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E-book
Author Wexman, Virginia Wright, author

Title Hollywood's artists : the Directors Guild of America and the construction of authorship / Virginia Wright Wexman
Published New York : Columbia University Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource : color illustrations
Series Film and culture
Film and culture.
Contents Directors as artists : the DGA rides the wave -- Charisma and competition : the DGA stakes its claim -- Recognition : the DGA takes credit -- Politics : the DGA stages HUAC -- Law : the DGA and artists as owners
Summary "The production of a Hollywood movie encompasses the work of many people from the screenwriter and editor to the cinematographer and boom operator. Yet it is the director who is considered the artistic force behind a film. The notion of the director as the author of a film was not always a given but the result of a variety of different historical and institutional factors, including the breakup of the classical Hollywood studio system and the rise of the auteur theory in the 1960s. An often overlooked player in this story is the Directors Guild of America (DGA) that, as Virginia Wright Wexman argues, played a crucial role in establishing the director's status and power in Hollywood and in the public's mind. In Hollywood's Artists, Wexman provides the first history of the DGA and its influence. She begins by discussing how it differentiated itself from other industry unions, focusing on issues of status, networking, and creative control as opposed to money and job security. Wexman then considers how the DGA fought for directors to be credited as "authors" of the film and how this put them in conflict with others in the film industry. In addition to tracing the history of how directors created their image in the public's imagination, including their role in the McCarthy hearings, Wexman discusses how the DGA fought to have directors get more legal control over their films"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 09, 2020)
Subject Directors Guild of America -- History
SUBJECT Directors Guild of America fast
Subject Motion picture producers and directors -- United States -- History
Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- United States -- History
Motion picture industry -- United States -- History
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / History & Criticism
Motion picture industry
Motion picture producers and directors
Motion pictures -- Production and direction
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019052937
ISBN 0231551436
9780231551434