Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space
(Part of the Film and Culture Series Series)
No Customer Reviews
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
By 1915, Hollywood had become the epicenter of American filmmaking, with studio "dream factories" structuring its vast production. Filmmakers designed Hollywood studios with a distinct artistic and industrial mission in mind, which in turn influenced the form, content, and business of the films that were made and the impressions of the people who viewed them. The first book to retell the history of film studio architecture, Studios Before the System expands the social and cultural footprint of cinema's virtual worlds and their contribution to wider developments in global technology and urban modernism.
Focusing on six significant early film corporations in the United States and France--the Edison Manufacturing Company, American Mutoscope and Biograph, American Vitagraph, Georges M li s's Star Films, Gaumont, and Path Fr res--as well as smaller producers and film companies, Studios Before the System describes how filmmakers first envisioned the space they needed and then sourced modern materials to create novel film worlds. Artificially reproducing the natural environment, film studios helped usher in the world's Second Industrial Revolution and what Lewis Mumford would later call the "specific art of the machine." From housing workshops for set, prop, and costume design to dressing rooms and writing departments, studio architecture was always present though rarely visible to the average spectator in the twentieth century, providing the scaffolding under which culture, film aesthetics, and our relation to lived space took shape.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0231172818
ISBN13:9780231172813
Release Date:September 2015
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Length:312 Pages
Weight:0.90 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
0 rating
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
