1.
Early silent films became so popular because
they were the first of its kind of entertainment to emerge. Technology was yet
to be invented to be able to play sound so the viewer’s weren’t exposed to what
a movie could fully offer! They also act as a way to bring people together,
distracting us from our daily struggles. The silent films showed universal
themes of human experiences such as childhood and coming of age. This allows a
person to sort through their own experiences and alter their values.
2.
A nickelodeon was originally a form of a movie
theater. They flourished during the turn of the twentieth century because they
showed silent films that transcended sound barriers. This was done by theater
operators using sound to mimic gun shots or loud crashes. Nickelodeons filled a
need for many newly arrived people struggling to learn English who were also
seeking an inexpensive escape from the hard city. The enthusiasm peaked by
1910, when entrepreneurs began to look for more affluent spectators, luring
them with larger and more lavish movie theaters.
3.
Triumphing over New York, New Jersey, Cuba and
Florida, Hollywood became the film capital of the world. The area it is located
in, in Southern California offered cheap labor, diverse scenery for outdoor
shooting, and a mild climate for suitable year-round production. Also,
independent producers in Hollywood would easily slip across the border into
Mexico to escape legal prosecution brought by the Trust for patent violations.
4.
During the wake of the developing Cold War,
conservative members of the Congress began investigating Hollywood for alleged
subversive and communist ties. Aggressive witch-hunts for political radicals in
the film industry led to the notorious Hollywood Ten hearings and subsequent
trial. Many important names in the
industry “named names” while the so-called Hollywood Ten refused to identify
communist sympathizers. These Ten were sent to prison, violating their freedom
of speech rights. In the atmosphere of the Cold War many people worried that
“the American way” could be sabotaged via unpatriotic messages embedded in
films. The Hollywood Ten’s careers were ruined, and the national fear over
communism continued to curse Hollywood well into the 1950s.
5.
Studios can make money on movies from six major
sources. First, they get a portion of the theater box office revenue (about
60%). Second, about four months after theatrical release, studios collect from
DVD sales/rentals, and digital downloads and streaming (accounts for about 30%
of all domestic-film income). Third, are the next “windows” of release for a
film: pay-per-view, premium cable (i.e. HBO), network and basic cable, and
syndicated TV market. Fourth, distributing their films in foreign markets.
Fifth, distributing the work of independent producers and filmmakers, who hire
the studios to gain wider circulation. Lastly, revenue can be made by
merchandising licensing and product placements in movies.
6.
The Big Six is considered to be Warner Brothers,
Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Columbia Pictures, and Disney.
These major studios account for man than 90% of the revenue generated by
commercial films, and actually control more than half of the movie market in
Europe and Asia. Independent studios cannot sustain the high costs and are usually bought by
major studios, leading to the Big Six controlling the majority of the industry.
7.
The movie industry has had multiple attempts to
adapt to the internet. Apple sells and rents movies through iTunes and Netflix
acts as an online DVD rental service where a person can stream movies and
television shows to their computer, mobile phones, and tablets. Netflix’s
popularity lead to Hulu, Google’s YouTube, Xfinity, and Amazon. The internet is also an essential took for
movie marketing, where studios are finding less expensive than traditional
methods like televisions adds or billboards.
8.
Inexpensive digital technology has impacted
filmmaking, Digital video has shifted allowing filmmakers to replace expensive
and bulky film cameras with less expensive, lightweight digital video cameras.
This allowed moviemakers to see camera work instantly instead of waiting for
film to be developed and being able to capture additional footage without
concern for the high cost of film stock and processing.
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