Post-Production and the Invisible Revolution of Filmmaking

"The introduction of post-production during the transition from silent cinema to the synchronized sound era in the 1920s' American studio system resulted in what has been a previously unheralded and invisible revolution in filmmaking. Thereafter, a film no longer arose from a live and variable combination of audio and visual in the theatre, as occurred during the Silent Film era, where each exhibition was a singular event. The new system of post-production effectively shifted control of a film's final form from the theater to the editing room. With this new process, filmmakers could obtain and manipulate an array of audio elements and manufacture a permanent soundtrack. This transition made possible a product that could be easily mass-produced, serving both to transform and homogenize film presentation, fundamentally creating a new art form. This book studies the discourses surrounding post-production, as well as the aesthetic effects of its introduction during the 1920s and 1930s, by exploring the philosophies and issues faced by practitioners during this transitional, transformative period"--