mikegee Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 was shearer and gibbons ( the names maybe misspelled ) partners,general one was director of sound the other was art director. in about 99% of the movies one made the other was active with it also. this has been bugging me for months trying to find out if they were or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coopsgirl Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 I hadn't noticed the connection between these two before so I don't know. I do know that Gibbons had it in his contract that he was always to be listed as the art director even if it was someone else on his staff that actually worked on the film and not him directly. He was quite an astute business man and he's also the one who designed the Oscar statuette. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissGoddess Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 I don't think there was any specified partnership, both were under contract to MGM and came on board at different times. I learned a little about how Shearer came to learn about the business (he had no previous experience) in Scott Eyman's book on the coming of talkies, The Speed of Sound. You might enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattBarry Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Both were department heads, and as such, received blanket credit on all films produced by the studio. As far as I know, for the majority of films on which they received credit, neither did much more than sign off on budget plans and sign the paychecks (although Gibbons did direct one of the "Tarzan" pictures). Gibbons had been more involved with production design in the early 20s, but as art department head at MGM, most of the production design tasks were delegated to the staff art directors like Harry Oliver, Stan Rogers, and Randall Duell. Shearer, incidentally, had no real experience in sound recording in the first place. His passion was cinematography, and he did develop some innovative camera technology. His work as a sound man, however, was generally regarded as subpar by his co-workers. Veteran sound mixer Ed Bernds recalled being astounded at Shearer's lack of technical knowledge when it came to sound recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineSage_jr Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Gibbons retained sole screen credit for directing TARZAN AND HIS MATE, even though most of the footage he directed was discarded and re-shot, uncredited, by staff directors Jack Conway and James McKay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziggyelman Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 Funny, I always thought MGM had the best early sound....Douglas Shearer was Norma's brother as well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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