How are movies different from other media?.

YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES What do they say about you? How big a part of our culture are movies?

“The most popular films often make the world seem clearer, more manageable and more understandable.”

Production values refer to the style and quality of a media presentation. Editing lighting color shape scale position Movement point of view angle connotation performance sound

Can editing change the story? George sings John Lennon “The Shining” as a romantic comedy “Mary Poppins” as a thriller and some others

What does color do? Can differentiate a universe – The Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz – Pleasantville Pleasantville Can differentiate time / space – Memento Memento Adds impact – Schindler’s List Schindler’s List – Saving Private Ryan (reduced color by 60%) Saving Private Ryan (reduced color by 60%)

Music “Music should be treated as another leading character” - Sidney Lumet Great use of music in film? My favorite! My favorite “Psycho” shower scene: with and without music “Psycho” shower scenewithout

How did Sept 11, 2001 affect the movie industry?

How did movies get started? Celluloid – by Hannibal Goodwin Kinetoscope – by William Dickson Lumiere Brothers – projection system

Thomas Edison & Lumiere Brothers “Arrival of a Train” Paris, 1895

Edwin Porter First man to use film to tell a story. He alternated shots and edited them together “The Great Train Robbery” Scene lengths today in films/commercials?

Nickelodeons First “movie theatres” Usually showed silent films with pianos or “sound effects” added in person 10,000 nickelodeons by 1909 “Democracy’s Theatre”

3 parts of the industry : Production Distribution exhibiton

Production People began to want certain genres, certain performers Names not listed on credits until 1910 Mary Pickford – the first big movie star

The studio system is born…. All production people worked exclusively for certain studios. Studio heads had POWER over how their performers acted on and off the set! The studios protected their performers from bad publicity

Distribution “Block booking” – you can only have the latest, best film from a studio if you also take some films with no stars. How did World War I affect film production?

Exhibition Movie palaces boomed in the s Birth of the multi-plex!

“Vertical Integration” Studios controlled all levels of the industry: – Production – Distribution – Exhibition

End of the studio system…. Why did movie attendance drop in the 1950s? In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against the five big studios in the Paramount Decision which made their vertical integration illegal

How did movies compete with TV? By covering topics that TV wouldn’t touch! – “The Lost Weekend” 1945 – “Gentleman’s Agreement” 1947 – “Pinky” 1949 – “Man With a Golden Arm” 1955 – “Lolita” 1962

Blockbusters How Hollywood pays for the 80-90% of the movies that fail at the box office. What are some characteristics of a blockbuster? SYNERGY

“Hollywood movies are simple. You blow things up, you shoot people, you have sex and you have a movie.”

Genres What are they? Why are they used?

What’s our 2 nd largest export? Worldwide Market top grossing movies

“Nowadays, the movie is just a commercial for the DVD” So what’s the future of movies?