Sponsored film

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Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, [1] is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited time. [2] Many of the films are also orphan works since they lack copyright owners or active custodians to guarantee their long-term preservation.

Contents

Types of sponsored film

The genre is composed of advertising films, educational films, industrial videos, training films, social guidance films, and government-produced films. [3] [4]

While some may borrow themes from well-known film genres such as western film, musicals, and comedies, what defines them is a sponsored rhetoric to achieve the sponsor's goals, rather than those of the creative artist.

Sponsored films in 16mm were loaned at no cost, except sometimes postage, to clubs, schools, and other groups. [5] America's largest companies - AT&T, DuPont, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Republic Steel, Standard Oil, and Westinghouse Electric Company - were for decades active sponsored film producers and distributors; others included airlines who offered travelogues on their destinations. In the early years of commercial television, local television stations often used sponsored films as "filler" programming. Specialized distributing agents packaged films from various sponsors into TV programs with titles like Compass, Color Camera, Ladies' Day, and Adventures In Living.

Usage

The films are often used as B-roll in documentary films, for instance, the social guidance film The Terrible Truth (1951, Sid Davis) appears, desaturated, in Ron Mann's Grass (1999) as an example of what he perceives as hysteria over drug abuse, as well as an example of the slippery slope fallacy.

Prelinger and other film archivists [6] generally consider the films interesting for their sociological, ethnographic, or evidentiary value: for instance, a mental hygiene film instructing children to be careful of strangers may seem laughable by today's standards, but the film may show important aspects of society which were documented unintentionally: hairstyles, popular fashions, technological advances, landscapes, etc. [2]

Prelinger estimates that the form includes perhaps 400,000 films and, as such, is the largest genre of films, but that one-third to one-half of the films have been lost to neglect. In the late 20th century, the archival moving-image community has taken greater notice of sponsored film, and key ephemeral films began to be preserved by specialized, regional, and national archives. [2]

A number of British films in this style were re-evaluated and released commercially by the British Film Institute in 2010 as part of its Boom Britain / Shadows of Progress project.

Examples of sponsored films include Design for Dreaming , A Touch of Magic , [7] and A Word to the Wives . Technicolor for Industrial Films is a sponsored film about sponsored films.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ephemera Transient items, usually printed

Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in nature, various interpretations of ephemera and related items have been contended, including menus, newspapers, postcards, posters, plastic champagne glasses, portable classrooms and stickers.

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An industrial musical is a musical performed internally for the employees or shareholders of a business to create a feeling of being part of a team, to entertain, and/or to educate and motivate the management and salespeople to improve sales and profits. It can be used to increase staff awareness of public relations, advertising, marketing or corporate image.

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Rick Prelinger American film director

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Industrial video

An industrial video is a video that targets “industry” as its primary audience. An industrial video is a type of sponsored film which prioritizes pragmatism over artistic value. While the primary purpose of an educational film is to inform an audience, the purpose of an industrial video can vary depending on the client.

The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film heritage. The organization has three main projects: the TAMI Online Collection, the Texas Film Round-Up, and Teach Texas. Its offices are located in Austin, Texas.

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Megan Prelinger

Megan Prelinger is a cultural historian and archivist. She is the co-founder of the Prelinger Library in San Francisco and author of two books: Another Science Fiction: Advertising the Space Race 1957–1962 and Inside the Machine: Art and Invention in the Electronic Age.

References

  1. EPHEMERA: The Prelinger Archives (March 2013 Edition) on Vimeo
  2. 1 2 3 Prelinger, Rick (2006), The Field Guide to Sponsored Films, San Francisco, California: National Film Preservation Foundation , retrieved 6 February 2011
  3. Learning to Love Sponsored Films|Arts & Culture|Smithsonian
  4. Labor-Sponsored Film and Working-Class History: The Inheritance (1964) on JSTOR
  5. Navigating the well-curated, deeply weird Sponsored Films online archive-The Verge
  6. Ephemeral Films by Rick Prelinger on Vimeo
  7. EPHEMERA: POPULUXE on Vimeo