com 215 media history movies and the impact of images all right, mr. demille, i'm ready for my...
TRANSCRIPT
COM 215 Media History
Movies and the Impact of Images
All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
Discussion - Consensus Narratives
Discuss a recent film you've viewed in the context of consensus narrative by identifying mainstream values and whether they are either being challenged or reaffirmed.
Moguls move west (1911-1912)
– Carl Laemmle, IMP, then Universal Pictures
– William Fox, 20th Century Fox
– Adolph Zukor, Paramount
– Marcus Loew, MGM
Industrial practices vertical integrationcentral planningcompetition and cooperationpermanent exhibition sites
first run, second run venuesproduct differentiationstars and advertising
D.W. Griffith (1875-1948)
Mature storytelling technique
Motion pictures as high art & entertainment
Director as author/central creative force
Film as social force
Cultural FormCinema of narrative integration
Style serves storyIncreased length (multireel or feature)Multiple shotsInternally coherent storiesActing
• Individualized characters (identification) • ‘Verisimilar’ style
Increased use of editing (standard film grammar)• Subjectivity, POV• Analytical editing• Continuity or spatial-temporal relations (match cuts)
Hollywood: Triumph of the Studio System (1930-1945)
Technological Standards - SOUND!!!Majors and Minors (an oligopoly)Production Code Standard exhibition practicesContract Player SystemStars, Directors, Looks, Genres
SOUND
Sound effects machines standard by 1908Continuous musical accompaniment by
1914Producers began commissioning original
scoresIn 1920s all features were accompanied
by cue sheets
The Jazz Singer (1927)Starring Al JolsonDirected by Alan CroslandReleased by Warner Bros.Premieres October 6, 1927Earns over $3.5 millionConsidered the first “talkie,” in fact a “part
talkie”Initiates studios to invest in sound
technology for motion pictures
The Jazz Singer (1927)Starring Al JolsonDirected by Alan CroslandReleased by Warner Bros.Premieres October 6, 1927Earns over $3.5 millionConsidered the first “talkie,” in fact a “part
talkie”Initiates studios to invest in sound
technology for motion pictures
Impact of Sound: Economic
Capital Investment and the alliance between Wall Street and Hollywood
Investment in excess of $300 million for the motion picture industry’s conversion to sound
most $ lent by Rockefeller and Morgan
Impact of Sound: Economic
Mergers and realignmentsby 1930, eight studios account for 95
percent of US film production
The Big Five (vertically integrated)Paramount, MGM, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros
(bought First National), RKO
The Little Three (lacking theater chains)Universal, Columbia, United Artists
Impact of Sound: TechnologyRise of technical agencies
SMPE Society for Motion Picture EngineersASC: American Society of CinematographersAMPAS: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences
Impact of Sound: TechnologyTechnological standardization &
interoperabilityBell and Howell camerasMitchell camerasEastman Kodak panchromatic film stockMovietone optical sound systemMoviola editing equipmentMole Richardson incandescent lightsstandardized blimps, tripods, booms,
microphones, speakers
Impact of Sound: StyleEarly Problems
Directional microphones Noisy camerasProblems with stasis (camera and actor)Repetitive cutting (inflexible tempo)Reduced variety of camera angles
Impact of Sound: StyleThe Adjustment to Sound
Multicamera shootingBooms Dollies, small cranes, camera carriagesIncreased camera mobility
post-synchronization (dubbing in postproduction)
Hallelujah (Vidor, 1929)
Impact of Sound: StyleThe Adjustment to Sound
Multicamera shootingBooms Dollies, small cranes, camera carriagesIncreased camera mobility
post-synchronization (dubbing in postproduction)
Film: Hallelujah (Vidor, 1929)
Hollywood: Triumph of the Studio System (1930-1945)
Technological Standards Majors and Minors (an oligopoly)Production Code Standard exhibition practicesContract Player SystemStars, Directors, Looks, Genres
Decline of Studio System (1946-1960)
US audience attendance peaks and declines 1946 98 million viewers per week 1957 47 million viewers per week
Factors 1. Anti-trust litigation (Paramount Decision of 1946) 2. Political challenges (HUAC)3. Sociological Changes (suburbia)4. Competing Entertainment forms (TV)
Paramount Decision of 1948
1938 US vs. Paramount Pictures, Inc., et al
Big Five and Little Three accused of violating anti-trust lawsBig 5 - Paramount, MGM, Warner Bros, RKO, and
Twentieth Century-FoxLittle 3- Universal, Columbia, and United Artists)
vertically integrated structure - a monopoly
Paramount Decision of 1948 (cont)
1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision8 companies found guilty
Block-bookingCooperating to exclude independent exhibiters
Big 5 ordered to sell off their theater chains
Impact of Paramount Decision (1948)
Industry revenues decreases 20%
Studio profits decline$120m in 1947- $31m in 1950
Output decreasesStudios’ stocks plummetStudios falter
Political Challenges: Hollywood Ten and the Blacklist
“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”
House Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) conservatives sought to drive out leftists from
the media Equated labor rights with communism1947 HUAC hearings of 1947
called 41 “friendly” witnesses who named 1710 out of 19 subpoenaed refused to testify
jailed for up to 1 yearblacklisted for many more
Hollywood Ten
Alvah Bessie, screenwriter Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director Lester Cole, screenwriter Edward Dmytryk, director Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter John Howard Lawson, screenwriter Albert Maltz, screenwriter Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter
Hollywood and the “Blacklist”
1947 MPAA, on behalf of studios, cooperated Comprised a list of several hundred writers, actors, and
directors who would lose their jobs known as the blacklist many survived by using pseudonyms or frontslasted over a decade 1960 Exodus and Spartacus give screen credit
Dalton Trumbo, blacklisted screenwriter
[Screen documentary: The Hollywood Ten (1950)]
Results of HUAC hearings and the Blacklist
Many careers ended foreverTalented filmmakers leave HollywoodCreated distrust in the studio system
Sociological Changes: the rise of suburbiaLate 1940s Families move away from the city, toward the
suburbsreturning veterans focused more on
careers,raising families Acquiring consumer products
Discretionary income goes to household goods and new cars
emphasis on participatory leisure activities
Television
mid 1950s TV replaces radio and the movies
1954 Americans own 32 million sets
Many people stay home instead of attend the movies
Moving Towards a New Hollywood
Hollywood on HollywoodNostalgia & Self-CritiqueScreen: Sunset Blvd.
[Screen: Singing in the Rain (Donen, 1951)
Hollywood reinvents itselfTechnicolorCinerama, CinemaScope, Vistavision![Screen: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter (Tashlin, 1957)