Abstract

This essay maps the first decade of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (SMPE) as it evolved from a small group of entrepreneurs into a major trade organization dominated by corporate engineers. The SMPE served as a venue for collaboration among the technology companies who sought to standardize the tools of the trade and later between the engineering community and the technicians and producers in Hollywood. In order to maintain significance, the SMPE changed its definition of a motion-picture engineer, including cinematographers, laboratory superintendents, and production managers among its ranks. This history reveals the incorporation of technological standardization and management into the Hollywood system.

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