian senate. The key part, how-
ever, was a clause that would have recognized Quebec
as constituting a “distinct society” within Canada.
Since one of the criticisms of the Meech Lake Ac-
cord had been that the Canadian populace was not
consulted about it, the decision was made to seek rat-
ification of the Charlottetown Accord through a na-
tionwide referendum on October 26, 1992. A refer-
endum ensued. While most politicians and parties
favored ratification, two new regional parties, the
Reform Party in western Canada and the Bloc
Québécois in Quebec, strongly opposed the accord.The Nineties in America Charlottetown Accord 159