Title: SLAVKO VORKAPICH – JOHN HOFFMAN COLLECTION
Collection Number:
Span Dates: 1927 – 1979
Creator: Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman
Extent: 100 Film Reels ; 2 Audio Reels ; 2 Oil Paintings ; Box of Camera Negatives
Links: Online Media
Subject(s): Slavko Vorkapić ; Vorkapich ; John Hoffman ; Montages ; Montagists ; Editors ; Editing ; Special Effects ; Hollywood Studios ; Serbian-Americans ; Hungarian-Americans ; Directors ; Experimental Films ; Home Movies ; Lectures ; Documentaries ; Oil Paintings ; Propaganda ; Roosevelt Inauguration ; Stock Footage ; Professors ; Cinema Theorists ; Nature ; Storms ; Clouds ; YMCA ; Earthquakes ; Statue of Liberty ; Fingal’s Cave ; Rita Hayworth ; Gene Kelly ; San Francisco ; Mountains ; YMCA ; Grand Canyon ; Seagulls ; John F. Kennedy ; Democratic Party ; Women Sewing ; Railroads ; Oil Wells ; Santa Monica ; Mexican Americans ; Inaugural Address Parade ; Clark Gable ; Politics ; Academy Award Nominees ; Short Films ; Shorts ; Department Chairs
Notes:
Serbian-born Slavko Vorkapić (Vorkapich) was a master montage editor and special effects expert, best known for his work in Hollywood films including David Copperfield (1935), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941). Vorkapich’s groundbreaking use of lap dissolves, tracking shots, and creative optical effects was so distinctive that montage sequences in 1930s and 1940s screenplays were sometimes simply referred to as a “Vorkapich.” When Vorkapich arrived in Hollywood in 1921, he began work as an actor and painter, but quickly moved behind the camera. He co-directed several short visual poems with Hungarian-born filmmaker John Hoffman, created montages for features at Universal Pictures, MGM, RKO, and Paramount, and directed the Academy Award nominated short documentary, Private Smith of the U.S.A (1942). Vorkapich was also a cinema theorist and professor. From 1949 to 1951, he served as the chair of the Department of Film at the University of Southern California and later went on to lecture at the Belgrade Film and Theatre Academy in Yugoslavia.
The Vorkapich – Hoffman Collection includes complete and incomplete works from both Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman, as well as raw materials used to create their montages. Vorkapich and Hoffman’s collaborative projects Moods of the Sea (1941), Conquer By The Clock (1942), and Forest Murmurs (1947) are available, as well as The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1928), an experimental short Vorkapich co-directed with Robert Florey. Projects by John Hoffman include Boom Town (1940), Prelude to Spring (1941), and The Wreck of The Hesperus (1948). Miscellaneous stock footage of nature and historical events, home movies featuring and filmed by Vorkapich and Hoffman, Vorkapich lectures, and incomplete montages are also included. Non-visual materials include audio of a John Hoffman interview with Lee Garmes, and two oil paintings, one of Vorkapich by Warren Newcomb and the other possibly of Vorkapich’s father, Anton Verbic.
Citation: Vorkapich – Hoffman Collection, HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive, University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.
Location: USC HMH Foundation Moving Image Archive
Access: Available by appointment or in some cases digital scans for a fee.