Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

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The Sets Are Made problem is to furnish a specified number of pictures a year. During the depression, studio officials were often asked, "How many people did you lay off?" During the depression studio employees suffered less perhaps than those of any other manufacturing plants, for they had to provide the same number of finished films as they had done formerly. The only difference was that they had less money returning from the distribution department with which to make these pictures. In normal studio accounting practice, studios draw on their sales subsidiary the first of each week for the money required for that week's operations. The business side of a motion picture studio is a study in itself, and it is developing rules and opportunities of its own. After the settlement of budget issues, the unit art director begins his work. A unit art director is a combination of artist, architect, and interior decorator. Invariably he is a specialist. He usually knows one branch of architecture and decoration better than any other available person. Pictures such as Cafe Metropole and Grand Hotel, both continental in tone, had as unit art directors technicians of foreign birth. Such men would scarcely be assigned to A Star Is Born. A "marine architect" is necessary for the filming of such pictures as The Captain Hates the Sea and Captains Courageous. The work of the research department has been described. If the picture is one entailing extensive architectural research, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, the unit art director will be appointed months earlier than he would be for a modern story. After proper and thorough research the unit art [95]