“How records are made” — sent to me by a colleague. That’s right: it’s not the concert performance, it’s a “planned illusion!” How did a 1956 corporate documentary get it right when so many scholars have gotten it wrong?
(Original source; http://www.archive.org/details/SoundAndTheS)
This is fantastic. I love how we follow the record along the production process whilst also following the actual piece, so the production line becomes (by aural implication) a kind of ballet suite. (The Fordist factory as an orchestra, etc).
I also noticed how the distribution phase is accompanied by a second, minor-key movement–the bit after 21′ with the punch-card computer. A strange melancholy mood at that point.
And note how all the people working in the early phases are men (in ties), and all the workers in the later stages (from the “record tester” on) are women.
I like the shot at 4’06” — when “the engineer never touches the controls” and we see the engineer’s hands. Hmm, right.
I didn’t realise there were “tape enthusiasts” as early as 1956 either…