The Origins
Of The American Film Industry
The film
industry organized itself into three main division in the early years of the
twentieth century, divisions that exist to this day;
-exhibition
-distrubition
-production
Exhibition
Division of
the film industry concentrating on the public screening of film.
Distrubition
Division
concentrating on the marketing of film, connecting to producer with the
exhibitor by leasing films from the former and reacting them to the later.
Production
Division
concentrating on the making of film.
“During the
first twenty years of its life, the film industry increased in scale from a
cottage-scale enterprise to an established, popular mass medium. Its rapid and
enormous growth was largely driven by the explosion in exhibition, which in
turn triggered a streamining in distribution methods and the industriallisation
of production. The predominant position of exhibition within the industry was
also to be a hallmark of the studio era of American film.”
The Studio
Era Of American Film (1930-49)
The
origins of the studio-era oligopoly
Oligopoly: where a state of limited competition
exists between a small group or sellers.
Oligopoly, where a state of limited competition exists between a
small group of producers or sellers
·
The
oligopoly among five large companies, the majors or the "Big Five"
and three smaller companies ("Little Three"). The majors were
Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros.
and Radio Keith Orpheum (RKO Pictures).
·
The Big Five controlled the market, because
they had the largest and most beautiful movie palaces. About 15% of all cinemas
were in their possession, but they threw from about 70% of total revenue at the
box office of the United States
In today’s class, we surveyed some of the ways in which the Hollywood
Studio System operated as an oligopoly. Some of the ways in which these eight
studios held tight control over the American Film Industry was
through vertical integration, the position of the studio executive, the
contract system, the development of Classical Hollywood Cinema, and even
through the trade organization of the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America and even the Production Code.
CINEMA
AS INSTITUTION
From
its origins as a small production company in the mid-1920s,Warner Bros. rose to
become one of the five major vertically
integrated film companies by the end of the decade. This was largely achieved
through debt-financing-expression through loans. Key to Warners’ exponential
growth were the following financial deals: its takeover of Vitagraph
Corporation (with distribution and production facilities) in 1925, its
exclusive licensing of Western Electric sound equipment for ‘talking pictures’
in 1926, and its purchase of the Stanley Company cinema chain with its
associated film company, First National in 1928.(An Introductıon to Film
Studies,21)
Vitaphone: In 1928 Warner Bros. created
a corporate subsidiary for its sound production called Vitaphone Corporation. That year it premiered its Vitaphone
‘shorts’ and its first feature film with recorded musical accompaniment, DON JUAN(.(An Introduction to Film Studies,21)
Quality sound with Vitaphone
The Great
Depression seriously weakened Warners’ financial base. The company had enormous
debt. Warners’ was not to show a profit again until 1935.By 1935,the company
had improved sufficiently for it to return to profit again. Studio genres
changed too, with the entrenchment of the melodrama, biopic, Merne England and film noir genres in the late 1930
and early 1940s.As with the other majors, profits reached record levels for
Warners during and immediately after the Second World War.
.(An Introduction to
Film Studies,21,22)
Throughout
the studio era,Warners’ films articulated a populist, liberal ethos, Several
productions of the early 1930s were particularly hard-hitting social critiques.
From 1933 onwards, however Warners’ films discarded their anti-government
position and wholeheartedly supported the new Roosevelt(Democratic)
administration and its NRA programme.
NRA(National Recovery
Administration)programme 1930s
government programme designed to rescue the US economy from the Great
Depression.(An
Introduction to Film Studies,23)
Warners
specialized in particular genres.Until the mid-1930s the company concentrated
on low-budget contemporary urban genres such as the gangstar cycle, the social
conscience film and the fast-talking comedy/drama. The one costly genre that
Warners specialized in during this period was the musical. Later,from the
mid-1930s onwards, new genres began to dominate: the Merrie England cycle, the
biopic, the melodrama and film noir.
THE CONTEMPORARY
FILM INDUSTRY
The late
20th century film industry is a very different affair from the
system in operation during the studio era.
CONSENT DECREE:A court order made with the consent of
both parties-the dependent and the plaintiff which puts to rest the law suit
brought against the former by the latter. An Introduction
to Film Studies,26)
Cinemascope
was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to
1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the
beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and
movie projection.(Wikipedia)
THE SECOND
CINEMASCOPE FILM
Seen
above, pointing, is British cinematographer Jack Cardiff directing Errol Flynn
in the film that would have been the 2nd Cinemascope release were it not for
Flynn's failure to obtain adequate financing for the project. Cardiff owned a
French anamorphic lens and Flynn negotiated with Darryl Zanuck to have Fox
distribute his film as a Cinemascope release. Two cameras are partially visible
in this photo.(widescreenmuseum.com)
Throughout
the studio era and before, the most powerful sector of the film industry was
exhibition, however, today in today’s film economy, distribution is the
dominant sector.
A multiplex
is a movie theater complex with multiple screens, typically six, ten, or more
screens. They are usually housed in a specially designed building.
It is worth
noting that there are a variety of different types of cinema-run in operation
today .A run can be exclusive ,multiple
or saturation.
Exclusive
run: It is a kind of
run where a film is only screened in one movie theatre. .( An Introductıon to Film Studies,29)
Multiple
Run :It is a kind of
run where a film is shown simultaneously at a number of screen.
.( An Introductıon to Film
Studies,29)
Saturatıon
Run: It is a kind
of cinema-run where a film is shown simultaneously at an enormous number of
screen(usually a minimum of 1000 screen in the US/CANADIAN market)accompanied
by heavy media promotıon. .(
An Introductıon to Film Studies,29)
One of the key
roles of a financier-distributor is to orchestrate successfully the marketing
of a film. The three main types of types of advertising used in film marketing
are: free publicity, paid advertising and tie-ins/merchandising.
FREE
PUBLICITY:It is a kind of
marketing a film in which free coverage
of subjects the media feel newsworthy.( An Introductıon to Film
Studies,31)
PAID
ADVERTISING:It is a
kind of marketing a film which promotıon on tv, radio, billboards amd printed
media. .(An Introductıon to Film Studies,31)
TIE-INS:
It is a kind of
marketing a film which mutually benefical promotional sections between films
and other consumer products and /or personalitis.( An Introductıon to Film
Studies,31)
MERCHANDISING:
It is a kind of
marketing of a film where manufacturers pay a film company to use a film title
or image on their products.(An Introductıon to Film Studies,31)
Merve KOYUNCUOĞLU
The UK Scenario
Production today
The majors, independent
producers, agents and stars: these are useful to review the current industrial
organization of film production.
Majors versus independents
Despite the growth of
independent production in the 1950s after the consent decrees, the majors had
reclaimed their domination in production by the early 1970s. In the recent
years, however, there has been some evidence to suggest that independent
production is once again making inroads, at the expense of the majors’
directly-produced features.
Independent: A highly problematic term, meaning different things
in different situations. Here, the term simply implies a production realized
outside one of the majors. Here the term does not imply a production context
outside the mainstream institutional framework altogether, nor does it imply a
film produced in an alternative aesthetic format to ‘Classic Hollywood’.
Agents
The ending of long-term
studio contracts for creative personal in the early 1950s meant that important
stars, directors, writers and other talent could now negotiate very lucrative
freelance deals with film companies. Their increased negotiating power also
strengthened the hand of their agents who negotiated their deals with the film
companies. The most powerful agency at the time was MCA, controlled by Jules
Stein and Lew Wasserman.
Today there are three big
talent agencies in Hollywood – Creatative Artists Agency (CAA), William Morris
and International Creative Management (ICM).
Stars
A star’s association with a
film project affects the ease with which it can be finances and marketed. A
star’s presence in a film is also held to be an important factor in a film’s
box-office performance. These three factors explain stars’ huge salaries today.
Synergy Strategy: Combined or related action by a group of individuals
or corporations towards a common goal, the combined effect of which exceeds the
sum of the individual efforts.
Part 2, Case Study 4 (A
Low-to Middium-Budget,Film Production)
1.The Script Development
The script development
process starts either with a Screenwriter writing a 'spec' (self-financed)
screenplay for sale to a production company, or with a Producer commissioning a
Screenwriter to write a screenplay based on a concept, a true story, an
existing screenwork (for example a cartoon or TV series), or another literary
work (such as a story, novel, poem or play).
2.Pre-Production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the
elements involved in a film, play, or other performance. Pre-production ends when the
planning ends and the content starts being produced. In filmmaking and video production, pre-production formally begins once
a project has been greenlit. At this stage, finalizing
preparations for production go into effect. Financing will generally be confirmed
and many of the key elements such as principal cast members, director and cinematographer are set. By the end of pre-production, he screenplay is hopefully finalized and satisfactory to all the
financiers and other stakeholders.
3.Production
Beginning
with preparing a script; breaking the script down to shooting sequences;
budgeting for everything from materials to insurance; preliminary planning for
actors, commentators, costumes, sets, etc.; choosing camera equipment and film;
and shooting both in a studio setting and on location overseas. He provides
solutions to the problems of lighting on location and covers in detail sound
recording techniques both under studio conditions and on location. The
techniques involved in laying and mixing multiple recordings to produce the
final master sound track are described. Working with prints from the first
"answer" print to the final release version is explained, giving
techniques for preparing 35 mm. and 16 mm. color prints and 8 mm. sound prints.
Artwork, animation, and editing are discussed in detail.
4.Distribution/Exhibition
Distribution is the most important part of the film industry, where
completed films are brought to life and connected with an audience.
Exhibition is the retail branch of the
film industry. It involves not the production or the distribution of motion
pictures, but their public screening, usually for paying customers in a site
devoted to such screenings, the movie theater. What the exhibitor sells is the
experience of a film (and, frequently, concessions like soft drinks and
popcorn). Because exhibitors to some extent control how films are programmed,
promoted, and presented to the public, they have considerable influence over
the box-office success and, more importantly, the reception of films.
5.Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms and includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, or interactivity content forms.
6.
Scenario
Scenario of
a film is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. An
outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play that was
literally pinned to the back of the scenery. 1.The initial
conditions that amount to an accident waiting to 2.What disturbed the set-up to
get an event into progress. 3.The additional developments that occurred to
result in the final situation.
7.
Film Audieces
An audience is a group
of people who participate in a show or encounter awork of art, literature in which they are called "readers", theatre, music in which they are called "listeners", video games in which they are called "players", and
films in which they are called mostly “audience”. Audience members participate
in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience
participation and others allowing only modest clapping and criticism and reception.
Selman
Azad AKGÜL
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