Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/914212
46 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2017 by Mel Lambert • portraits by Christopher Fragapane I n the early days of the motion picture industry, progress often required that new technologies be innovated by a studio that was advancing the art of cinema. Nowhere was this development more important than at the fledgling Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (today the Walt Disney Company) in Hollywood, which, close to a century ago, was coming to terms with cel animation. Later, as the need for on-hand technical specialization increased, the Disney studio developed a fully equipped machine shop, now housed at the company's headquarters in Burbank, which opened in 1940. The shop, with its staff of talented cinetechnicians who support post-production departments by keeping their equipment up to date, is now located in the basement of the ACT (Arts/Crafts/Technical) Building, under the management of Disney's Studio Technology group.