MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Purpose

Discuss:1. Media texts as products of institutional,

economic and industrial processes.

2. The production, distribution and exhibition of media texts.

3. The advances in media technologies and how it effects the production and consumption of media

FILM INDUSTRIES

Contemporary Film Industries

“The film industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production,

screen-writing, pre- / Post- production, Film festivals, distribution, actors, directors and film crew.”

Hollywood Bollywood UK film Industry

Hollywood

The cinema of the United

States often generally

referred to as Hollywood,

has had a profound effect on

cinema across the world since the early 20th century.

1886 Landowners Harvey &

Daeida Henderson Wilcox named their farm Hollywood after Daeida met a woman in Ohio whose country house was called “Hollywood” for the English holly and woods.

1911 The first motion picture

studio in Hollywood was built by the Nestor Motion Picture Company on Sunset and Gower corner. Nestor Studios merged one year later with Universal Film Company.

Four major film companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO and Columbia – had studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios. A new commercial and retail

sector opened up.

1915 William Fox starts the Fox Film

Foundation with studios built in New Jersey and Hollywood.

D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" is released. Hailed as the most important film of all time for American movie history for introducing story flashbacks, dramatic close-ups, cross-cutting.

1916 Paramount is created when

Jesse L. Lasky Co. merges with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Co.

1923 To publicize a new housing

development, a sign is erected for Hollywoodland. The -land was taken off in 1949.

1928 Mickey Mouse debuted in

the first synchronized sound cartoon “Steamboat Willie” by the Disney Brothers Production Company. The cartoon was drawn and filmed in their garage in Los Feliz.

1929 The first Oscar Awards

Ceremony is held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, across from the Chinese Theater, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Since the 1920s, the American film

industry has grossed more money every year than that of

any other country. Hollywood is ranked

as the no.1 film industry in the

world. It produces roughly 500 films a

year.

Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai and not the whole of Indian cinema. It is derived from Bombay.

India is the largest producer of films in the world, in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced i.e. 1000 movies per year. The Indian film industry is Multi-Lingual. The industry is supported mainly by a vast film-going Indian public, and Indian films have been gaining increasing popularity in the rest of the world—notably in countries with large numbers of expatriate Indians.

However, unlike Hollywood,

Bollywood does not exist as a

physical place. Though some

deplore the name, arguing that it

makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood, it has its own entry in

the Oxford English Dictionary.

Raja Harishchandra (1913) is known as the first silent feature

film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was

producing over 200 films per annum

Following India’s Independence, the period from the late 1940s

to the 1960s is regarded by film historians as the "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema. Some of the

most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include the Pyaasa (1957),

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Awaara (1951) ,Shree 420 (1955), 

Mother India (1957) and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance

movies and action films starred actors like Rajesh

Khanna and Sharmila Tagore.

In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about

gangsters and bandits using Amitab Bachan as an actor, which lasted into the early 1990s.

The 2000s saw a growth in Bollywood's

popularity in the world. This led the nation's filmmaking to new heights in terms of

quality, cinematography and innovative story

lines as well as technical advances in areas such

as special effects, animation, and so on.

Some of the largest production houses,

among them Yash Raj Films and Dharma

Productions were the producers of new

modern films

UK Film Industry

The United Kingdom has had a significant film

industry for over a century. The first moving pictures

developed on celluloid film were made in London in 1889 by British inventor William Friese Greene.

Some of the most commercially successful

films of all films have been produced in the United

Kingdom, including the two highest-grossing film

series (Harry Potter and James Bond).

The 'golden age' of British cinema is usually

thought to have occurred in the 1940s,

during which the directors David Lean,

Michel Powell, and Carol Reed produced their

most highly acclaimed work. 

The identity of the British industry, and its

relationship with Hollywood, has been the subject of debate. The

history of film production in Britain has often been affected by attempts to

compete with the American industry.

Numerous British-born directors, including Alfred Hitchcock and Ridley Scott, and performers, such as Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant, have achieved success primarily

through their work in the United States.

In 2009 British films grossed around $2 billion worldwide and achieved a market share of around 7%

globally and 17% in the United Kingdom.

UK box-office takings totalled £1.1 billion in

2012,with 172.5 million admissions.

The annual British Academy Film Awards hosted by

the British Academy of Film and Television Arts are the

British equivalent of the Oscars.

The first moving picture was shot in Leeds (1888)

The Lumiere Brothers show first came to London in 1896.

AlfredHitchcock’s Blackmail (1929) is often regarded as

the first British sound feature.

The British New Wave film makers attempted to

produce social realist films attempted in commercial

feature films released between around 1959 and 1963 to convey narratives about a wider spectrum of people in Britain than the country's earlier films had

done. 

As the 1960s progressed, American studios returned to financially supporting British films,

Films like Darling, Alfie, Georgy Girl, and The Knack …and How to Get It all explored this

phenomenon. 

The first decade of the 21st century was a relatively successful one for

the British film industry. Many British films found a wide

international audience due to funding from BBC Films, Film 4 and

the UK Film Council, and some independent production companies,

such as Working Title, secured financing and distribution deals with

major American studios. 

The film industry remains an important earner for the British economy. According to a UK Film

Council press release of 20 January 2011, £1.115 billion was spent on UK film production during 2010.

What you need to consider…

Production

Writing a script, setting a budget, crewing up cast, filming, editing. The

process of making a film/films.

Distribution

The studio buys the rights, the studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company, they decide how many copies of the films are made, the negotiate the deals of

selling

Marketing

Important part of the release to maximize revenues. (trailers /

posters / cards / etc)

Ownership

Companies owning the particular media institutions.

Synergy

Different elements of a company working together to produce one

thing.

Proliferation

A sudden increase in the media networks/ hardwares/etc available.

Technology

Usage of machines, systems and techniques to generate media

content

Home Work

Research about a particular media industry of your choice (Hollywood, Bollywood or UK film industry) and brief about its production, distribution, marketing, ownership, Synergy, proliferation in technology and usage of technology.