A2 Media Studies Uxbridge: The Film Industry

The Industry (ALL)

The Industry - Synergy, convergence, globalisation

The Film Industry Overview - from A2 revision book

The Film Industry Page 1
The Film Industry page 2
The Film Industry regulations and marketing

Hollywood before film:

In 1895 Hollywood was just a land of small farms and vine growers, but over in France the Lumiere brothers were screening the first public performance of a film. Over in the USA, in order to escape Thomas Edison's ruthless patenting laws and as a promise of guaranteed sunshine, the film-makers began to cross from New York in the east over to Los Angeles in the west. Here the patent enforcers that insisted you used their equipment and paid them a tax for using it (or they smashed it up) couldn't catch you, here you could make films without having to worry about poor weather (limited artificial lighting and most scenes were shot outside).

The walk of fame...

This is the Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars are held every year

The Chinese Theatre - built by Graumann to emulate an exotic palace - still shows films.

Nowadays Hollywood is considered the home of the American Film Industry, a place where film stars carve their name into the concrete (above) and a 'walk of fame' exists along Hollywood boulevard with a star etched into the pavement for each celebrity who has been considered to have 'made it'.

The 'big five' film companies were in action by 1930;

Paramount
RKO
20th Century Fox
Metro Goldwyn Meyer
Warner Bros

These owned the rights to make, send out to theatres and show their films by block booking the theatres for six months or more, or 'Production, Distribution and Exhibition' - this is what is known as 'Vertical Integration' and was considered unfair practise by the American government. It was also known as the 'Golden Age of Hollywood' or 'Studio Era' because the studios had alot of power - they could provide long term contracts to studio employees, but it also meant they could own their principle actors who could only work for them.

The studios were subject to investigation in what was known as an 'anti-trust suit' in 1938 - it took ten years to come to a decision as to whether they were guilty of dominating the industry unfairly - in 1948 they were all told to break up their businesses into smaller companies and allow some competition.

RKO went first (because they weren't doing all that well) and so the others began to follow. So the Golden Age is often thought of as between 1930 - 1948. Block booking of cinemas became illegal.

Cary Grant (below) was one of the first actors to realise that his popularity was such that he didn't have to do what he was told by the studios. His success was to last over thirty years and he
broke away from the 'star system' that was old style Hollywood. Nowadays famous actors are powerful enough to change a script and 'green light' a film just by agreeing to do it.

In the early days actors didn't have their names mentioned - they were 'owned' by the film company and if people got to know their name then they might be 'poached' by rival companies (like models today?) - how times have changed!

Today the film industry is made up of:

Columbia - owned by Sony
Fox - owned by News Corp' (Murdoch)
Warner Bros - owned by Time Warner
Paramount - owned by Viacom
Universal - owned by Comcast/NBC Universal
Walt Disney - owned by Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group

Has vertical integration really been beaten? How is a film distributed today? Universal, Paramount, Warner, Columbia, Disney, Fox - they are the big six whereby you need to get your film worldwide distribution - even in the local Uxbridge multiplex!

The Birth Of Hollywood (Episode 2 Paul Merton - 1 hour)

The UKFC (UK Film Council) has been disbanded last year and its role of funding taken on by the BFI (British Film Institute); however, the various regional film funding agencies still exist and this booklet explains how each separate region works. If you wanted to make a film, this is where you'd go to find your relevant agency to get advice:

British Film Institute future plans

Is British Cinema in crisis? Read through this powerpoint in the link to find the current state of the British Film Industry, then answer the question below.

The British Film Industry 1

1: Having read the powerpoint, what would you say are the principle reasons for the British Film Industry being unable to compete with Hollywood?
2: What does Hollywood want to see in terms of British film-making?
3: Can you think of any solutions?

Points to note:

1927: 'Quota quickies' produced by Britain in response to the quota system being imposed on American imports. Britain tried to limit American films to a set percentage. The result was a influx of low quality, low budget films made to exploit the favouritism offered British films.

1931: The Hayes Code comes into being in the USA as a response to a sense of dwindling morals in American society. Villains aren't allowed to succeed, crime mustn't pay, lisses mustn't last too long. No loose morals.

1968: The American Hayes Code is scrapped and becomes the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America); the heavy censorship ends (as a result of the Brit/Italian film 'Blow Up'), suddenly more violent and explicit films come from the USA and result in the end of Ealing's Hammer Horror films. The Godfather, Dirty Harry, Texas Chainsaw Massacre are all produced soon after.

You need to read the highlighted pages in your Film Industry booklets for further information; but see if you can fill in the dates below from what you've read...

1895 - ?
1920-1930 - ?
1927 - ?
1931 - ?
1938-1948 - ?
1968 -?

You can find the answers in the page titled 'Quiz answers.'

Essay question (2 pages+):

British Film: What is the current state of the British Film Industry?

Refer to its historical background, American influence and the potential effect of the BFI - once the UKFC.

Hollywood Cinema

Hollywood Cinema