Film

The Impact of Movie Images

Film Technology• The following video highlights the important technology

movements of film.• Important fact:

– Around 1880 English photographer Eadweard Muybridge was the first to project moving pictures by manipulating photographs and make them look like they were moving at the same time

– Late 1880 Thomas Edison decides to merge phonograph technology and moving images to create talking pictures. However, when progress was not fast enough he passed it on to his assistant , William Kennedy Dickson

– In 1884 George Eastman (founder of Kodak) developed first large film roll. Later Hannibal Goodwin, a minister, improved on the invention by using celluloid that could hold chemicals sensitive to light which solved a major problem: It enables a strip of film to move through a camera in rapid successions

– Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince is credited to have invented the first motion picture camera using this Eastman’s roll.

– By 1890 Dickson combined Edison’s light bulb and Goodwin’s celluloid and created the kinetograph camera and the single person viewing system called kinetoscope

– Around 1895, Edison’s creates a system called vitascope that can project longer lenghts of film, thus spring the hint og motion pictures as a mass medium

Early Films

• Narrative Films: Films that tell stories• French magician and inventor George Melies,

opened the first public movie theater in 1896.– The Vanishing Lady (1896)

• The arrival of Nickelodeons, a form of movie theater whose name combines the admission price with the Greek word “theater,” was a major development because it brought makeshift storefronts to the public for viewing

• By 1910s, movies had become a major industry

The Rise of Hollywood

• Edison’s Trust: Cartel of major U.S. and French producers. Made to control the patents of technology so they could control the profits of movies– Exclusive deal with Eastman who would only supply them

• Independent productions moved to Hollywood to escape the Trust because of the cheap labor, diverse scenery and mild climate

• Adolph Zukor (Paramount Pictures) and William Fox (Twentieth Century Fox) figured out ways to bypass the Trust. Suit by Fox led to the breakup of the Trust for trade voilations

The Rise of Hollywood Continues

• Entrepreneurs like Zukor developed other tactics for controlling the industry.

• Vertical integration of all three levels of the movie business– Production– Distribution– Exhibition

• Turned the film industry into an oligopoly, a market situation in which each of a few producers affects but does not control the market.

Production• Actors

– Originally anonymous– Industry eventually understood the

value of creating stars such as Mary Pickford.

• Mary Pickford, known then as “America’s sweetheart” helped elevate the financial status of actors due to her major popularity.– First female to make $1 million dollar

in a year and gained freedom to take artistic role

– Left Zukor to form United Artists, which fellow actor Charlin Chaplin

• However, studio system controlled creative talent in the industry.

Distribution & Exhibition

• Film exchange system– In exchange for providing

short films, movie companies received a percentage of ticket-gate receipts.

• Block booking distribution– Exhibitors had to rent

marginal films in order to get films with big stars.

• Marketing of American films in Europe

• Controlling exhibition– Edison’s Trust– Required theaters to purchase

licenses or be locked out

• Zukor bought up theaters and later built movie palaces.– Mid-city movie theaters– The Big Five (Paramount,

MGM, Warner Brother, Twentieth Century Fox, and RKO) and the Little Three (Columbia, Universal, & United Artist) formed a powerful oligopoly.

Hollywood Narrative and the Silent Era

• D.W. Griffith– Single most important

director in Hollywood’s early days

– The Birth of a Nation• First feature-length film• First blockbuster• However, very rastic

• Popular silent era films– Napoleon, Ben-Hur, and

The Ten Commandments

The Development of Hollywood Style

• Hollywood narratives– Two basic components

• Story• Discourse

• Hollywood genres– Grouping by genre

achieves two goals• Product standardization

(same product to imitate)• Product differentiation

(different product to appeal to others)

The Development of Hollywood Style Cont.

• Three ingredients give Hollywood movies their distinctive flavor: narrative, genre, and author (or director).

• 1. Hollywood Narratives. The two basic components of the narrative are the story (what happens to whom) and the discourse (how the story is told).

• 2. Hollywood Genres. By making films that fall into popular genres, the movie industry provides familiar models that can be imitated. Two related economic goals are product standardization and product differentiation.

• 3. Hollywood “Authors.” Although hundreds of people contribute to a film’s production, the director serves as the main

Outside the Hollywood System

• The documentary tradition• Cinema verité: French: “truth cinema”– French film movement of the 1960s that showed people in

everyday situations with authentic dialogue and naturalness

• The rise of independent films– Known as indies– Made on a shoestring budget and shown in small venues

and film festivals– Independent film festivals important for discovering new

talent

Moving to the Suburbs

• Transformation from a wartime economy and a surge in consumer production had a significant impact on moviegoing.– Money spent on consumer products instead of

movie tickets– People married younger, so fewer couples were

dating.– Television explosion in the late 50s

Hollywood Adapts to Home Entertainment

• Introduction of cable and videocassettes in 1970s changed movie exhibition.– Video market was a financial bonanza for movie

industry.– Traditional video rental market is declining.– Future of video rental is in Internet distribution.

Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Today

• Movie studios have six major sources of income.– Box-office receipts– DVD sales, rentals, and downloads– Pay-per-view, premium cable, etc.– Foreign markets– Distributing indie films– Licensing and product placement

• Began diversifying in the 1980s– Heavy promotion and synergy– Flood of corporate merger

Convergence: Movies Adjust to the Digital Turn

• Movie industry has quickly embraced Internet distribution.– Services include Hulu, Netflix, Xfinity, YouTube,

and CinemaNow.– Increasingly available on smartphones and tablets

• 2012: first year digital outpaced physical DVDs for BluRays

• Internet essential for marketing: For example, videos created on YouTube to highlight the best in films