New Frontiers for the Documentary Film

The motion picture today is the legacy of experimentation of the past. From the still camera to the movie camera, man moved into new realms of record and drama. Thus was evolved the fade-out, the close-up, special lighting, dissolves, and process shots. We had the Melies, the Lumiè, the Griffiths, and the deMilles contributing to early production technics. — The documentary is one of our oldest movie forms, for it means factual photography with the impact of drama. The documentalist takes real people in real places. The 15 years from Flaherty's Nanook of the North to Lorentz's The River represent years of advance in engineering; but those working in the medium recognize many unsolved problems of sight and sound. — The problems of modern life open exciting possibilities for both the producer and the engineer—problems that will mean new developments in the science of the motion picture. We have great frontiers ahead in the production of documentaries on housing, recreation, the business of food distribution, the problem of raising and obtaining food, communications, the conservation of natural resources, the backgrounds of war—all these offer a challenge to both the engineer and the producer, for in working together they will contribute much to a great art and a great science—the modern motion picture.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1939-11

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J11921