Theodore Richards
Integrative Seminar 1: Fake
Artifact Research and Annotated Bibliography
12/12/15
“To make a great film, you need three things: the script, the script, and the script.”
– Alfred Hitchcock
In 1959, popular culture was very reserved in terms of mainstream content. There was no
suggestive nudity, little profanity, if any, no interracial relationships, and violence was not
allowed to be gruesome. However, some writers, filmmakers, and photographers were beginning
to push the boundaries of what is appropriate, and censorship boards such as the one behind The
Motion Picture Production Code were beginning to get more lenient. There was also a huge
Futurist movement from 1958 to 1963 through all categories of media, from film, to writing, to
comics, known as The Golden Age of American Futurism. Futurism started in Italy, during the
early twentieth century. Futurism originally started in paintings and drawings but was quickly
used in all mediums. Many of these pieces speculated what the world may be like in fifty to one
hundred years. Some of these ideas are now reality, while others still seem like futuristic
improbabilities. For example, there are proposals of artificial suns, rotating homes, and giant
crops, such as eight-foot long corn. I have created fake artifacts that could serve as an exhibition
in The Museum of the Moving Image as relics of a cancelled film from this time.
I chose this time period because I am very interested in the previously mentioned
subjects: censorship and Futurism. Almost sixty years later, we still deal with problems of
censorship. Although the rules are very lenient when it comes to film, television is still heavily
censored by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Even filmmakers must be careful
not to use the wrong words in the wrong way. They also can’t show sexual content too
graphically, for fear of being labeled as pornographic. But overall, censorship is slowly dying in
both television and film due to claims of free speech and artistic license.
Futurism, on the other hand, is alive and well. Every day, inventors are working on new
projects, many of which originated in 1950s pop culture: hover boards, electric cars,
smartwatches, etc. This proves how instrumental this Futurist movement was in the growth of
technology. I wanted to create something that fit into this category, while simultaneously dealt
with the problems of censorship. I am also very interested in film, so I felt that a screenplay and
some background, letters between an executive and a producer, and a movie poster would be the
best way to investigate my interests.
The first object I made was the screenplay. This is where I included, mainly, research I
did on Futurism, but also set myself up for the research on censorship that explore further in the
letters. For the screenplay, I wanted to include only ideas from that time period. For the most
part, I referred to a series of illustrations called “Closer Than We Think,” created by Arthur
Radebaugh for the Sunday papers between 1958 and 1962. These illustrations were seen by
millions of readers across the country. I used the following ideas in the screenplay from his
illustrations, alone: driverless cars, electric home library, computerized desk, paper-thin screens,
full-wall televisions, pedestrian-based downtowns, and talking cash registers. I also referred to
an article written by Isaac Asimov in 1964 titled, “Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014.” In this, he
speaks about a lot of the same things that Radebaugh did. However, he also speaks of how
people will use robots to complete mundane tasks, which I took further in the screenplay.
I also referred to works both new and old for visual inspiration. Lauren Marsolier’s 2014
photo-series Transition inspired me both visually and conceptually for the idea of the town.
However, it was photographs of John Divola’s artifial nature film sets that he worked on from
1930-1960, on display at The Museum of the Moving Image, that really completed the look and
feel of the town mentioned in the screenplay.
The next artifact I created was the movie poster. I initially created it to fit the color
scheme I had in my head: very subtle hues of blue and tan with minimal lettering or detail.
However, after looking at images of actual sci-fi movie posters from the 1950s, such as The War
of the Worlds (1953) and When Worlds Collide (1951), I realized that my poster would not pass
as authentic. The actual posters were often dark with high contrast, busy, and had colorful titles.
Mine had none of these. I redesigned my poster to better fit in with the others, though admittedly,
still a rather reserved poster for the day.
My last artifacts were a series of letters between Barney Balaban, the actual president of
Paramount Pictures, Inc., from 1936 to 1964, and George Pal, the producer of both The War of
the Worlds (1953) and When Worlds Collide (1951). These letters were based on research I did of
censorship of film in the 1950s, including many references to The Motion Picture Production
Code that applied to most motion pictures from major studios from 1930 until 1968. I included
this so much because not only did it provide a precise set of rules and guidelines that filmmakers
were supposed to abide by, but because it was often pushed, especially nearer to its abandonment
in 1968. Filmmakers felt that the rules stated in the code were outdated and intruded on artistic
license. Studios also started to notice in the late 1950s—early 1960s that the introduction of
television was taking away from their profits because television films were given the same
guidelines as studio films, so people were opting for television because they didn’t have to leave
their homes. This is why Mr. Balaban allows minor violations against the production code in the
letters. Some examples of rules that I broke in the screenplay and mentioned in the letters were
profanity, nudity/sexuality, gruesome self-harm, and miscegenation.
Overall, I believe that the three artifacts, the screenplay, poster, and series of letters,
provide a clear narrative to a time of both exploration in art, technology, and film, as well as the
censorship that prevented these ideas from being fully developed and expressed. The artifacts
that I have created are intended to act as the most literal translation of the word, meaning that
they are supposed to seem as though they were originally created in 1959 and are still in their
original state. I believe that if exhibited at The Museum of the Moving Image correctly, they
could serve as a distorted reality of the past that does not currently exist. Through this process of
research and creation, I realized that one cannot truly exist without the other. Research and
creation work hand-in-hand to create a piece, whether under the context of “Fake” or not. I also
realized how detrimental the censorship of art and film was to the growth of the Futurist ideas.
Without some of the ideas first written about in the 1950s, our technology today would be very
different. This forces the questions of what ideas were censored from existence, and how would
they have changed the present day? Lastly, this process furthered the fact that I make my best
work when I want to do it and am truly interested in what I am creating.
Annotations:
Asimov, Isaac. “Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014.” New York Times: 1964.
This was one of the main articles that I found from that time that went into a greater
detail about robots, which are an important part of the screenplay. Asimov predicted that
in 2014, there would be robots; however, they would not look like people and they would
only perform mundane tasks. I used this information in my screenplay, which I picture to
take place around 2035, to show how robots have advanced since the world that Asimov
imagined.
Marsolier, Lauren. Transition. Berlin: Kerber, 2014. Print.
This book influenced the entire content of the screenplay. I was fascinated with the
emptiness of the situations that she depicted, while still showing the remnants of human
beings. Both the imagery and the text in this book fed into the mood of the screenplay
and how I wanted it to come off to the viewer/reader.
Radebaugh, Arthur. “Closer Than We Think.” 1958-1962.
I studied and read through forty-two examples of Mr. Radebaugh’s illustrations, including
Jetpack Mailmen, Highway to Russia, Tranquilizer Warfare, as well as the ones
aforementioned in the text. These images depicted a variety of items and scenes, some of
which are not relevant in today’s reality. However, it was the ones that were close to
reality that interested me. I was fascinated by how an illustrator from over fifty years ago
was so accurate, and I thought about how influential these drawings are to this day.
Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. New York: Random House, Inc., 1975. Print.
I referred to Sklar’s book when researching for the letters. In the book, there is a chapter
titled, “The Disappearing Audience and the Television Crisis,” in which he explains how
studios were pushing the boundaries in order to gain back audiences. I used this
information when writing from Barney Balaban’s point of view.
“The Motion Picture Production Code.” 1930.
I referred to this document that claimed to “maintain social and community values in the
production of silent, synchronized and talking motion pictures” many times while writing
both the screenplay and the letters. This code allowed me to understand exactly what
rules studios and filmmakers were given when making a film. It also allowed me to break
these rules and address them in the letters, which I did many times.
