Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media (Film Culture in Transition) PDF
Preview Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media (Film Culture in Transition)
* omslag Films That Work PB:DEF 25-05-2009 13:07 Pagina 1 FFIILLMM FFIILLMM Industrial film is the great unknown orphan genre in the history of cinema. Government-produced and industrially sponsored movies pursuing specific social or economic F goals have a rich and rewarding history that has beenall but I neglected by academic film scholars up until now. CCUULLTTUURREE LM Films CCUULLTTUURREE At the height of its prosperity, the industrial film indus- S try employed thousands of filmmakers, produced its own T trade journals and maintained its own festival circuit, engaged IN TRANSITION H IN TRANSITION A with giants of 20th-century industry like Shell and AT&T, T and featured the talents of iconic actors and directors such W as Buster Keaton, John Grierson, Walter Rutt- O that Work mann and AlainResnais. R K Films that Work: Industrial Film and the Productivity of Mediais the first full-length book to put the industrial film and its rem ark- V I able history in focus. Exploring the poten- N Z tial of industrial film to provide new insights E into the complex relationships bet ween media N Z Industrial Film and aesthetics and social agency, this volume H brings together ren owned scholarsin a dis- E cussion of the radicalpotential in consider- D the Productivity ing the history of this unexplored corporate I G medium. E of Media R Vinzenz Hediger is the Alfried Krupp Found at ion profes- A sor of Media Studies at Ruhr Univer sity, Bochum, Germany. N Patrick Vonder auis an assistant professor in the depart- D ment of Media Studies at the same university. P A T R I C K Films that Workoffers, for the first time, a distinct theoretical framework in which to consider the archive V of non-canonical non-fiction film. More than that, it makes a rare contribution to bridging the chasm O between English language and continental European film studies. N brian winston, professor of communications, university of lincoln D E R This work is a masterful contribution to the growing literature on industrial films. Its essays offer a A comprehensive introduction to sponsored film’s international history. This brilliantly researched and U engagingly written collection is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the vital place of [ E moving image in industrial relations. D anna mccarthy, associate professor and associate chair department of cinema studies, nyu S . ] EEDDIITTEEDD BBYY VVIINNZZEENNZZ HHEEDDIIGGEERR 9 789089 640130 PPAATTRRIICCKK VVOONNDDEERRAAUU AAmmsstteerrddaamm UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPrreessss AAmmsstteerrddaamm UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPrreessss WWW.AUP.NL FilmsthatWork Films that Work Industrial Film and the Productivity of Media Edited by Vinzenz Hediger and Patrick Vonderau Thispublicationwasmadepossiblethrough agenerousgrantfromthe Alfried KruppvonBohlenundHalbachFoundation,Essen. Frontcoverillustration:CarpromotionforRenault, Backcoverillustration:BusterKeatoninacommercialforPureOil(USA) Coverdesign:KokKorpershoek,Amsterdam Lay-out:japes,Amsterdam isbn (paperback) isbn (hardcover) e-isbn nur ©VinzenzHediger&PatrickVonderau/AmsterdamUniversityPress,Amster- dam Allrightsreserved.Withoutlimitingtherightsundercopyrightreservedabove, nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrieval system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans(electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recordingorotherwise)withoutthewrittenpermissionofboth thecopyrightownerandtheauthorofthebook. Contents Introduction VinzenzHedigerandPatrickVonderau I Navigating the Archive ArchivesandArchaeologies ThePlaceofNon-FictionFilminContemporaryMedia ThomasElsaesser Record,Rhetoric,Rationalization IndustrialOrganizationandFilm VinzenzHedigerandPatrickVonderau Vernacular Archiving AnInterviewwithRickPrelinger PatrickVonderau II Visualityand Efficiency Early IndustrialMoving PicturesinGermany MartinLoiperdinger LayersofCheese GenericOverlapinEarlyNon-FictionFilmsonProductionProcesses FrankKesslerandEefMasson Images ofEfficiency TheFilmsofFrankB.Gilbreth ScottCurtis “WhatHollywood IstoAmerica,theCorporateFilm Isto Switzerland” RemarksonIndustrialFilmasUtilityFilm YvonneZimmermann Poussières WritingtheRealvs.theDocumentaryReal GérardLeblanc 6 FilmsthatWork ThermodynamicKitsch ComputinginGermanIndustrialFilms,/ VinzenzHediger III Films and Factories Touring asa CulturalTechnique VisitorFilmsandAutostadtWolfsburg PatrickVonderau CorporateFilmsofIndustrial Work Renault(-) AlainP.Michel FilmingWorkon BehalfoftheAutomobileFirm TheCaseofRenault(-) NicolasHatzfeld,GwenaëleRotandAlainP.Michel Eccentricity,EducationandtheEvolutionofCorporateSpeech JamHandyandHisOrganization RickPrelinger Centron,anIndustrial/EducationalFilmStudio, 1947-1981 AMicrohistory FayeE.Riley Filmsfrom Beyond theWell AHistoricalOverviewofShellFilms RudmerCanjels IV See, Learn, Control The Personnel IsPolitical VoiceandCitizenshipinAffirmative-ActionVideosintheBell System,- HeideSolbrig Behaviorism,Animation, andEffective Cinema TheMcGraw-HillIndustrialManagementFilmSeriesandtheVisual CultureofManagement RamónReichert Contents 7 TechnologiesofOrganizational Learning UsesofIndustrialFilmsinSwedenduringthes MatsBjörkin TheCentralFilmLibraryofVocational Education AnArcheologyofIndustrialFilminFrancebetweentheWars ValérieVignaux “Reality IsThere, but It’sManipulated” WestGermanTradeUnionsandFilmafter StefanMoitra V Urbanity, Industry, Film Modernism,Industry,Film ANetworkofMediaintheBaťaCorporationandtheTownofZlín inthes PetrSzczepanik AModern Medium fora Modern Message NorskJernverk,-,ThroughtheCameraLens BjørnSørenssen Harbor,Architecture, Film Rotterdam,- FlorisPaalman IndustrialFilms AnAnalyticalBibliography AnnaHeymerandPatrickVonderau The Desiderata of Business-Film Research RalfStremmel Contributors Index of Names Index ofFilmTitles IndexofSubjects Introduction Vinzenz Hediger and Patrick Vonderau Reminiscingabouthisdaysasaunionorganizer,DavidMcDonald,theformer president of the United Steel Workers of America, relates the following anec- dote. According to McDonald, in order to get steel workers to join the union, theunionorganizersusedatechnique whichwecalled...visualeducation,whichwasahigh-soundinglabelforapractice muchmoreaccuratelydescribedasduespicketing.Itworkedverysimply.Agroupof dues-paying members selected by the district director (usually more for their size thantheirtact)wouldstandattheplantgatewithpickhandlesorbaseballbatsand confronteachworkerashearrivedforhisshift. “Visual education” here serves as a euphemism for the ostentatious threat of physical violence against workers unwilling to join the union. What is more, “visual education” is put on display at the factory gate, which is, of course, a key site of industrial culture, but also of film history. Workers leaving the fac- tory have been a staple of industrial photography since its introduction in the second half of the th century, and workers leaving the factory, plus a dog, were the subject of the first Lumière film. However, the anecdote deals with workers arriving at the factory rather than leaving; apparently, changing the directionoftheworker’sphysicalmovementandmovingthetimeoftheobser- vationtothebeginningoftheshiftratherthanitsendrevealssomethingthatis notquiteasobviousineitherthephotographsofworkersleavingthefactoryor theLumièrefilm. The story highlights a relationship between visuality, power, and industrial organization that in one form or another may well have run through a good partofthehistoryofmodernindustrialsocieties.Unions,forone,becameafact of life throughout these societies in the second half of the th century, which coincidentally is about the same time that the workers leaving the factory startedappearingin photographs. Certainly,thestorydoes notinvolvethe use of film but rather another visual medium, the tableau vivant, albeit one formed bya troupe of thugs armed with bats and pick handles rather than a group of ladies and gentlemen styled in the fashion of old paintings. Moreover, its pur- poseisnotprimarilyaestheticinnature.Thevisualityofthedisplay,however,is stillindispensable toitseffect, which,togetherwithitsorganizationalpurpose, makes it relevant to the present undertaking. Tracing and analyzing films in andonindustrialorganizationsisthemainconcernofthisvolume.
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