The American Film Industry

In this essay, the author

• Explains why the american film industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. movies are like books, only they're visual. people like seeing other people cast in roles, and playing out a story.
• Explains that the earliest moving images were non-fictional, unedited, crude documentary views of simple, ordinary slices of life — street scenes, police or firemen, or shots of a passing train.
• Describes the invention of the kinetoscope, which was a bulky, coin-operated movie peep show viewer for one customer.
• Explains that the ten year peiod of 1920-1930 was the period between the end of the great war and the stock market crash. film theaters and studios were not initially affected by the crash.
• Explains that the motion picture association of america (mpaa) acted domestically as the voice and advocate of seven of the largest producers and distributors of filmed entertainment.
• Explains that warner bros. pictures incorporated in 1923, mgm, columbia pictures, and mca (music corporation of america) were founded or founded. america was the leading producer of films in the world, using thomas ince's "factory system" of production.
• Explains that the 1930s decade was the most memorable era of all, with the term "golden age of hollywood". it was also the decade of sound revolution, color revolution and the advancement of film genres.
• Analyzes how the early talkies were successful at the box-office, but many of them were of poor quality — dialogue-dominated play adaptations with stilted acting and an unmoving camera or microphone.
• Explains that walt disney's animated story flowers and trees was the first feature-length film produced in three-color technicolor. the wizard of oz and gone with the wind were expensively produced.
• Explains that the american film industry was popular, prosperous, powerful, and productive during the 40s. hollywood film production reached its peak during 1943 to 1946, more than a decade after the rise of sound film.
• Explains that the 50s decade was known for many things: post-war affluence and increased choice of leisure time activities, conformity, middle-class values, the advent of television, drive-in theaters where young teenaged couples could find privacy in their hot-rods, and the rise of the anti-hero.
• Explains that cinema in the 1960s reflected the decade of fun, fashion, and tremendous social change. with movie audiences declining due to television, major american film companies began diversifying with other forms of entertainment.
• Explains how hollywood studios were being taken over by multi-national companies, and the age of "packaged" films and independent producers began.
• Explains that the 1970s was a creative high point in the us film industry and hollywood was renewed and reborn.
• Analyzes how the 1960s social activism turned into an inward narcissism and yet this uncertain age gave rise to some of the finest, boldest pictures ever made.
• Explains that the 1980s tended to consolidate the gains made in the seventies rather than initiate any new trends.
• Explains how hollywood's film budgets skyrocketed due to special effects and inflated salaries, and the way was opened for foreign ownership of hollywood properties.
• Describes how robert zemeckis' who framed roger rabbit seamlessly blended animated cartoon characters and live action in a hard-boiled, 1940s-style hollywood murder mystery. disney studios returned to its old-fashioned film values with honey, i shrunk the kids.
• Explains that the average film budget was almost $53 million by 1998, but many films cost over $100 million to produce. higher costs for star salaries and agency fees, expensive market research and testing, and big-budget marketing all contributed to the inflated, excessive spending in the film industry.
• Explains that the vcr was a popular appliance in most households, and rentals of videotapes were big business. in 1999, eduardo sanchez and daniel myrick's low-budget, roughly-made, offbeat independent film the blair witch project became the most profitable film (percentage-wise).
• Explains that in the late 80s and 90s, many of the films that were produced went directly to video with no cinematic release at all. the first new hollywood studio in many decades, dream works, was formed in 1994.
• Explains that hollywood was attempting to deal with serious themes, such as homelessness, the holocaust, aids, and feminism, while making bottom-line profits.
• Analyzes how special effects-laden, predictably-scripted apocalpytic disaster films racked up huge profits. george lucas' computer-generated return to his epic saga with star wars episode i: the phantom menace, and writer-directors andy and larry wachowski's ambitious virtual-reality flick the matrix won four academy awards.
• States that the us has the most powerful, diverse, and technologically advanced economy in the world, with a per capita gdp of $31,500, the largest among major industrial nations.
• Opines that the movie industry earns more and more money every year. the movie prices are rising, and people would pay even more if they had to.