The Cine Technician (1938-1939)

8 THE CINE TECHNICIAN May-June. 1938 The Art Director in Motion Pictures by LAWRENCE P. WILLIAMS, A.R.I.B.A., A.A.Dip. The following article is based on a paper read, by arrangement with A.C.T., at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Photographic Society. THE connection between the photographer and the art director must be very close if the final results on the screen are to bear even the most casual scrutiny. For my part I have been very fortunate during my ten years in the industry in being almost continuously connected with the same eamerman, one whose help and co-operation I have always enjoyed. And I should like to pay a tribute to Fred Young, whose work with the camera has undoubtedly helped to enhance the reputation of British films over a period of years. The duties of an art director and the nature of his work vary — not only with different personalities and different circumstances, but with the different countries in which he may be employed. My personal experiences and contacts with art directors extend only to the countries of Western Europe and America, though there are large and often flourishing motion picture industries in Eussia, China and Japan; the latter has, I believe, one of the largest outputs in the world, though their pictures are seldom seen in Europe and then only under the auspices of societies interested in the intellectual advancement of film production and not as commercial propositions. Film production on the continent of Europe, though important as a national industry in some countries, has not risen so high in importance or organisation as it has in America, where it is, I believe, the fourth largest industry, and where great companies of usually sound financial backing are continually employed in the production of pictures for the largest home market in the world. In other countries, France, Germany, Japan and Russia excepted, there is a subsidiary market showing a larger percentage of American pictures than of their home product. There are now a few companies in England modelled from the production point of view on those of America, though their much smaller market both at home and abroad necessitates the plants being smaller than most of those in America, whatever you may recently have heard to the contrary. It is, however, the hope of all those who earn their living in the industry here that the new Quota laws will encourage production activity and the capital that will make this possible. I hope that the presence here of two American companies, M.G.M. and 20th Century Fox, is evidence of such activity and that any difficulties they may have met with in their first pictures will not discourage them from further production. From the point of view of those of us who have been privileged to work with our American colleagues on these productions, we xre grateful for all they have been able to teach us. Most of the countries on the continent of Europe boast a film industry, and, before the present political regime, that of Germany was highly organised and very well equipped, due no doubt to the large number of German and part German-speaking countries on the continent. During the more or less casual visits I have paid to continental studios I have always gained the impression that their art departments are less highly organised than those of England or America, a more bohemian spirit pervading them than the "architect's office atmosphere" which distinguishes those of the English-speaking countries. The contrast in the mentality of the continental art director seems to be extraordinary ; on the one hand he will produce working drawings for presentation to the construction departments on the backs of soiled envelopes, and on the other he has a definite flair for correctness of historical atmosphere and detail far in advance of England and America.