Lynley Shimat LysRob MooreIntro To MIAPOrphans Project Write-Up:Master Handshttp://www.archive.org/details/MasterHa1936IntroductionThe primary avenues of research that we have chosen to pursue for the purposes of this project fall into the following categories: 1. Chevrolet’s film based advertising campaigns– industrial films and their usage, 2. the creators of Master Hands – Jam Handy, cinematographer Gordon Avil, and the Detroit Philharmonic, and 3. labor issues relating to Chevrolet – particularly the strikes that occurred in 1937, just after the 1936 film release.The Film Itself: A Brief OutlineMaster Hands, partially due to its Library of Congress endorsement as a valuable work ofart, has become the prototypical example of the industrial [art] film. It portrays the workers of the Chevrolet factory as master craftsmen in an artistic style reminiscent of contemporaneous German propagandistic films by Leni Riefenstahl. It provides brief introductory intertitles and sparse commentary, focusing instead on shots of workers in action and machines in motion.Lynley Shimat LysRob MooreIntro To MIAPOrphans Project Write-Up:Master Hands Leni Riefenstahl in action. MH interitleThe Creation of Master HandsThe film was produced, under the direction of Jam Handy, by Jam Handy Organization, which produced scores of industrial films, many for Chevrolet. Cinematography is credited to Gordon Avil, apparently one of Chevrolet’s frequent film directors, also known for TV series such as Zorro and nominated for an 1967-8 Emmy for cinematography in an episode of TV series Hogan’s Heroes. Music direction is credited to Samuel Benavie, who later worked with Avil and Jam Handy Organization on Chevrolet film American Harvest. The music for the film is attributed to the Detroit Philharmonic Orchestra (the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has long been in the pay of GM, suggesting that this Orchestra or one like it provided the music for Master Hands). [Jam Handy Organiztion: http://www.archive.org/details/ProfileJ26 ].[Jam Handy, see Linda Robinson Walker in Michigan Today 3/95: http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/95/Mar95/mt2m95.html ].[Gordon Avil IMDB filmography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0043138/ ].Chevrolet Industrial FilmsAlthough the Library of Congress may have had multiple justifications for considering Master Hands to be a unique work of art, the film was certainly not the only one of its kind, or even Chevrolet’s only attempt at the industrial art film. Chevrolet has frequently used film as an advertising tool and as a vehicle for product placement. In the Jam HandyOrganization film Helping You Sell, and in other promotional and sales instruction materials we get a sense of the ways that these films were used. The films’ primary purpose appears to have been to help the salespeople and dealerships to widen their audiences by appealing to the community through the medium of film. The Complete Package2Lynley Shimat LysRob MooreIntro To MIAPOrphans Project Write-Up:Master HandsIn an article on Jam Handy, we find the following description of Jam Handy Organization’s procedures:“General Motors executives picked Handy to develop filmstrips for GM subsidiaries—films that could have subtitles printed on them, and be stopped to allow discussion. Skip Wendt, a filmmaker who was employed by the Handy Organization in the 1960s and '70s,said that for the introduction of a new model Chevrolet, Handy's group would produce separate packages of materials for dealers, salesmen, mechanics, and customers--brochures, manuals, pamphlets, filmstrips, everything--to teach about the model, and to fire the enthusiasm of the staff.”[Linda Robinson Walker in Michigan Today 3/95: http://www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/MT/95/Mar95/mt2m95.html]Here we get a sense of a full scale promotional apparatus – every angle has been considered and every sales possibility pointed out to employees and sales representatives of all sorts. The film medium has clearly been integrated into the performance of salesmanship.Strategic Film MarketsThe meta-advertising Jam Handy Organization film Helping You Sell mentions at least four different community markets that may be appealed to through films. The film illustrates a marketing strategy consisting of appealing to: 1. Students in high schools anduniversities who influence family car choices, 2. Organized groups and clubs that draw inbusinessmen and professionals, 3. Factories, mills and industrial organizations that employ potential buyers, and 4. Families through showings at Community Theaters. Again, the Jam Handy Organization leaves no stone unturned in appealing to all segmentsof the population through their various compulsory and community organizations. Film GenresAccording to the same film, the genres of Chevrolet industrial films include: the industrial (the narrator includes Master Hands in this category), films explaining processes, films animating or illustrating new technologies, animated films, and newsreels bringing you the latest Chevrolet trivia and entertainment. There is no direct indication as to whether specific genres target specific audiences, however it seems likelythat animated Cinderella films were directed more toward families than toward mechanics. Likewise, films about sales were probably not directed toward the consumer.3Lynley Shimat LysRob MooreIntro To MIAPOrphans Project Write-Up:Master HandsOther Chevrolet / Jam Handy Films of 1936In 1936 Chevrolet and Jam Handy Organization also produced such illustrious films as Formations, about Cinderella’s Chevrolet that takes her home safely after the ball, When You Know, about how safe driving is when you know how to do it properly, and at least half a dozen episodes of the recurrent Chevrolet Leader News, the newsreel update showing how Chevrolets can even be used as a platform for diving or as a fishing net. These newsreels can be considered early examples of product placement (or propaganda),as they were shown before commercial films in the same manner as other historical (non-industrial) newsreels appeared prior to the featured attraction. Chevrolet newsreels often served as a format for stunts and exciting or bizarre new uses for Chevrolet cars. In one reel, we see a turtle tied to the top of a car for structural purposes, in another a car surviving a fall off a cliff or a leap through a ring of fire. Related Chevrolet FilmsJam Handy / Chevrolet films more closely related to Master Hands
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