Hollywood

The filmmaking process consists of 3 stages; PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION AND EXHIBITION

PRODUCTION- raising money for a film, financing a film and bringing together actors, directors and technicians, etc to create the film. There are three phases to the production:

PRE-PRODUCTION:  the initial idea is developed and funds are obtained

SHOOTING: images and sounds are physically recorded and put on film

POST-PRODUCTION: images and sounds are edited and put together in their final form

DISTRIBUTION- after the production of a film has been completed; the next stage involves distributing the finished product to audiences. A distribution company is responsible for creating the ‘want to see’ factor, making the audience is aware that the film is on its way.

The distribution company acquires the rights to a firm and pays for the prints to be made for each venue, in addition to making decisions about timing, advertising and publicity.

EXHIBITION- the sector of the film industry that shows films to the public, in most cases this will be a cinema. Exhibition is the third stage in the overall life of a film after PRODUCTION and DISTRIBUTION, and the one at which its ultimate commercial fate will be determined. A film that is successful at the box office (i.e. at least recoups its production and distribution costs) is likely to make a profit overall once overseas and back-end sales are taken into account.

However, exhibition no longer refers to just simply showing films in the cinema. We can now see films on terrestrial TV, satellite/cable TV and pay per-view channels, on DVD, Blu-ray, the internet and mobile phones.

THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM 1930-1948

This period is considered the Golden Era of Hollywood filmmaking, both stylistically and economically. During this era, the industry was dominated by 5 major companies and 3 minor ones. Due to the Depression and the additional costs of the arrival of sound, many smaller film companies went bust, leaving a handful of studios to control all filmmaking. This is called OLIGOPOLY.

THE BIG FIVE studios that formed the hierarchy of Hollywood were:

·               Warner Bros

·               20^th Century Fox

·               RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum)

·               MGM

·               Paramount

These studios controlled the PRODUCTION of films, owned DISTRIBUTION companies and EXHIBITION theatres, so they exerted complete control of the entire film process from start to finish. This process is also known as VERTICAL INTEGRATION

THE LITTLE THREE studios:

·               Columbia

·               Universal

·               United Artists

These three studios did not own every stage of the process but they are considered in the hierarchy because their films were shown in the theatres owned by the BIG FIVE.

Each company produced consistent numbers of films every year with an emphasis on the economic benefits from a large market. Making films was a means to make money and was seen as a commodity rather than the creation of art. As a result the assembly line method of production was viewed as suffocating any innovation.

To gain maximum profit, each film was created in a particular mould that guaranteed success. Hence the popularity of GENRE films at this time. They operated a BLOCK BOOKING system where a year’s worth of products from one studio were brought outright by the theatres, securing their assets and preventing other films being shown.

As the studios operated like a factory, the staff were employed like factory workers- churning out the same product, preventing input from different workers and skills. Remember, the studios owned stars, directors and crew. There was very little choice within projects; you had to work on a film because it was in your contract.

STABLE OF STARS

Studios owned their own stars who had to appear in whichever film the studio wanted them to, and for whichever role. Also, studios often loaned out their stars to other studios.

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

"He gives her class and she gives him sex appeal.”  -Katherine Hepburn

Both Fred and Ginger were contracted by RKO and starred in the studio’s most successful films:

The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Top Hat (1935)

Swing Time (1936)

They were loaned out MGM where they appeared in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

THE DECLINE OF THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM

After World War Two, the industry faced challenges which transformed its structure. In 1948, the government declared that the 8 companies were monopolising the industry. The US Supreme Court ordered the majors to sell their cinemas and to end BLOCK BOOKING. Gradually, the studios obeyed the ruling and they remained production-distribution companies.

The arrival of TV resulted in a major loss of audiences and the competition forces the industry to produce more creative films than what they had previously under the production line methods.

The PACKAGE-UNIT SYSTEM came into being after the demise of the studio system. This consisted of the entire industry being available as a source of labour rather that one company providing everything. The producer would organise a film project and obtained everything that was required from wherever suitable. The package-unit was a short term, film by film arrangement; work was based on a film not a studio. The major studios provided the money to make the film and then distributed to the cinemas. By the 1956, the self contained studio had disappeared.

CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood is currently dominated by 6 multinational conglomerates who own the major studios. They also own other sections of the entertainment industries, and this is called HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION.

The main companies currently are:

·               Warner Bros

·               20^th Century Fox (News corporation)

·               Columbia/Sony Pictures (Sony)          

·               Paramount (Viacom)

·               Universal (NBC Universal)

·               Disney (Touchstone, Buena Vista)

All of these companies are involved in nearly all forms of mass media e.g. publishing, music, theme parks, television, computers, and interactive media

STARS

Nowadays, both directors and stars have agents cutting deals for them and they (and the agents) have become relatively more powerful within the business, especially since they are no longer under exclusive contracts to one particular studio as they were in the past.

PRODUCERS

Dues to financial pressure in the 1950s, studios were prepared to support the emergence of independent producers who offered them greater business flexibility. The studios could then back a production with these independent producers without the need to bankroll a workforce.

This change opened up the possibility of top creative personnel like stars and directors being able to negotiate freelance deals. This was a big change from the Studio System where studios exerted overall management control over a range of films.

MERCHANDISE AND PRODUCT PLACEMENT

IN 1977 Star Wars took over $100 million at the box office but the income from the linked sales was even greater, guaranteeing the success of its sequels.

Movie production can be seen as the creation of entertainment software that can be viewed through several different windows, Major Hollywood corporations are involved in the production and distribution of interrelated products, e.g. books, TV shows, computer games, McDonalds Happy Meals, etc.

Extending the entertainment experience is really ‘commercial intertextuality,’ almost every high-budget movie is an advertising space for the placement of consumer products.

GLOBALISATION

The major companies have all developed strategies to build on operations at home while achieving a major presence in all of the world’s important markets.

The high-concept film contributed to this worldwide presence.

For example, Terminator 2 was one of the first high concept films that took $204 million in the US and £310 million in foreign profits. This type of film is characterised by a large budget with special effects and stars and is guaranteed success works wide. This is due to:

·               The creation of a media event

·               Promotional tie-ins

·               Theme park opportunities

·               DVD/Blu-Ray/TV/Internet sales are certain

·               Easy to distribute with saturation booking in all multiplexes accompanied by a huge advertising campaign.