Technology in the Art of Producing Motion Pictures

The motion picture and the automobile were born at the turn of the century and grew up together. Both have their foundations in science and technology, and both have profoundly affected our individual and national lives. Their maturity has placed them among the five largest American industries, yet one is fundamentally an art. An automobile is something concrete, tangible, something real; a motion picture is light and shadow, laughter and tears, speech and music. The motion picture is an art as well as an industry. The motivating forces of the film are drama, comedy, human experience—yet it could not exist except for the organized efforts of the many craftsmen and technicians that make it an industry. Since art and industry are so interwoven, a change in technology affects the art of the film, while the demands of the art bring about technical improvements. — This report illustrates the role that technology plays in the conception of the film as an art, and the changes that the demands of the art itself have brought about in technic. The cameraman's universal focus, the soundman's reverberation chamber, the set designer's cloth ceiling—all have their share in telling a story realistically and dramatically. Someone's story idea sets this intricate machinery in motion, and from the writer, actor, artist, and engineer comes a living entity—a combination of arts that have been in development since man first learned to record his experiences for posterity.

Print ISSN

0097-5834

Published

1942-08

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/J09870