SPJ TONIGHT! 7 p.m.
Shoup Hall 207
Tom Henderson, speaker
JAMM 100
1
Movies: Part II
From Flickering Images
to Hollywood Studios & Stars
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Technology
Motion pictures combine:
1. Still photography
2. Persistence of vision
3. Projection of images
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Early technologies

Celluloid film stock
– Goodwin, 1889, who sold patents to
Eastman

Kinetograph and kinetoscope
– Dickson and Edison, 1890s

Projection system
– Lumiere Brothers, 1895

Vitascope
– Edison, 1896

Nickelodeons boomed 1907- 10
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Photography
1727: Chemists
discover silver
nitrate reacts to light
1839: Louis Daguerre
used pewter, later
copper for prints
(daguerreotypes)
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Photography
George Eastman
 1884: invents
flexible film
(cellulose)
 Calls his portable
camera “Kodak”
 100 exposures
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Persistence of Vision
Peter Roget
1824
 Images stay in
memory for
1/10 second
 Pictures on
spinning wheel
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Persistence of Vision
Eadward Muybridge
 Won bet with California
Gov. Leland Stanford
(1877)
 Did all 4 feet of a
galloping horse leave
ground at once?
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Persistence of Vision
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Motion Pictures
Thomas Edison
 Envisioned image
device similar to
phonograph
 1887: 1st patent for
motion picture camera
 1891-95: Camera
tested by assistant,
William Dickson
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Projection Systems
Auguste, Louis
Lumiere (France)



Projected movies
onto large screen
Made possible
multiple viewing
35mm standard
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Projection systems
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Early film styles



Lumiere Brothers in Paris shot
documentary scenes of everyday life.
French magician Georges Melies:
fairy tales and science fiction stories
American cameraman Edwin S. Porter
created early narrative structures.
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Early Films



No story, just motion
Viewers fascinated by
simple scenes
Fred Ott’s sneeze
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1902: A Trip to the Moon
George Melies
(France)
 Storytelling
 10-minute
shorts
 Slow motion,
animation
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1903: The Great Train Robbery
Edwin S. Porter




1st U.S. movie to
tell a story
12 minutes long
1st Western
Editing to create
suspense
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1915: Birth of a Nation
D.W. Griffith





3 hours long
Shot without a script
Civil War,
Reconstruction
Criticized for racial
stereotypes
Praised for technical
innovations
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Three basic economic divisions
of the movie industry



PRODUCTION: camera and
projector technology, scripting,
filming
DISTRIBUTION: marketing and
delivering films into theaters
EXHIBITION: the theater industry
that delivers movies to the public
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Thomas Alva Edison,
Inventor and Entrepreneur


Desired control over all three facets of
the motion picture industry-production, distribution, exhibition
His strategy: to gain control over
PATENTS to movie technology

How? Accused other inventors of violating
his patents to tie them up in lawsuits.
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THE MOTION PICTURE
PATENTS COMPANY (MPPC)



Thomas Edison formed MPPC (the
“Trust”) in 1908 as a Patents Pool.
Cooperative of leading U.S. and
French film companies
Dominated the film industry from
1908-1915
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How MPPC controlled the industry



Controlled (but did not own) means of
production, distribution, and exhibition.
The MPPC was a monopoly (also called
a trust), and excluded other film
studios from the available technology.
Eastman sold film only to members
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WHY did the MPPC fail?


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Could not meet product demand
Independent producers bought film stock from
overseas.
Independent producers attracted viewers with
longer feature films and recognizable stars.
Independent distributors set up a non-MPPC
distribution network.
1912 Antitrust case in Supreme Court (Fox)
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In 1915, by Supreme Court
order, the MPPC
disbanded.
However, by that time, it had
already fallen apart due to
challenges of “independents.”
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Who were these
“independents”?

Ironically, the very same
people who would institute a
far more effective and longlived oligopoly to control the
industry--the Hollywood
Studio System
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THE RISE OF THE
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO
SYSTEM (1925-1948)
From Monopoly
(the MPCC) to
Oligopoly (the
Studio System)
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Silent Pictures
Harold Lloyd
 Comedy:
‘Safety First’
 Did his own
stunts
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The Talkies
Sound on film
(SOF)
 Microphones
 Sound recording
 Amplifiers
 Synchronization
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1927
The Jazz
Singer
Al Jolson
 2 songs
 354 words
of dialogue

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1920s: Studio system



Producers moved
from New York to
southern California
Attempt to avoid
patent lawsuits by
MPPC
Popular actors
became stars
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The “Big Five” and the “Little Three”

The “Big Five” or the
Majors:
– Warner Brothers
– Paramount
– 20th Century Fox
– Loew's (MGM)
– RKO (owned by RCA)
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
The “Little Three”
or the Minors:
– United Artists
– Columbia
– Universal
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Control over Production
Produced 60 percent of all U.S.
feature films.
 Produced 75 percent of "A" films
(blockbusters).
 Each of these studios produced
about fifty movies a year.

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Applied Factory Principles

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Centralized production
and lots of employees
Division and
specializing of labor
Standardizing and
specializing of product
Grading films
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Control Over Distribution


Eight studios collected 95 percent of all
national film rental fees.
Trade practices effectively closed the market
to films made outside the studio system.

Block booking

Marketing U.S. films in Europe
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Control over exhibition


Studio ownership of theaters created a
need for studios to produce films for
them.
Much money was invested in the
building of theaters themselves,
especially movie palaces.
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How’d studios control exhibition?


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Studio-owned theaters (first-run): the
studios owned only 15 percent of U.S.
theaters, but 90 percent of nation's box
office receipts
Movie palaces
Mid-city theatres
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What went wrong?

No one reason : four large
factors came together in late
1940s
– The Red Scare (The Hollywood Ten)
– The Paramount Decision of 1948
– Postwar Changes in Society
– The Rise of Television
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Red Scare and HUAC Hearings



Cold War paranoia about Communist
messages in mass entertainment
Congress formed House UnAmerican
Activities Committee (HUAC)
1941 and 1947 HUAC hearings were
"witch hunts" to remove so-called
subversives from the industry (led by
Senator Joseph McCarthy).
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EFFECT OF HUAC HEARINGS




Blacklisting of talented members of
Hollywood community
Tarnished the Hollywood “Dream
Machine” image
Created a climate of fear and dampened
creativity within the industry
Wounds continue even today
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THE PARAMOUNT DECISION



In 1948, Supreme Court ruled studio
violation of Sherman Anti-trust Act,
restricting fair trade.
Court ordered the Big Five studios to
divest their theater chains.
EFFECTS: studios cut their film
production by half; opened the way for
independent producers.*
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Postwar changes in society

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Returning soldiers
Baby boom
Suburbanization
and new lifestyle
Nuclear families
with young
children



Changing patterns
of consumption
Less disposable
income
Decreased
attendance at
downtown movie
palaces
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THE RISE OF TELEVISION




Decline in motion picture attendance
Film industry’s technological gimmicks to
emphasize the spectacle of the big screen
Film industry cooperation with TV
Movies on TV became a continuous
competitor with theatre for film customers
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HOLLYWOOD TODAY



Marriage of TV and movies: watching
movies now takes place on the home VCR
and DVD player as well as at the box
office.
New Hollywood studios produce TV shows
as well as feature films.
Most new movies flop at the box office,
but losses are recouped through video
and DVD market.
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Sources of studio income today
Box office revenues
 Video/DVD sales and rentals
 Distribution of films globally
 Studio distribution of independent
films
 Product placement in movies

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The Modern Movie Oligopoly


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Warner Brothers
Paramount
Twentieth Century Fox
Universal
Columbia
Walt Disney
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Concept of SYNERGY

Synergy = the promotion and sale of a
media product through the various
subsidiaries of a media conglomerate.

Movies, books, soundtrack CDs,
magazine reviews, toy action figures, Tshirts, posters, web sites, newspapers,
TV interviews, cartoons, etc.*
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For next class
Television & the Power of Visual Culture
 Read Chapters 5 & 6
 Complete Chapter 5 Review Questions 12 15, Questioning the Media 1, 3 & 5
 Complete Chapter 6 all Review Questions
 Take online quizzes
 Complete The Ratings Game exercise
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