In June 1980, the band ended their 10-month tour of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom in support of their previous album, Permanent Waves (1980). The tour was a commercial success for the group, becoming the first of their career to earn them a profit. During their stop in New York City a month prior, the band decided to scrap plans for a second live album in favor of making a new one in the studio. Cliff Burnstein of Mercury Records suggested the idea to the band, and Neil Peart was particularly enthusiastic about the new ideas that were being developed at sound checks and was keen to put them to tape. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson caught on to his enthusiasm.
The band retreated to Stony Lake, Ontario to write and develop new material. The sessions were productive. "The Camera Eye" was the first song to be worked on, followed by "Tom Sawyer", "Red Barchetta", the instrumental "YYZ", and "Limelight". Lee noticed a change in Peart's lyrics during this time, which had started with Permanent Waves, towards more concise and direct words. Following these sessions, Rush returned to Phase One Studios in late August 1980 with their longtime co-producer Terry Brown and prepared demos of these songs. The tracks were refined further during subsequent rehearsals for a series of warm-up shows across the US in September and October 1980, during which "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight" were performed live for the first time.
Moving Pictures was recorded at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec in October and November 1980. Rush and Brown worked with 48-track recording for the first time. They'd record the basic tracks - drums and bass - to one 24-track tape reel, and transfer a stereo mix of these to a second 24-track reel for overdubs. This allowed them to preserve the quality of their recordings as much as possible as they were able to place the original backing track reel in storage until the mixing stage, thereby reducing potential damage to the tape from frequent playback. They experimented with a pressure zone microphone, a type of boundary microphone that picks up direct sound and no reverberated signals, that was taped onto Peart's chest as he played the drums. The audio captured from it was used to pick up the ambience in the studio room and was inserted into the final mix. Peart is seen wearing the microphone in the music video for "Vital Signs". The album was mixed down onto a Sony digital mastering machine, being an early example of digital recording. However, the completion of the album was delayed by two weeks due to technical issues in the studio, including with the Sony unit, but, as Brown elaborated, "it’s to be expected when you’re pushing the latest gear to its limits".
4 time signature, along with instrumental and closing sections in 7
8. It was the first Rush recording for which Lee used his 1972 Fender Jazz Bass, which provided a punchier lower end than he had been able to obtain with his usual Rickenbacker 4001. Lee said the group had more trouble with "Tom Sawyer" than any other song on Moving Pictures, and at times had doubts as to whether it would work. The band had technical difficulties with the computer that mixed the tracks, so they decided to operate the mixing desk manually with each member handling their own set of faders. Peart described it as "an enjoyable work", which took around a day and a half to record, "collapsing afterwards with raw, red, aching hands and feet". Its instrumental section grew from what Lee would play on his synthesizer during sound checks on tour, which initially was forgotten about until the band traded ideas on what the section should be.
Peart's lyrics for "Red Barchetta" were inspired by the short story "A Nice Morning Drive" by Richard S. Foster, originally published in the November 1973 edition of the American car magazine Road & Track. Lee described the tale as "Orwellian in nature", which deals with an individual taking their Barchetta on a fast ride despite the banning of high speeds and is chased after by hovering patrol cars for breaking the law. "YYZ" is an instrumental titled after the IATA airport code for Toronto Pearson International Airport; its rhythm is that of the letters "YYZ" in Morse code. The lyrics for "Limelight" are autobiographical and based on Peart's own dissatisfaction with fame and its intrusion into one's personal life. The song contains two self-references: the first, the line "living in a fish-eye lens, caught in the camera eye" references the album's following track
Next was "The Camera Eye" was a two-part track with sections unofficially titled "New York City" and "London". Peart wrote the lyrics after taking walks in both cities, recalling observations and the rhythms he felt during them. It was the final song the band included on a studio album with a length of over ten minutes, something which was a frequent occurrence on their earlier albums. Its title refers to short pieces of the same name in the U.S.A. trilogy of novels written by American writer John Dos Passos, which Peart admired. "Witch Hunt" opened with faint voices, which were recorded on the driveway of Le Studio in sub-zero temperatures, with the band and studio staff shouting in a humorous way while drinking Scotch whisky. Lifeson said one of his lines, "Fucking football", can be heard if the listener tries hard enough. The tracks were overdubbed multiple times until it sounded what Lee described as a "vigilante mob". "Vital Signs" was the last song that the band wrote for the album, which was pieced together at Le Studio. It features a sequencer part produced by an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer, and shows a distinct reggae flavour. Reggae influences in Rush's music were first heard on Permanent Waves, and would later be heard more extensively on their next two albums.
The cover was designed by Hugh Syme who estimated the artwork cost $9,500 to produce. Anthem Records refused to cover the entire bill, leaving the band to pay for the rest. It was a triple entendre; the front depicts movers who are carrying pictures. On the side, people are shown crying because the pictures passing by are emotionally "moving". Finally, the back cover has a film crew making a motion (moving) picture of the whole scene. It was photographed outside the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen's Park, Toronto. The pictures that are being moved are the band's Starman logo featured on the reverse cover of 2112 (1976), one of the Dogs Playing Poker paintings entitled A Friend in Need, and a painting that shows Joan of Arc being burned at the stake. The film crew on the back cover actually shot the scene, from which a single frame was used for the cover.
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