Media Power and Culture CHAPTER SIX First Kennedy Nixon debate Sept 26 1960 Kennedy appeared calm and well cut while Nixon looked sickly and nervous Experimental phase 1880s 1890s Eadweard Muybridge s bet Photo processes moving pix devices Edison cameras projectors Kinetograph camera Kinetoscope projector later MPPC monopoly until 1917 Eastman celluloid film France s Lumiere Brothers Short features comedy news travel Formative Business 1900 1920 Vaudeville Nickelodeons small theaters 1903 Edwin Porter Great Train Robbery 12 min several firsts Edison and MPPC The Trust p 152 like Microsoft antitrust bust in 1915 Milestone Griffith s Birth of a Nation 1915 first blockbuster in Hollywood Independent filmmakers short heyday Studios and stars 1920s Studio system vertically integrated biz By 1930 five dominate an oligopoly Warner Bros Loews MGM Paramount RKO 20th Century Fox Sound 1926 Warner Bros Jazz Singer Movie Stars Charlie Chaplin start of cult of celebrity Pickford Fairbanks Valentino were international stars Golden Age 1930s 1940s Mass audience tops 90 million week 75 of population 20 28 million avg today Part of the social fabric Hundreds of films year color debuts Best of the era The code banned words and scenes Postwar decline 1940s 1950s Paramount court case breaks studio power 1948 Key factors TV automobile suburbs Red scare blacklisting Hollywood 10 Viewing dropped to th of peak Hollywood adjusts Gimmicks innovations Emphasis on youth Embracing TV Part of multimedia empires focus on finance and distribution sophisticated marketing A complex product takes variety of artistic technical organizational skills New revenue streams Show it again Sam Social concerns stereotyping desensitization Early Movie Technology Persistence of vision an aspect of human vision in which the brain retains images for a fraction of a second after they leave the field of sight this allows the illusion of movement from a series of still pictures Peep shows amusement parlor boxes containing moving rolls of still pictures Kinetograph early motion picture camera invented by Thomas Edison Kinetoscope early motion picture viewer invented by Thomas Edison The Great Train Robbery Edwin Porter 1903 first film to use editing to tell a story Birth of a Nation D W Griffith 1915 first blockbuster Nickelodeons small early movie theaters Motion Picture Patents Company company founded by Thomas Edison to control the movie equipment business known as the Trust Movie production moved west from NY to Hollywood The Star System To help guarantee box office success studio executives created stars by placing actors and actresses under contract and promoting them enthusiastically actors that the audience were asking for were demanded by producers Block booking forcing theater owners to show movies with unknown stars in order to get movies with established stars Blind booking forcing theater owners to reserve movies without previewing them The Golden Age 1930 1950 Going to the movies became a weekly thing for people during this time Sound was added to movies in 1927 Newsreels film clips covering current events that were shown in theaters before the advent of television The Rise and Fall of the Studio System In the 30s and 40s competitors of the established studios complained to the govt that it was impossible for new studios to get started Vertical integration big studios like Paramount which owned theaters refused to show competitors films Govt forced the studios to sell their theaters in 1948 blind booking and block booking were also banned Golden Age ended with the demise of the big studio monopoly Challenges from TV in the 50s People were staying home watching TV more than 90 Americans had TVs by early 1960s movie attendance plummeted To compete small suburban theaters emerged and so did drive ins Color became standard sound systems improved screen size grew and wide screens became available emergence of high budget movies New Media Movie industry feared VCRs at first but didn t fear DVDs figured they were replacement of VCRs When DVDs came recordable it became a threat Pirating illegal copying and selling of movies Digital technology became big used today in all Hollywood movies Global Issues Today American film industry collects over 80 world s film revenue while it only produces around 15 of the world s films Brazil China Japan and India all have thriving film industries but nothing compares to Hollywood Preproduction the planning phase of moviemaking Production the actual shooting phase of moviemaking Postproduction the final phase of moviemaking which includes editing and other technical improvements to the film Independent films movies that are not made by one of the major studios Executive producer the person who finds the financing for a film and puts the package together Line producers people who lead the actual day to day work of making a film Director s cut version of film the director delivers to the studio Second unit directors movie directors in charge of shooting the scenes that do not require the stars Moviola simple editing machine made up of two reels on which film is spooled over a small light Cinematographer the director of photography Art director person who designs the physical look of a film Continuity supervisor film crew member in charge of making sure shots match up sometimes called the script supervisor Key grip member of film crew who sets up and moves cameras Gaffer lighting director Best boy the gaffer s assistant Colorizing adding color to black and white films Syndication the process of selling media content to individual outlets Trailers brief previews of coming movies shown in theaters Tie ins consumer products built around movie characters Product placement the inclusion of a product in a movie or other medium as a form of promotion for that product Docudramas fictional movies that dramatize real life events Controversies Censorship occurs when individuals groups or governments feel that a particular movie is immoral or is not in the public interest Movie ratings R PG 13 etc were established to avoid government censorship CHAPTER EIGHT Electronic communications began in 1842 to Samuel Morse s invention of the telegraph Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves Electromagnetic spectrum the range of frequencies that can be used for transmitting radio waves with electricity Morse code telegraph code of dots and dashes invented by Samuel Morse Broadcasting using wireless technology to