The Motion Picture Engineer and His Relation to the Industry

WE ARE living in an age of specialization, an age of standardization and scientific control. It is safe to say that no great industry can operate smoothly, successfully and economically without utilizing the services and knowledge of the engineer. The Motion Picture Industry, perhaps more than any other, needs highly skilled technical men at every stage, and is one of the most profitable and fertile fields for the application of specialized engineering. Motion picture engineering must of necessity lead to specialization, for the subject is altogether too broad to be covered by individual knowledge and experience. An engineer is defined as one of inventive ability capable of carrying through an enterprise, and the pioneers in motion picture work—the men who blazed the trail—were engineers in the truest sense of the word, and in addition, men of courage and conviction, combining a true research instinct with indefatigable energy. If they had not been the industry would not be where it is today. There is need for more and more trained specialists in this branch of engineering, and an attempt will be made in this paper to outline the qualifications and knowledge necessary to cover the field of motion picture engineering from the raw materials to the screen.

Print ISSN

0096-6460

Published

1923-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/jj00012