From: James Kreul (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jan 24 2007 - 10:52:55 PST
> "Professional" applications of 16mm didn't come about until the post world
> television market started developing. The Arri St was not introduced until
> 1952. For the first 30 years of the 16mm format it was widely the domain
> of "amateur" makers.
I agree with the larger point you're making, but if we include wartime
information, educational and corporate filmmaking, professionalism and the
16mm film industry developed during WWII. In 1943 the National 16mm
Advisory Committee assisted the Office of War Information distributed over
10,000 prints of 200 different films to 450 community centers around the
country. The Pasadena, California school system circulated over 8,000 reels
of film by 1945-46. The Film Council of America was established by 1946.
You're right that the big boom came in the 1950s but not only due to
television. Expenditures for industrial films (corporate films for internal
use and general distribution) between 1945 and 1959 exceeded $2.5 billion.
I knew these numbers would come in handy one day.
James Kreul
University of North Carolina Wilmington
email suppressed
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