Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/916056
During J.C.'s planning for and relocation of over 2,000 painted backings, they identified 207 canvases, some historic, too fragile or specific in their genre and subject to remain active within their core rental catalog. This posed a critical question and challenge of how to migrate and preserve these veterans from Hollywood's historic past. In 2012, the Art Directors Guild Archives began a comprehensive effort to preserve the legacy of Hollywood's motion picture Scenic Arts. This commitment to preservation has resulted in the possession of the world's most comprehensive archive on Hollywood Scenic Art painting and the creation of The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, the definitive and award-winning book on this heretofore- unwritten history. The imminent departure of J.C. Backings from its historic MGM-era scenic studio building presented an urgent and brief window to further capture this vanishing history. In collaboration with the ADG Archives, J.C. Backings and Sony Production Services developed a strategy to recover these potentially lost backings. With the endorsement of the ADG's Scenic, Title and Graphics Artists Council, the ADG's Board approved a proposal to create the "Backdrop Recovery Project" (BRP). The project's mission, to preserve the 207 exemplary historic backings for the purpose of their identification and eventual donation to museums, motion picture archives and academic institutions, for exhibitions, educational and scholarly endeavors, and their extended preservation. A. Still from NORTH BY NORTHWEST, showing the entire United Nations backdrop. B. Detail of a larger backdrop, created for NORTH BY NORTHWEST, 1959. Production Designer Robert F. Boyle. 31-feet x 22-feet. A B