FILM 1945 CHAP 03
One historian has summarized the typical style of Nordisk's films:
"The lighting effects, the stories, the realism of interior settings, the extraordinary use of natural and urban locations, the intensity of the naturalistic acting style, the emphasis on fate and the passions."
A second Russian firm, Khanzhonkov, appeared in
1908. During the early 1910s, exhibition expanded, and other, smaller Russian producers opened companies.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had been founded in
1909, and the struggle for civil rights was under way by the time the film appeared. Realizing that the artistic qualities of Birth made it all the more effective as racist propaganda, NAACP officials pressured the censorship boards in New York and Boston to cut the most offensive scenes or to ban the film outright.
Upon its formation in 1914, Warner Brothers was instantly notable as the first national distributor in the U.S. devoted solely to features
False
In 1916, Adolph Zukor took over Paramount, merged
Famous Players in Famous Plays and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company into Famous Players-Lasky and made Paramount this new firm's distribution subsidiary.
The Autorenfilm's French Cinema equivalent was the
Film D'art
Maurice Tourneur emigrated from
France and became known as a distinctive filmmaker with a strong sense of pictorial beauty. he experimented with using modernist theatrical set design in The Blue Bird and Prunella, though these were less popular than most of his films of the 1910s.
Before the war, Russian production had been largely dominated by
Pathé, which opened a studio in Russia in 1908, and Gaumont, which followed suit in 1909. The first Russianowned filmmaking company, started in 1907 by photographer A. O. Drankov, was able to compete reasonably well
The Swedish cinema was recognized as the first major
alternative to Hollywood to emerge after the war. Ironically, the very success of the Swedish cinema abroad contributed to its decline. After about 1920, Svenska concentrated on expensive prestige pictures designed for export. Only a few of these, like The Story of Gösta Berling, were artistic successes.
Directed by DW Griffith and Independently financed from various sources, the twelve-reel The Birth of a Nation told
an epic tale of the American Civil War by centering on two families who befriend each other but are on opposite sides in the conflict. The KKK are portrayed in a heroic and positive light. (ugh)
Before World War I, the cinema was largely
an international affair. Technical and artistic discoveries made in one country were quickly seen and assimilated elsewhere. The war, however, disrupted the free flow of films across borders
The star system remains one of the primary means of
appealing to audiences, and directors still coordinate the process of filmmaking.
During this period, the big Hollywood firms grew
enormously. Feature-length films (running on average about 75 minutes) dominated exhibition by 1915. The studios competed to sign up the most popular actors to longterm contracts.
During the same period, however, the German industry was
expanding. Domestic films were gaining popular success, largely due to the rise of the star system. (Henny Porten was the ideal of German womanhood) (Asta Nielsen also lived there)
The war also limited the free flow of
films and influences across borders. The result was the isolation of several film-producing countries, where, for the first time, distinctive national cinemas evolved.
By late 1918, Hollywood also had a backlog of
films to flood the markets of countries formerly cut off by the war.
Another feature-film company originated in 1914, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company was centered primarily around the films of
former playwright Cecil B. De Mille
William S. Hart, one of its most prominent stars, had been a stage actor and did not enter films until he was
nearly fifty. His age, plus his lean face, allowed him to play weather-beaten, world-weary roles. He played grumpy/shady but charming old men. As a result Hart's persona became known as the "good-badman,"
The Autorenfilm lent respectability to the cinema, but most of the films were
not successful with the public, and the notion of basing films on works by famous authors declined during 1914.
Unlike Pathé, Gaumont expanded
production in the years just before the war. Two important Gaumont directors, Léonce Perret and Louis Feuillade, did some of their best work during this period.
Paramount soon controlled many of the most popular
silent stars, including Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, as well as top directors such as D. W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, and De Mille
August Blom
, Nordisk's top director of the early teens, typifies this style. His most important film was Atlantis (1913), at eight reels the longest Danish film to date. It was inspired by the Titanic disaster.
During the 1920s, thanks in part to the labor-saving devices developed during the
1910s, animated shorts would become a much more regular element of movie programs
During the 1910s, animation was done by independent firms that sold the rights to
64 films to distributors. Cartoons were sometimes among the shorts shown on programs before features.
About 60 percent of Argentina's imports during 1916, for example, were
American films
By 1911, for example, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of films imported into Great Britain were
American. The United States was also doing well in Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. In most other markets, however, the American share was much smaller
Which of the following is NOT a general tendency in Classical Hollywood narratives of the 1910s?
Any reference to romance is separate from the quest to achieve a goal
Benjamin Christensen started as an actor at the small
Dansk Biografkompagni in 1911 and soon became president of the firm. His impressive debut as a director was The Mysterious X (1913), in which he also starred. It was a melodramatic story of spies and false accusations of treason
The Autorenfilm was established with
Der Andere ("The Other," 1913, Max Mack), adapted from a drama by playwright Paul Lindau and starring a major theatrical performer, Albert Bassermann. Another important Autorenfilm was Die Landstrasse, w/ original script by Lindau
Louis Feuillade
Directed the serial "Fantômas", a crime serial, beginning in 1913 with Fantômas and continuing through 1914 with four additional feature-length episodes.
The two most important Russian directors of the war period,
Evgenii Bauer and Yakov Protazanov, were masters of the brooding melodrama.
In the classical Hollywood cinema, the chain of cause and effect is rooted equally in social forces and character psychology
False
Intolerance is a racist account of the role of African Americans in the post-Civil War South
False
The Cheat was an influential film in Hollywood in the 1910s because of its focus on the orientalism
False
The German term 'autorenfilm' referred in 1913 to a film publicized on the basis of a famous actor or director's involvement
False
Although WWI made Hollywood possible, the beginning of the war nearly wiped out
French filmmaking
For decades, Wegener was to remain a major force in
German filmmaking. The Student of Prague is a Faust-like story of a student who gives his mirror image to a demonic character in exchange for wealth. Aided by the great cameraman Guido Seeber, Rye and Wegener used special effects to create scenes of the student and his double confronting each other
Other countries found it hard to compete against
Hollywood production values. Low budgets led to low sales, which in turn perpetuated the low budgets. It was usually cheaper to buy an American film than to finance a local production.
Vertical integration was an important factor that contributed to
Hollywood's international power. During this same period, Germany was just beginning to develop a vertically integrated film industry. France's leading firm, Pathé, was backing away from vertical integration by moving out of production. No other country developed a studio system as strong as that of the United States.
Protazanov began directing in 1912, and he worked mostly for Yermoliev. His films starred
Ivan Mozhukhin, a stage actor who had become immensely popular in films. Mozhukhin was the epitome of the Russian ideal in acting; tall and handsome, with hypnotic eyes, he cultivated a slow, fervent style.
Svenska Biografteatern
Largest film firm in Sweden Located in the small provincial city of Kristianstad, the firm was initially a theater chain.
Which of the following is NOT noted by Bordwell and Thompson as a Hollywood studio formed in the 1910s?
MGM
Which of the following is a characteristic of European cinematic style during the 1910s?
Moving characters slightly to block and reveal key details
Christensen went on to make an equally virtuoso drama,
Night of Revenge (1916). Here he added tracking shots that intensify the suspense and shock as a convict terrorizes a family
This hugely successful serial made a star of
Pearl White and Kathlyn Williams inspired other firms to make similar films. Williams and White established the pattern of the serial queen, a heroine (often described as plucky) who survives numerous outlandish plots against her life
each episodein a serial ended at a high point, with the main characters in
danger. These cliffhangers (so called because characters often ended up suspended from cliffs or buildings) lured the spectator back for the next installment
Bauer's mise-en-scene was characterized by
deep, detailed sets and an unusually strong sidelighting; he also occasionally used complex tracking shots. Several of Bauer's films carried the Russian love for melancholy to extremes, centering on morbid subject matter. He was the main director at the Khanzhonkov company, where he was given free artistic rein.
Af Klercker
displays a distinctive eye for landscape, light, and a variety of framing within scenes. His films contain some of the most beautiful sets of this period, defined by simple lines but richly furnished with details. Af Klercker skillfully suggests offscreen space: background rooms are often just visible through beaded curtains, and mirrors reveal action occurring outside the frame (3.19). He also elicited subtle, restrained performances from his actors.
By 1917, Hollywood firms were estimating costs based on both
domestic and foreign sales. Accordingly, producers invested in big sets, lavish costumes, and more lighting equipment. Highly paid stars like Mary Pickford and William S. Hart were soon idolized around the world
In Denmark, Ole Olsen's Nordisk films continued to
dominate production, though a small number of other firms operated during the 1910s.
By 1916, American exports had risen
dramatically. Over the next few years, American firms sold fewer films through London agents. They began to market their own products directly, opening distribution branches in South America, Australia, the Far East, and European countries not isolated by the hostilities.
Most existing prints of Stiller and Sjöström films have been copied from
early positive release prints. So many of Mauritz Stiller's early films are lost that it is difficult to judge his career before the mid-1910s
A film's production budget was based on how much it could be expected to
earn. Up to the mid-1910s, when most of an American film's income came from the domestic market, budgets were modest. Once a film could predictably earn more money abroad, its budget could be higher.
Another step toward the studio system came in 1914, when W. W. Hodkinson banded
eleven local distributors together into Paramount, the first national distributor devoted solely to features
In 1913, D. W. Griffith left the Biograph Company, where he had made over
four hundred short films since 1908. Biograph was reluctant to allow Griffith to make films longer than two reels. Despite the firm's resistance,in the wake of the success of the Italian import Quo Vadis?, he completed a four-reel historical epic, Judith of Bethulia (1913). But it was his last film for Biograph.
One reason for this appeal was that American filmmakers had
gone on exploring the classical Hollywood style, linking technique to clear storytelling.
Af Klercker
had begun as an actor, and he also did set designs when he first joined Svenska. He was soon directing but did not get on well with Magnusson and quit in 1913. At the firm, Hasselbladfilm (founded in 1915), he was an undisputed leader, directing most of the firm's output.
John Randolph Bray devised a method of mechanizing the process of animation:
he printed the same background on many sheets of paper, then animated painted shapes on top of that background to create The Artist's Dream
Birth of A Nation played in large legitimate theaters at=
high prices, was enormously successful, and brought a new respectability to the movies.
In 1913, Enrico Guazzoni's Quo Vadis? was an enormous
hit and confirmed the epic as the main Italian genre. It was followed in 1914 by one of the most internationally popular films of the era, Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria. (The film w/ the volcano eruption)
Filmmakers continued to use intercutting in
increasingly complex ways. By the mid-1910s, individual scenes within a single space were likely to be broken into several shots, beginning with an establishing shot, followed by one or more cut-ins to show portions of the action.
In the United States, French films were being squeezed out by the growth of
independent firms. Pathé left the Motion Picture Patents Company, forming an independent distribution firm in 1913.
Cabiria movement
innovative slow tracking shots toward or away from static action. Became a common technique in films of the mid-1910s Camera movement had appeared in the early years of the cinema, particularly in scenics.
Before 1912, the German film industry was relatively
insignificant. Its films were not widely exported, and imports dominated its domestic market. The cinema also had a low reputation in Germany.
As feature films became standardized, Hollywood filmmakers established firmer guidelines for creating
intelligible plots. These guidelines have changed little since then. The Hollywood protagonist is typically goal-oriented, trying to achieve success in work, sports, or some other activity. The hero's goal conflicts with the desires of other characters, creating a struggle that is resolved only at the end—which is typically a happy one.
Pathé's response to the war was to focus its efforts on
its American distribution wing, releasing films made by independent producers in the United States.
From about 1912 on, some directors increasingly realized that distinctive
lighting, editing, acting, staging, set design, and other film techniques could not only clarify the unfolding of the action but also heighten the film's impact.
Sjöström's and Stiller's growing reputations led Hollywood firms to
lure them away from Svensk Filmindustri. te. After 1921, film production in Sweden plummeted.
During the 1910s, many top Danish directors and actors were also
lured away, mainly to Germany and Sweden. By the war's end, Denmark was no longer a significant force in international distribution.
Forest Holger-Madsen
made an outstanding film, Life of an Evangelist (1914). The narrative involves a frame story and lengthy flashback, as a preacher tells a young man about his time in prison as a result of being wrongfully convicted of murder. His tale saves the young man from a life of crime
Sweden was among the first countries to create a
major cinema by drawing deliberately on the particular traits of its national culture.
in 1913, the serial emerged as a
major film form, and labor-saving techniques were introduced into animation. During the midteens, the feature film was becoming standardized internationally
Many French industry personnel were immediately sent to the front. Pathé's raw-stock factory switched to
manufacturing munitions, and studios were converted into barracks. As it became apparent that the fighting would drag on for years, the French industry gradually resumed production, but never on the scale of the prewar era
Unlike Tourneur, De Mille had a studio system and managed to control
many of his own productions throughout a long and prolific career. De Mille is often thought of today primarily for his historical epics of the sound era, but during his early career
By 1919, however, Pathé's concentration on serials and shorts put it on the
margins of the American industry, which was dominated by big firms making features.
Russian film making explored subject matter with a
melancholy tone. Even before the war, Russian audiences favored tragic endings.
Despite Pathé's and Gaumont's dominance in French production, they made no attempt to
monopolize the industry, and smaller companies coexisted peacefully with them. All this activity came to an abrupt halt when World War I began.
They were extremely prolific until both went to Hollywood, Sjöström in 1923, Stiller in 1925. Unfortunately, however,
most of the negatives of the films made by Svenska were destroyed in a fire in 1941.
Serial films had a great influence on twentieth-century
narrative form in general. Serials, especially soap operas, were a staple of radio for decades. Television picked up soap operas, and the continuing story with cliffhangers made its way into prime-time dramas in the 1980s.
The success of Nordisk in Denmark had been one inspiration for the formation
of a small Swedish firm, the Svenska Biografteatern, in 1907. It eventually would form the basis of the leading Swedish film firm, still in existence.
In early 1915, French film production resumed
on a limited basis. Newsreels became more important, and all the firms made highly patriotic fiction films,
After the war, Italy tried to regain its place
on world markets but could not make inroads against American films. In 1919, a large new firm called the Unione Cinematografica Italiana (UCI) attempted to revive Italian production. Its dependence on formulaic filmmaking, however, exacerbated the industry's decline during the 1920s.
During the mid-1910s, filmmakers experimented with effects lighting, that is, selective lighting over only
part of the scene, motivated as coming from a specific source. The most influential film to include this technique was Cecil B. DeMille's The Cheat (1915) By the end of the 1910s and the early 1920s, large film studios boasted a great array of different types of lamps for every purpose.
Thomas H. Ince had started by directing many short films in the early 1910s, but he also became a
producer in the ranks of the independents As the decade progressed, he focused more on producing. Today he is remembered primarily for having contributed to the move toward efficiency in studio filmmaking, particularly the use of the continuity script to control production
During the 1920s, Tourneur increasingly had trouble retaining control over his
productions as the studio system grew, and he returned to Europe in 1926.
Griffith managed to keep considerable control over his
productions, despite the growing supervision of the studio producers
With the huge success of The Perils of Pauline and subsequent serials, Pathé remained
profitable. It was, however, no longer providing a stable leadership for French film production.
World War I had
profound effects on the international cinema, some of which are still felt today. The war effort severely curtailed filmmaking in the two leading producing countries, France and Italy. American companies stepped in to fill the vacuum.
The Birth of a Nation also aroused heated controversy. Many editorials in white- and black-owned newspapers alike denounced its
racism. The film was based on a novel, The Clansman, by a well-known racist author, Thomas Dixon. Although Griffith had toned down the worst excesses of the novel in favor of a concentration on the white families, many commentators treated the film as primarily a creation of Dixon
Nielsen's Danish husband, Urban Gad, directed her in many short films until their .
separation in 1915. These were notable for Nielsen's varied portrayals, ranging from comic adolescents to betrayed lovers, and she had a great influence on acting styles in other countries
Swedish films benefited whenever Germany blocked
several other European countries from exporting films. Since few films got past this blockade, Swedish production was boosted and filmmakers were relatively free of foreign influences for a few years
In 1913, however, the largest company, Pathé Frères, took the first of
several steps that ultimately would harm the French industry. It cut back on the increasingly costly production side of the business to concentrate on the profitable areas of distribution and exhibition.
Victor Sjöström was one of the most important directors of the entire
silent era. His style was austere and naturalistic. He used restrained acting and staged scenes in considerable depth, both in location shots and in sets. His narratives frequently traced in great detail the grim consequences of a single action.
Hollywood has had two advantages
since the mid-1910s: the average production budget has remained higher in Hollywood than anywhere else in the world, and importing an American film is still often cheaper than producing one locally
As of 1916, the United States became the major
supplier of films to the world market, and it has held that position ever since.
For better or worse, during this era, Hollywood and the movies became almost
synonymous for many audiences around the world.
William Fox, who had small exhibition, distribution, and production operations, merged all three in 1914 to form
the Fox Film Corporation. The new firm would be a major player in 1920s Hollywood (eventually being renamed 20th-Century Fox in 1935)
During the early years of the war, Germany continued to import films, especially from Denmark. Officials soon concluded, however, that
the anti-German content of some of these films was hurting the war effort. In 1916, Germany banned film imports
A second distinctively Italian genre resulted from the rise of
the star system. Several beautiful female stars became wildly popular. These were the divas ("goddesses"). (Ex. Lyda Borelli, Francesca Bertini,)
The male equivalent of the diva was
the strongman. The characters of Ursus in Quo Vadis? and of the slave Maciste in Cabiria started this trend.
Perret's own films were known for
their beautiful cinematography, including skillful location filming and an unusual use of backlighting (3.13). Perret also varied camera angles considerably and broke scenes down into more shots than was then typical. He thus helped expand the cinema's expressive possibilities
During 1913, there arose the Autorenfilm, or "authors' film." The term author did not mean
then what auteur means today—the director of the film. Rather, the Autorenfilm was publicized largely on the basis of a famous writer responsible for the script or the original literary work from which the film was adapted. The director of the film was seldom mentioned
By 1916, the Russian film industry had grown to
thirty production firms. The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution brought filmmaking to a near standstill, however, and the slow, intense style that had developed in Russia during the war soon looked old-fashioned.
During the early 1910s, the French film industry was still
thriving. It wasn't until 1913 that Pathe's poor decision making started to affect the French film industry.
Films were so bad in Germany that in May 1912, organizations of playwrights, directors, and actors went so far as
to boycott the cinema. By late 1912, however, the boycott was broken, as film producers competed to sign those same playwrights, directors, and actors to exclusive contracts.
From 1913 to 1914, Nordisk and other companies were moving
toward longer films of two, three, even four reels.
In large dark studios, filmmakers controlled lighting
with electric lamps. These studios also had extensive backlots, where large outdoor sets could be constructed; to save money, the production firms often kept some of these standing, using them over and over.
Divas typically starred in what are sometimes known as
frock-coat films—stories of passion and intrigue in. Diva films remained popular during the second half of the 1910s and then quickly declined in the 1920s.
, Raoul Barré developed the
slash system of animation. A figure would be drawn on paper, and then the portion of the body that moved would be cut away and redrawn on the sheet of paper below the remaining portion of the figure. To keep the shapes steady on the screen when moving portions were redrawn, Barré proposed steadying the sheets of paper on a pair of pegs at the top of the drawing. This peg system of registration has remained central to drawn animation ever since, because it allows cels drawn by different animators to fit together smoothly.
The pace of many Russian films was
slow, with frequent pauses and deliberate gestures enabling the players to linger over each action. This slow pace derived from a fascination with psychology.
From a modern perspective, Die Landstrasse seems an unusually
sophisticated film. It proceeds at a slow pace, carefully setting up parallelisms between the convict and the beggar. There are a number of very long takes that deemphasize action in favor of concentration on minute details—an early exploration of expressive cinematic techniques.
Stiller directed Erotikon, often credited as the first
sophisticated sex comedy. It treated romantic relations casually, as a neglected young wife starts an affair with a handsome suitor while her middle-aged husband, an absentminded professor, pairs off with his pretty niece
The serial
Serial episodes can be seen as a kind of transitional form between the one-reeler and the feature film. Though some early serial episodes were quite short, others lasted forty-five minutes or more The greatest filmmaker associated with this form was Louis Feuillade. This prolific Gaumont director made around eighty short films a year between 1907 and 1913, working in various genres.
From 1918 to 1919, Hasselblad went through mergers that made it a part of
Svenska Bio, which then became Svensk Filmindustri (the name it has kept ever since). At that point af Klercker gave up filmmaking to go into business. His more famous colleagues, Stiller and Sjöström, both stayed at Svenska, directing, acting, and writing scripts
Georg af Klercker, Mauritz Stiller, and Victor Sjöström were
Sweden's top 3 directors. Swedish cinema initially had little impact abroad, and so its filmmakers were working without the larger budgets made possible by export. They made many short films with modest budgets
The most successful and famous Autorenfilm is
The Student of Prague (1913, Stellan Rye). It was based on an original screenplay by the popular writer Hanns Heinz Ewers and marked the entry of theater star Paul Wegener into the cinema.
The war had restricted exports of Swedish films, and
The Outlaw and His Wife was the first to burst onto the international scene. Landscapes were also prominent in the film.
This genre declined temporarily after 1923, as Italian filmmaking sank into crisis.
The peplum film, or the heroic historical epic, often involving brawny heroes, resurfaced decades later with such films as Hercules (1957).
Which of the following was NOT a reason for the development of the continuity script?
To settle the matter of which writers received screen credit on a film and under what designation
Blockbooking is the practice of requiring theaters to show all of your films in order to get any of them.
True
Mack Sennett's studio Keystone is famous for making slaptstick comedies and for introducing Charlie Chaplin in film
True
One of the styles associated with Griffith's work during the 1910s was the use of frequent cut-ins
True
Slow tracking shots in the middle 1910s were often called 'Cabiria movements' after the influential film that first used them
True
1913, Laemmle had gained control of the new company, and in 1915 he opened
Universal City, a studio north of Hollywood, forming the basis of a complex that still exists.
The first American company to open its own distribution offices in Europe was
Vitagraph, which had a branch in London in 1906 and soon a second in Paris. By 1909, other American firms were moving into foreign markets as well.
The Motion Picture Patents Company had dominated the American film industry between 1908 and 1911, but it lost much of its power
after a 1912 court decision rendered the Latham-loop patent void
The real effect of American films in France was not apparent until
after the war. From 1918 to 1919, French firms attempting to bring production back up to its old levels found it virtually impossible to reduce the American share of their market. (Which was more the 50% at the time)
A major challenge to Paramount's growing power was that they were releasing about 100 features a year and requiring theaters to show
all of them (with two programs per week) in order to get any. This was an early instance of block booking, a practice that was later repeatedly challenged as monopolistic.
By the late 1910s,, large dark studios were
also constructed, either by covering the glass walls or building windowless enclosures
The star system remains one of the primary means of
appealing to audiences, and directors still coordinate the process of filmmaking.
Since Tsar Nikolai II and his family were ardent film fans, fashionable audiences
as well as the masses went to the cinema. Although most audiences favored imported films, by 1914 Russia had a small but healthy film industry.
In 1917, a group of exhibitors resisted this tactic (block booking) by
banding together to finance and distribute independent features. They formed the First National Exhibitors Circuit
World War I had a mixed effect on the Danish cinema. Initially Denmark
benefited, since, as a neutral northern country, it was in a unique position to furnish films to markets like Germany and Russia, which were cut off from their normal suppliers. In 1917, the Russian Revolution eliminated that market, and the United States cut back on its imports from Denmark
France, Denmark, and Italy were partially or wholly cut off from imports,
but the demand for films remained. Hence domestic production rose in such countries, especially Sweden, Russia, and Germany
Maciste was played
by a muscular dockworker, Bartolomeo Pagano. . His character so fascinated audiences that Pagano went on to star in a series of Maciste films that lasted into the 1920s. Unlike Cabiria, these and other strongman films were set in the present rather than the historical past.
DW Griffith's film "Intolerance" was also innovative in its
cinematography, as when Bitzer mounted the camera on a movable elevator to create swooping movements over the huge set of the Babylonian court
When Russia prepared for World War I in late July of 1914, the borders were
closed, and many foreign distribution firms—primarily the German ones—closed their Moscow offices. With competition reduced, new Russian companies were formed, most significantly the Yermoliev firm
Perret had come to fame in 1909 as a
comic actor, directing his own series of "Léonce" films. During the mid-1910s, he also made some major features. L'Enfant de Paris ("Child of Paris," 1913) and Roman d'un mousse ("Tale of a Cabin Boy," 1914) were intensely melodramatic narratives of abducted children
The continuity script also allowed people working on the film to
coordinate their efforts, even though they might never communicate directly with each other.
