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The Academy Technical Bureau, Cooperative Research, and the Building of the Studio System

At the end of the 1920s, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) harnessed its role in the transition to sound to shift leadership of technical research to Hollywood. At the same time that it began the Sound School, the Academy established a Producers-Technicians Committee designed to pool knowledge of universal production practices. This chapter argues that AMPAS was able to establish itself as the authority over everyday technology in Hollywood through this committee and by absorbing the AMPP’s Technical Bureau. Through their collective scientific activities, the studios were able to take advantage of the knowledge and skills of their workers to solidify Hollywood’s dominance over the motion picture industry. At the same time, several new journals and publications for the dissemination of technical knowledge were established, including the International Photographer, Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, and the Academy Technical Digest, determining who disseminated knowledge, generated definitions, and created standards. The institutional structure established by the start of 1930 would remain stable throughout the golden age of Hollywood, making AMPAS both the clearinghouse and the gatekeeper that determined what the basic standards for technology would be and who would have access to this knowledge.