Transcript Movies - PBworks

7. Movies
Richard E. Caplan
The University of Akron
Christopher Burnett
California State, Long Beach
Motion on Film
• Sequential photography
– Marey & Muybridge,
1877
– Thomas Edison, 1888
– William K.L. Dickson
• Perforated film
• Sprockets
– Peepshow viewer
– Looped on rollers
• First kinetoscope parlor
– April 14, 1894 in New
York City
Eadward Muybridge/CORBIS
• Kinetoscope
Muybridge Sequential Photography
Cinematographe
• Cinematographe 1895
– Auguste and Louis Lumière
– Camera and projector
– Portable, hand cranked
– Projected on a large screen
• First motion picture show
– Grand Café in Paris December 28, 1895
– 10 short films
– “Lunch Hour at the Lumière Factory”
Edison and Others
• Thomas Arnat’s Vitascope
• Edison’s premiere
– April 23, 1896
– Motion Picture Patents Co., 1908
• George Méliès
– A Trip to the Moon, 1902
– First “special effects” feature
– Trick photography
• Edwin S. Porter
– Worked for Edison
– The Great Train Robbery, 1903
– 12 scenes, dissolves, action
Studio and Spectacle
•
Biograph, Carl Laemmle
– First film studios
– Florence Lawrence
• First movie star
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Studio System
– Salaried stars and production staff under exclusive contract
•
The Birth of a Nation, 1915
– First feature-length film, big budget spectacular
– D.W. Griffith
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Noble and George Johnson,1916
–
Narrative movies, or race films, for African-American audience
Movies Become Big Business
• The move to Hollywood
– From New York
– Harry Chandler, LA Times
owner, sold the land
• Block Booking
AP/Wide World Photos
– Theaters signing up to show
dozens of films as a
“package” instead of single
movies
• United Artists, 1919
– Charlie Chaplin, Mary
Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks
and D.W. Griffith
– Independent studio run by
the stars themselves
Fairbanks, Pickford, Chaplin and Griffith
Early Self Regulation
• Hollywood scandals
– Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle case 1921
– Desmond Taylor Murder 1922
• Catholic Legion of Decency boycott
• Motion Picture Producers and Distributors
Association (MPPDA)
– Self-regulatory
– Will Hays “Hays Office” 1922
– Oversaw movie content
MPPDA 1930 Production Code
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May not lower the moral standard of viewers
Proper standards of life
Respect for law
Murder should not inspire imitation
No excessive kissing, embracing
No shade of obscenity
Modest dancing costumes
Film displays seal of approval
Arrival of the “Talkies”
• The Vitaphone Preludes,
1926
– Seven shorts with sound
– Warner Bro.s and Western
Electric
• The Jazz Singer, 1927
• By 1933, talkies dominate
completely
STR/AFP/Getty Images
– Al Jolson
– First feature-length “talkie”
– Synchronized sound recording
Scene from The Jazz Singer
Rise of the Movie Moguls
• 1930s Big Five
– Warner Brothers
– Metro-Goldwin-Mayer
– Paramount
– RKO
– 20th Century Fox
• 2/3 of ticket sales
• Vertically integrated
– Owned production and distribution
– Production “stables”
• stars, directors, writers and staff
Disney and Depression
• Steamboat Willie 1928
– Walt Disney
– Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
• First full-length animated feature
• The Depression
– Bingo nights
– Dish nights
– Double features
• Labor unions
– Screen Actors Guild
• 1937
– Screen Writer’s Guild
– Director’s Guild
The Golden Age of Movies
• MGM reigns supreme
– Blockbusters
– The Wizard of Oz - 1939
The Kobal Collection
• Musical
– Gone with the Wind – 1939
• Magnificent use of color
• Citizen Kane - 1941
– Orson Welles
– Voted the greatest film of all
time
Wizard of Oz
Congress and the Courts
• The House Un-American
Activities Committee
The Cold War
Suspected communists
The Hollywood Ten, 1947
Blacklisting
• U.S v. Paramount
Pictures, 1948
– Limit block booking to five
– Stop blind booking
– Stop requiring short film
rentals
– Stop buying theaters
The Kobal Collection
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Movies v. Television
• 1950s Television boom
– 4000 theaters closed
• Wide-Screen and 3-D Movies
– Cinemascope and stereophonic sound
• Changes in censorship
– 1952, 1st Amendment protection extended to film
– Sex and violence added
• Spectaculars
– The Sound of Music
– Blockbuster hunt
Movie Ratings
• MPAA - Motion Pictures Association of America
Movie Ratings, 1966
– Designed to prevent censorship
• G - All ages
• PG - Parental guidance suggested (originally called M)
• PG 13 - Parents strongly cautioned to give guidance to
children under 13 (added later)
• R - Restricted; those under 17 must be accompanied by
parent or guardian
• NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted (originally X)
Movie Business
• Major studios
Peter Morgan/Reuters/Corbis
– Disney, Viacom/Paramount,
Sony Pictures Entertainment,
etc.
• Less than 20 movies a year for
each studio
• Independent producers
Geffen, Katzenberg and Spielberg of
Dreamworks, now part of Viacom
– Distributed by studios
– Sundance and other festivals
• Most fragmented industry in
mass media
Making Money
• Drop in ticket sales
– 1946 was the biggest
year for movie attendance
• $100 million avg. film
cost
• 2 of 10 make money
• Ancillary rights
©Business Wire/Getty Images
– Videos and DVDs
– Network and Pay TV
– Airline, base, campus
rights
– Soundtrack albums
– Books, etc.
Working in the Movies
• Screenwriters
– Independent writers
Ray Stubblebine/Reuters/Corbis
• Producers
– Funding and logistics
• Directors
• Actors
• Production
– The movie creators
• Marketing
– Publicity and advertising
• Administration
• Film Career Link
Digital Technology & Movies
• Production
• Distribution
– Satellite distribution
– Digital projectors
– Internet distribution?
• Future of Exhibition
– Alternative tech experiences
– “motion simulation”
– “Real D”
Michael Connors/morguefile.com
– Smaller cameras
– Computer effects
– Digitized color
Making Money in the Movies
Illustration 7.1
Globalization of Film
• Global ownership
– Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Owned by Sony
• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
• Fox News, Fox Network, British
Sky Broadcasting
• Film is a major U.S. Export
– One-third profits from
overseas
• More consolidation?
Michael Connors/morguefile.com
– Twentieth Century-Fox
Critical Discussion
AP/Wide World Photos
1. Should today’s film
industry have a voluntary
code like the one in the
‘30s-’50s?
2. How might consolidated
ownership of film, TV and
other media outlets affect
the film industry in
particular?