In the Studio

Studios are, at once, material environments and symbolic forms, sites of artistic creation and physical labor, and nodes in networks of resource circulation. They are architectural places that generate virtual spaces—worlds built to build worlds. Yet, despite being icons of corporate identity, studios have faded into the background of critical discourse and into the margins of film and media history. In response, In the Studio demonstrates that when we foreground these worlds, we gain new insights into moving-image culture and the dynamics that quietly mark the worlds on our screens. Spanning the twentieth century and moving globally, this unique collection tells new stories about studio icons—Pinewood, Cinecittà, Churubusco, and CBS—as well as about the experimental workplaces of filmmakers and artists from Aleksandr Medvedkin to Charles and Ray Eames and Hollis Frampton.
 

Brian R. Jacobson is Professor of Visual Culture at the California Institute of Technology and the author of Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space.  

Acknowledgments 

Introduction: Studio Perspectives 
Brian R. Jacobson

PART ONE. FORMATIONS

1. “The Longed-For Crystal Palace”: Empire, Modernity, and Nikkatsu Mukōjima’s Glass 
Studio, 1913–1923 
Diane Wei Lewis

2. Regulating Light, Interiors, and the National Image: Electrification
and Studio Space in 1920s Brazil 
Rielle Navitski

3. Ephemeral Studios: Exhibiting Televisual Spaces during the
Interwar Years 
Anne-Katrin Weber

PART TWO. FOUNDATIONS 

4. Estudios Churubusco: A Transnational Studio for a National Industry 
Laura Isabel Serna

5. Pinewood Studios, the Independent Frame, and Innovation 
Sarah Street

6. Backlots of the World War: Cinecittà, 1942–1950 
Noa Steimatsky

PART THREE. ALTERNATIVE ROUTES 

7. The Film Train Stops at Mosfilm: Aleksandr Medvedkin and the Operative Film Factory 
Robert Bird

8. Postindustrial Studio Lifestyle: The Eameses in the Environment of 901 
Justus Nieland

9. The Last Qualitative Scientist: Hollis Frampton and the Digital Arts Lab 
Jeff Menne

PART FOUR. STUDIO FUTURES

10. Made-for-Broadcast Cities 
Lynn Spigel

11. The Nature of the Firm and the Nature of the Farm: Lucasfilm, the Campus, and the 
Contract 
J. D. Connor

12. “Make It What You Want It to Be”: Logistics, Labor, and Land Financialization via 
the Globalized Free Zone Studio 
Kay Dickinson

Selected Bibliography 
List of Contributors 
Index