Chapter 6Movies: Magic From The Dream

Factory

Chapter Outline• History• Industry• Controversies

A Brief History of Movies

A Brief History of Movies

Early Movie Technology• At a minimum of 24 fps, one can achieve

persistence of vision• Peep shows• Thomas Edison’s kinetograph and

kinetoscope, (1889) sample• Edison’s Vitascope (1896) led to

nickelodeons• Lumière Bros.

The Great Train Robbery (1903)• Link to film

A Brief History of Movies•Edison created the Motion

Picture Patents Company, known as The Trust.

•Made deal with film patent holder George Eastman to limit access to film

•Chilling effect on film production in New York

•Filmmakers move west to California

A Brief History of MoviesThe Star System

• 1920s, theater owners begin to demand stars, and studio heads see an opportunity

• Block booking• Blind booking

Racism and Innovation

Racism and Innovation

• D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) introduces perfected close-up, fade out, flashback and montages. It also depicts black people as subhuman and glorifies the Ku Klux Klan.

• Leni Riefenstahl: Brilliant filmmaker, but films were made to promote the Nazi cause.

Racism and Innovation

A Brief History of MoviesHollywood’s Golden Age

A Brief History of MoviesHollywood’s Golden Age (1930s)

• efficient studio system and global influence of film art combined with the development of sound and color

A Brief History of Movies• Throughout the 1930s and 1940s

moviegoing became part of American culture, and genres begin to form.

• Mafia films: Little Caesar (1930)• Horror films: Dracula (1931) with

Bela Lugosi• Comedies: Marx brothers’ Duck

Soup (1933)• Color is perfected: Gone With The

Wind and The Wizard of Oz, both produced in 1939.

• Special effects: King Kong (1933) and The Invisible Man (1933).

A Brief History of Movies

Black cinema• Black citizens were not allowed in

“whites-only” theaters. Centered in Harlem, these films featured all-black casts and were shown in theaters in black neighborhoods throughout the country.

• Oscar Micheaux• Sidney Poitier

A Brief History of Movies

A Brief History of Movies

Reacting To TV • By early 1960s more than 90 percent of

American homes have TVs.• Better sound and better screens, such as

Cinemascope.• High-budget spectaculars• Gimmicks: 3-D effects, Smell-o-Vision,

vibrating chairs• Adult themes: sex, drug use, violence• 1955 Hollywood begins releasing made-

for-TV movies• Today, companies own both TV and movie

studios

A Brief History of Movies

A Brief History of Movies

A Brief History of Movies

Adapting To New Media •1980s and (VCRs)•MPAA tried to kill the VCR• In 1983 the Supreme court ruled in

the Sony Betamax case that video recording for private use was not an infringement of copyright.

•VCRs create whole new industry for movie studios: the rentals

•DVDs 1996, then come recordable DVDs and downloads, now iTunes store

A Brief History of Movies

A Brief History of Movies

Adapting To New Media • Downloading leads to pirating and

illegal distribution: Morpheus, Kazaa, bittorrent

• In 2003, movie companies devised methods for encrypting DVDs

• Online services: MovieLink, iTunes, Netflix

• Digital editing• Digital distribution to theaters allow

showing of concerts, sporting events and huge savings over canisters of film

• Is this the future of theaters? Who pays for the upgrades?

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

• Media conglomerates and cross-ownership

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

How movies are made• Preproduction• Production• Postproduction

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

The People In The Credits• Executive producer

• Line producers • Director• Writer• Editor• Cinematographer• Art director• Continuity supervisor• Key grip• Gaffer

• best boy

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

Distribution• Marketing window an opportunity to

sell, rent, or license a product to a different type of customer

• Domestic theatrical• 1997: first time studios made more

money from theaters in other countries than in the U.S.

• Pressure from other governments/audiences can influence which movies get a green light and can affect content

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

Exhibition•Art theaters show experimental,

avant garde and foreign films.•Multiplexes•Megatheaters

Understanding Today’s Movie Industry

The Audience• In the 1930s and 1940s entire

families went to the same movie.• Studios target young white males

with action-adventure and female nudity because research shows that young men usually select the film for a date, and that 75 percent of the audience is white.

• Summer provides the largest audience, followed by holiday season

Controversies• Product placement• Effects Of Movie Viewing

• Docudramas• Violence• Sexual behavior and casual sex on screen• Drug use/smoking• Stereotyping• Government censorship• MPAA rating system (1968)

Chapter 6Movies: Magic From The Dream

Factory

Chapter Outline• History• Industry• Controversies