Amateur Film Ingenuity: Stylistic Innovations and Resistance Outside the Industry

Abstract

In this article, we will analyze the amateur filmmaker's attitude toward changing technologies, using as examples Frank Marshall's highly creative automobile satire Joys of the Open Road (1961), and the creative invention of Surprise in Store (1965), a film in which he experimented with sound for the first time. The latter features an asynchronous soundtrack similar to many amateur productions of the period. This article also explores how amateur filmmakers dealt with the gradual transition to sound during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While it is useful to chart this shift from a technological perspective, this will not be our main focus. Instead, we will explore how this debate over sound played out both in amateur film journals and in selected films made during the period.