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MoviesMass-Producing Entertainment

The Development of Movies

• The First Movie Makers Etienne-Jules Marey:

• trained in medicine• wanted to capture movement of blood and

heart, and animal movement• developed system for taking repeated photos of

people and animals in motion

Eadweard Muybridge:• wanted to capture the motion of animals on film • hired to settle a the bet on whether a galloping horse

ever had all four hooves off the ground• published Animal Locomotion

Thomas Edison:• kinetoscope—peepshow-like device that played movies • May 9, 1893—made a thirty-second film called

“Blacksmith Scene”

Nickelodeons—early screen projection theaters that replaced the kinetoscopes

First Movies

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yib9JhsNIQQ&feature=player_embedded

• http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+4030))+@field(COLLID+edison))

Auguste-Marie and Louis-Jean Lumiere: • French filmmakers who were brothers• Cinematographe - a portable movie camera that could

also be used as a projector • set standards for speed and format of film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nj0vEO4Q6s

Georges Melies:• A Trip to the Moon • utilized special effectshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9OaZHxk64&feature=related

Edwin S. Porter: • worked for Edison• The Great Train Robbery (1903)

incorporated twelve separate scenes shot in various locations

• began the idea of movie effects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc7wWOmEGGY

D. W. Griffith: • The Birth of a Nation (1915)

ran for over three hours, cost more than $110,000

controversial film about the birth of the Ku Klux Klan

o Intolerance cost nearly $500,000 financial failureoutside financial backing became

necessaryhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkgSIdOU_cc

• The Studio System Industry moved from New York and New Jersey to

Southern California to take advantage of:• cheap real estate• good weather, diverse shooting locations (ocean,

mountains, desert)

Studio System—factory-like way of producing movies, all talent worked directly for the studios

Movie distribution schemes• block booking—bundles of movies that theater owners

were forced to purchase, without preview• studios purchased theaters (vertical integration)

• United Artists: rebellion of popular performers and directors acquired and distributed independent movies model for the modern movie studio:

• not a maker, but a financer and distributor of films

• Talking Pictures The Jazz Singer (1927):

o silent film with two talking segments o talkie—movie with synchronized sound

Don Juan (1926):o synchronized soundtrack—movie sound that

synchronized voices with the pictures http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwwuy2rsgFc

Problems with early sound films:• stars had to be able to speak and act at same

time• theaters had to upgrade equipment• camera equipment was noisy• picked up set noise

• The End of the Studio System 1938—U.S. Department of Justice looking into the

studios’ monopoly investigated Paramount Pictures first:

• results of investigation:Theater owners allowed to preview moviesBlock booking limited to 5 movies

breakup complete in 1948:• Supreme Court forced studios to sell theaters

• The Blacklist House Un-American Activities Committee

(HUAC) (1947)• Investigated communism in Hollywood• Hollywood Ten:

refused to testifyfound in contempt, jailed, blacklisted

• 1953—blacklist contained 324 names

• Television and the Movies 1946 movie audiences peaked; sales of 80 million

tickets per week:• by 1953, 46 million per week

Larger-Than-Life Movies to compete: • bigger and better theaters• 3-D movies• epics like The Ten Commandments and Spartacus

Television forced movies to convert to color Growth of multiplexes

The Movie Business

• The Blockbuster Era Jaws (1975):

• first movie to gross more than $200 million • good direction and music score• based on a popular novel• giant television advertising campaign • summer release—coincided with beach and swimming

season • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucMLFO6TsFM

• Home Video 1994—over 85 percent of all U.S. homes had a VCR 2006—81 percent had a DVD player, 79 percent had

VCRs The Incredibles —$261 million in theater, $368 million

in DVD sales opened up a world of older movies to today’s

audiences

• Going Digital Star Wars:

• George Lucas used a computer-controlled camera to shoot the space battle scenes

• Star Wars Episode II—first big-budget feature to be shot entirely using high definition video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtnu4kcKbik&feature=related

technology allows for cheaper production

• What Makes a Movie Profitable? profits based on costs of production and promotion

Movies and Society

How Much Influence Do Movies Have? It Happened One Night:

• Sale of undershirts plummet because of Clark Gable scene

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_CsWOx9QJs

The Payne Fund: • series of thirteen studies• found repeating themes• three-fourths of all movies dealt with crime, sex, or love• high level of recall

novelty and discussion that stimulated recall

• Herbert Blumer examined how young people thought they had been

affected by movies• imitating the behaviors• copying the actions in their games and play• saw movies as a source of ideas about action, romance,

and standards of beauty• in essence, learning how to behave as an adult

• The Program: main character performed extreme stunts eighteen-year-old boy killed in Pennsylvania,

supposedly recreating a dangerous stunt Touchstone Pictures reacted, as did Janet Reno, then

attorney general investigation determined that young people were

doing the stunt years before the release of the movie

• Hurray for Bollywood: India’s Movie Industry Mumbai, India—produces more than 1,000 films/year Masala, or “spice,” movies

• feature several musical numbers, a strong male hero, a coy heroine, and an obvious villain

• can have up to ten storylines• have not reached U.S. audiences

• The Production Code: Protecting the Movies from Censorship Theater owners formed the National Board of

Censorship (1909): • establish a national standard for movies• prostitution, childbirth, drug use all on banned list

stars’ off-screen behavior seen as equally offensive• Hollywood viewed as a mass of “wild orgies,” “dope

parties, “kept men,” and “kept women.”

• The Birth of the Production Code set of morality guidelines passed in 1927 Will H. Hays:

• named president of the MPPDA

The Code controlled movie content from the 1930s until1968:

• evil not be made to look alluring• villains and law breakers not go unpunished • no profanity or blasphemy • passion needed to be handled carefully

• The Ratings System Jack Valenti, MPAA President:

• scrapped Production Code in 1968

Ratings assigned by a panel of twelve parents • Screen and discuss three movies a day

G: General audiences. All ages admittedPG: Parental guidance suggestedPG-13: Parents strongly cautionedR: Restricted. Under 17 must be accompanied by

adultNC-17: No one under age 17 will be admitted

Certain content prompts particular ratings:• drug use requires at least a PG-13• sexually oriented nudity results in an R• rough and persistent violence requires an R• one use of the “F-word” requires a PG-13

If used more than once or in a sexual sense, movies is rated R

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBIdcUxdgo0&NR=1

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

• The X Problem: MPAA did not trademark the X rating. Porn industry began labeling its unrated films XXX:

• if X was adult, XXX would be really adult

Midnight Cowboy:• first and only X-rated movie to win an Oscar for Best

Picture • rating eventually changed to R, after award

Saving Private Ryan rating debate• graphic depiction of Normandy landing troublesome to

some

The Future of Movies

• 2005—U.S. box office down by 6 percent from 2004 first decline since 1991 too many sequels and remakes

• 1980s—50 percent of revenue came from ticket sales by 1995 fallen below 15 percent

• ancillary or secondary markets—movie revenue sources other than the domestic box office home video, toys, clothes, television rights, product

placement, etc.

• Movie Promotion on the Internet The Blair Witch Project: sold to Artisan Entertainment for $1.1 million low-cost promotion mirrored production style:

• mock documentary on cable television• “creepy” website• handlettered posters looked like “missing” posters

garnered $50 million in first week of national release

• Movies and the Long Tail increased exposure for lesser-known films digital downloads ability to get information on non-blockbuster films