Engineering Hollywood tells the story of the formation of the Hollywood studio system not as the product of a genius producer, but as an industry that brought together creative practices and myriad cutting-edge technologies in ways that had never been seen before. Using extensive archival research, this book examines the role of technicians, engineers, and trade organizations in creating a stable technological infrastructure on which the studio system rested for decades. Here, the studio system is seen as a technology-dependent business with connections to the larger American industrial world. By focusing on the role played by technology, we see a new map of the studio system beyond the backlots of Los Angeles and the front offices in New York. In this study, Hollywood includes the labs of industrial manufacturers, the sales routes of independent firms, the garages of tinkerers, and the clubhouses of technicians' societies. Rather than focusing on the technical improvements in any particular motion picture tool, this book centers on the larger systems and infrastructures for dealing with technology in this creative industry. Engineering Hollywood argues that the American industry was stabilized and able to dominate the motion picture field for decades through collaboration over technologies of everyday use. Hollywood's relationship to its essential technology was fundamentally one of interdependence and cooperation-with manufacturers, trade organizations, and the competing studios. As such, Hollywood could be defined as an industry by participation in a closed system of cooperation that allowed a select group of producers and manufacturers to dominate the motion picture business for decades.

About the Author
Luci Marzola is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California Irvine. She was the recipient of a 2010-2020 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Her work on early Hollywood technology and infrastructure has been published in Film History, The Velvet Light Trap, and American Cinematographer and is forthcoming in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television and the Oxford Handbook to Silent Cinema.

Reviews
boldly conceived, brilliantly executed * Casey Walker, Media Industries Journal *
excellent * Talia Shabtay, Technology and Culture *
Luci Marzola's Engineering Hollywood...is breathtakingly researched...This is an important reset in how we examine the successes and failures of the studio system. * Chris Schobert, The Film Stage *
One would have thought by now that Hollywood's industrial history has been well documented, but Luci Marzola's remarkable intervention shows that the predominant focus on the studio system has overlooked a major part of the picture. Engineering Hollywood examines instead the trade associations and technical and bureaucratic infrastructures that established the shared operational protocols and quality standards vital for Hollywood's global success. This brilliant account provides not only new insights into our historical understanding of the industry, but also of the workings of creative industries in the age of corporate capitalism. * Joshua Yumibe, Michigan State University *
We know about the star system. We know about the studio system. But we know virtually nothing about the dynamic technological systems that made Hollywood possible in the first place. This essential book closes that gap, telling a crucial story about America's first creative industry to integrate and spectacularize technological change. Silicon Valley take note. Marzola provides a breathtaking view to another hub of American innovation, one that fuelled the global rise of another uniquely American industry. * Haidee Wasson, Concordia University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190885588
Author Luci Marzola
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 517g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 160mm * 19mm