Movie Making Manual/Shooting Styles
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This Module is part of the Movie Making Manual
Contents[hide]
1 Blair Witch Project/Cloverfield
2 Ken Loach
3 Dogme/Dogma
3.1 The Vow of Chastity
4 Alfred Hitchcock
5 Sources
//
[edit] Blair Witch Project/Cloverfield
The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield differ from the standard shooting style in several different ways.
The whole film is presented as if it were an unedited documentary, filmed by the protagonists, and as such the shooting style resembles that of an amateur documentary or a home movie.
This includes shaking shots when the characters are running and more or less useless or irrelevant shots when the characters are just fooling around with the cameras.
A large part of the Blair Witch Project is in black and white, as one of the cameras that the protagonists carry with them only shoots in this format. This adds to the realism of the movie.
[edit] Ken Loach
The films of Ken Loach have an incredible authenticity and 'realness' to them. How does he achieve this?
Taken from "Loach on Loach"
Never use ADR
Run the entire scene for every shot, don't break the scene down into little "shot length" segments.
Light the entire scene so you're not artificially telling the audience "THIS is the lead actor for this scene, the others are less important"
Don't give the actors marks (indeed, you don't have to because you're lighting the entire scene)
Actors should have vulnerabilities
[edit] Dogme/Dogma
From Bright Lights Film Journal: Copyrights lawyers are out of luck. Anyone can obtain a Dogme certificate if he (or she) shoots a film in accordance with the ten rules known as "The Vow of Chastity."
[edit] The Vow of Chastity
Shooting on location (no imported props or sets)
Sound and image produced together
A handheld camera
Natural light
No optical work or filters
No superficial action (murders, weapons)
No temporal or geographic alienation
No genre films
Film format must be Academy 35mm.
No signature; the director must not be credited.
[edit] Alfred Hitchcock
A man dedicated to suspense and intrigue
Emotion is the ultimate goal of each of his shots. Hitchcock believed that emotion came directly from the actor's eyes. By bringing us closer or tearing us away he used camera angles to jerk us into the feeling of his moments.
The camera should be just like a person looking around for something out of place in a room. This allows the audience to feel like they are involved the action. Scenes can often begin by panning a room showing close-ups of objects that explain plot elements.
Hitchcock also loved to keep us on our toes by throwing in shots fast and close after being slow and far...
Thursday, 15 October 2009
synopsis
A synopsis is the kind of brief summary you might read on the back of a video box, and generally doesn’t run for more than one page. Without going into any great detail, it describes the main character and what they are up against, as well as the major turning points in the screenplay. A synopsis is a useful pitching tool, but it’s also a very useful way for screenwriters themselves to articulate what the story is basically about.
Storyboarding
Movie Making Manual/Storyboarding
Storyboards are drawings of the sequence of shots for a script. It helps to pre-visualize how the director wants the screenplay to be shot. As an image says more than a thousand words it is very useful as a basis to communicate the director's ideas to the crew and the producers. Some directors will storyboard every scene and camera angle to save time and money when they are on set. Others however feel that this can inhibit their creativity and will have very few graphic representations done before shooting commences.
Getting Started
To get an idea of how you can storyboard your movie, grab a comic book off the shelf at a bookstore. Many large productions will have storyboards that are somewhere between stick-man quality and full comic book illustrations. If you can draw fairly well yourself, it may seem tedious, but you will gain a lot from trying to draw out a few of the most complex sequences. Every time you storyboard you will take that moment to see the shot through the camera. It's a heck of a lot less expensive than having a cast and crew waiting for you to "discover your vision" right there on the spot.
For the definitions of some of the concepts please refer to cinematography. Storyboarding is mainly there to get a first idea of what the film will look like. It gives indications of the size of the shot, the camera angle and the sequence of the shots. It is rarely followed exactly but it is a helpful guideline during the shooting of a film. It's very common while a crew is tearing down all the lighting rigs and moving to the next shot, the Director and DP will be looking at the storyboard trying decide what is best before everything needs to be placed. Since they have those plans, they are more capable of improvising.
The main areas where storyboarding is regarded as essential are in the planning of elaborate stunts, special effects sequences and designing make-up and costumes.
Animatic
An animatic is a movie which has been edited from the storyboards. Animatics are useful for determining the timing of a shot, particularly an expensive shot such as an effects shot.
Software
1. Thumbnails are storyboards no bigger than a thumbnail. There is little detail in thumbnail storyboards. Each person's head is represented by a circle. Thumbnails are done with pencil and paper.
2. There are 2D storyboard programs such as StoryBoard Quick and StoryBoard Artist. They are fast ways to make high quality storyboards.
3. There are 3D storyboarding programs such as FrameForge 3D Studio, Antics and SketchUp Pro. Designed for creating storyboards, these programs can be faster than the other kinds of 3D animation software. Free limited demo versions of FrameForge 3D Studio and SketchUp are available.
4. There are many kinds of 3D animation programs which work for creating accurate shots such as Blender 3d, Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Lightwave 3D. There is a free version of Maya for non-commercial use called Personal Learning Edition.
5. There are specialized 3D animation programs such as Poser and DAZ Studio which use 3D figures called digital puppets or Poser models. Use predefined figures is much faster than creating your own figures. Digital puppets that work with Poser and DAZ studio are inexpensive ($12 to $100). The advantage of creating storyboards with these programs is you can use the same lens that the camera will use. That can be valuable for effects shots.
Lessons in Storyboarding
A screen shot of FrameForge 3D Studio for a project at Wikiverity Film School.
Wikiversity offers a free lesson in creating storyboarding for a short motion picture. There are also new lessons for 3D storyboarding.
Storyboards are drawings of the sequence of shots for a script. It helps to pre-visualize how the director wants the screenplay to be shot. As an image says more than a thousand words it is very useful as a basis to communicate the director's ideas to the crew and the producers. Some directors will storyboard every scene and camera angle to save time and money when they are on set. Others however feel that this can inhibit their creativity and will have very few graphic representations done before shooting commences.
Getting Started
To get an idea of how you can storyboard your movie, grab a comic book off the shelf at a bookstore. Many large productions will have storyboards that are somewhere between stick-man quality and full comic book illustrations. If you can draw fairly well yourself, it may seem tedious, but you will gain a lot from trying to draw out a few of the most complex sequences. Every time you storyboard you will take that moment to see the shot through the camera. It's a heck of a lot less expensive than having a cast and crew waiting for you to "discover your vision" right there on the spot.
For the definitions of some of the concepts please refer to cinematography. Storyboarding is mainly there to get a first idea of what the film will look like. It gives indications of the size of the shot, the camera angle and the sequence of the shots. It is rarely followed exactly but it is a helpful guideline during the shooting of a film. It's very common while a crew is tearing down all the lighting rigs and moving to the next shot, the Director and DP will be looking at the storyboard trying decide what is best before everything needs to be placed. Since they have those plans, they are more capable of improvising.
The main areas where storyboarding is regarded as essential are in the planning of elaborate stunts, special effects sequences and designing make-up and costumes.
Animatic
An animatic is a movie which has been edited from the storyboards. Animatics are useful for determining the timing of a shot, particularly an expensive shot such as an effects shot.
Software
1. Thumbnails are storyboards no bigger than a thumbnail. There is little detail in thumbnail storyboards. Each person's head is represented by a circle. Thumbnails are done with pencil and paper.
2. There are 2D storyboard programs such as StoryBoard Quick and StoryBoard Artist. They are fast ways to make high quality storyboards.
3. There are 3D storyboarding programs such as FrameForge 3D Studio, Antics and SketchUp Pro. Designed for creating storyboards, these programs can be faster than the other kinds of 3D animation software. Free limited demo versions of FrameForge 3D Studio and SketchUp are available.
4. There are many kinds of 3D animation programs which work for creating accurate shots such as Blender 3d, Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Lightwave 3D. There is a free version of Maya for non-commercial use called Personal Learning Edition.
5. There are specialized 3D animation programs such as Poser and DAZ Studio which use 3D figures called digital puppets or Poser models. Use predefined figures is much faster than creating your own figures. Digital puppets that work with Poser and DAZ studio are inexpensive ($12 to $100). The advantage of creating storyboards with these programs is you can use the same lens that the camera will use. That can be valuable for effects shots.
Lessons in Storyboarding
A screen shot of FrameForge 3D Studio for a project at Wikiverity Film School.
Wikiversity offers a free lesson in creating storyboarding for a short motion picture. There are also new lessons for 3D storyboarding.
How to make a film trailer
What makes a good trailer?
The purpose of trailers is to sell the film to the public so that they will want to pay to see it at the cinema. A trailer is like a free sample of a film. When you are making a trailer you have to be a good salesman by showing the strengths of the film and hiding the weaknesses.A trailer needs a beginning, a middle and an end and it should set up the story and the world of the film in the most exciting, interesting or intriguing way it can. This can be done in different ways, for example you can tease the story to make the audience want to find out more...What ingredients do you need to make a trailer? A trailer is made up of some or all of the following: clips from the film, voice over, caption cards, music and sound effects. Clips from the film should show the film off in the best way to help sell it. It is not just about showing 'the best bits' but selecting shots and dialogue that tell an exciting story.Voice over or captions cards are not essential but they can be really useful. They should be used to help set up and move on the story you want to tell. They should be clear and concise and not too long. Music and sound effects are the backbone of any trailer. They set the pace and rhythm of the trailer and drive it through from beginning to end. Choosing the right music can make or break a trailer.
The purpose of trailers is to sell the film to the public so that they will want to pay to see it at the cinema. A trailer is like a free sample of a film. When you are making a trailer you have to be a good salesman by showing the strengths of the film and hiding the weaknesses.A trailer needs a beginning, a middle and an end and it should set up the story and the world of the film in the most exciting, interesting or intriguing way it can. This can be done in different ways, for example you can tease the story to make the audience want to find out more...What ingredients do you need to make a trailer? A trailer is made up of some or all of the following: clips from the film, voice over, caption cards, music and sound effects. Clips from the film should show the film off in the best way to help sell it. It is not just about showing 'the best bits' but selecting shots and dialogue that tell an exciting story.Voice over or captions cards are not essential but they can be really useful. They should be used to help set up and move on the story you want to tell. They should be clear and concise and not too long. Music and sound effects are the backbone of any trailer. They set the pace and rhythm of the trailer and drive it through from beginning to end. Choosing the right music can make or break a trailer.
Teaser Trailers
Teaser trailer
Teaser trailers are unlike film trailers in the way they are typically very short in length usually between 30-60 seconds and usually contain little footage of the film. Usually it is a truncated version of the theatrical trailer.Teaser trailers are released to the audience long before the film which they are advertising is released so as to gather the audiences interest in the film. Teaser trailers received their name due to that fact that they are released sometimes up to two years before the film is released so as to tease the audience.
Typically teasers are only usually made for big-budget and popular blockbuster films, with their purpose being to bring to the audience attentions that the films release date is coming up and to hype up the film up towards the date of its release, rather than to tell the audience of the movies content. The teaser trailer usually made even whilst the film itself is still in the production stages or it displays alternative versions of specific scenes that have not yet been completed and produced in the film. However as is the same with some scenes in film trailers, some scenes are produced for use in the trailer only and do not actually feature in the film.
An early example of teaser trailers are the one for superman produced by Richard Donner, as the film was already a year behind its estimated release date, it’s intention was to re-invigorate the audiences interest in the upcoming film. Other more recent examples of major motion picture films that have produced teaser trailers to gain a hype for their films are; the lord of the rings trilogy, the star wars films and the spider man films. The Da Vinci Code teaser trailer ended up being released even before shooting had begun on the actual film. The teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince was seen as being released unusually late until the films release date was put back which then had a reverse effect of the teaser trailer being released unusually early compared with the films release date. This idea is also seen in the way that a teaser for The Incredibles was attached to the May 2003 film Finding Nemo, a full 18 months before The Incredibles was released, whilst also a teaser for Ben 10 Alien Force the Movie was released during the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars about 13 months early. The teaser trailer for Cloverfield was first publicly shown attached to the film Transformers. At this point, nothing about the film was known, and the one-and-a-half-minute teaser did not include the movie title; only the producer's name, J. J. Abrams and a release date, 1.18.08, were shown. Many DVD versions of movies will have both their teaser and theatrical trailers. One of the more notable exceptions to this rule is Spider-Man, whose teaser trailer featured a mini-movie plot of bank robbers escaping in a helicopter, getting caught from behind and propelled backward into what at first appears to be a net, then is shown to be a gigantic spider web spun between the two towers at the World Trade Centre. After the 9/11 attacks, the trailer and associated teaser poster (where the two towers appear in as a reflection in Spider-Man's eyepieces) were pulled from distribution in theatres and have never been released on DVD. Conducting a search on YouTube under "Spider-man Banned Trailer" will show the teaser trailer in its entirety.
Many teaser trailers are similar to TV spots, except that they appear in movie theatres.
Teaser trailers are unlike film trailers in the way they are typically very short in length usually between 30-60 seconds and usually contain little footage of the film. Usually it is a truncated version of the theatrical trailer.Teaser trailers are released to the audience long before the film which they are advertising is released so as to gather the audiences interest in the film. Teaser trailers received their name due to that fact that they are released sometimes up to two years before the film is released so as to tease the audience.
Typically teasers are only usually made for big-budget and popular blockbuster films, with their purpose being to bring to the audience attentions that the films release date is coming up and to hype up the film up towards the date of its release, rather than to tell the audience of the movies content. The teaser trailer usually made even whilst the film itself is still in the production stages or it displays alternative versions of specific scenes that have not yet been completed and produced in the film. However as is the same with some scenes in film trailers, some scenes are produced for use in the trailer only and do not actually feature in the film.
An early example of teaser trailers are the one for superman produced by Richard Donner, as the film was already a year behind its estimated release date, it’s intention was to re-invigorate the audiences interest in the upcoming film. Other more recent examples of major motion picture films that have produced teaser trailers to gain a hype for their films are; the lord of the rings trilogy, the star wars films and the spider man films. The Da Vinci Code teaser trailer ended up being released even before shooting had begun on the actual film. The teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince was seen as being released unusually late until the films release date was put back which then had a reverse effect of the teaser trailer being released unusually early compared with the films release date. This idea is also seen in the way that a teaser for The Incredibles was attached to the May 2003 film Finding Nemo, a full 18 months before The Incredibles was released, whilst also a teaser for Ben 10 Alien Force the Movie was released during the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars about 13 months early. The teaser trailer for Cloverfield was first publicly shown attached to the film Transformers. At this point, nothing about the film was known, and the one-and-a-half-minute teaser did not include the movie title; only the producer's name, J. J. Abrams and a release date, 1.18.08, were shown. Many DVD versions of movies will have both their teaser and theatrical trailers. One of the more notable exceptions to this rule is Spider-Man, whose teaser trailer featured a mini-movie plot of bank robbers escaping in a helicopter, getting caught from behind and propelled backward into what at first appears to be a net, then is shown to be a gigantic spider web spun between the two towers at the World Trade Centre. After the 9/11 attacks, the trailer and associated teaser poster (where the two towers appear in as a reflection in Spider-Man's eyepieces) were pulled from distribution in theatres and have never been released on DVD. Conducting a search on YouTube under "Spider-man Banned Trailer" will show the teaser trailer in its entirety.
Many teaser trailers are similar to TV spots, except that they appear in movie theatres.
Research of the filming industry
Below i have taken research from different sources on the filming industry and the main film production companies in order to help me to gain a greater understandinf of how the film industry operates, this helped me during the production and planning stages of my productions.
www.wikepedia.co.uk
www.paramount.com
www.warnerbros.com
www.wikepedia.co.uk
www.paramount.com
www.warnerbros.com
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
warner Bros Pictures
Warner Bros Entertainment Inc is a highly successful and well-known producer of both film and television. Warner Bros was founded by jewish immigrants from Poland in 1918. One of Warner Bros main film studios is headquartered in Burbank, California and New York city and is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Warner Bros has several subsidiary companies such as; New Line Cinema, DC comics, Warner Bros, pictures, studios, animation and Home video and also owns half of the television network CW. Warner Bros is the third oldest American movie studio still in continuous operation, with some of it’s most notable actors being; Clint Eastwood, Doris Day, James Cagney, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart.
The corporate name honours the four founding Warner Brothers. Sam, Albert, Harry and Jack, who where Jews who had emigrated from Poland. In 1903 the brothers opened their first cinema, ‘The Cascade’ in Pennsylvania. Having previously acquired a movie projector with which they used to show films in Ohio and Pennsylvania the mining towns the brother began in the exhibition business. The brothers began distributing films in 1904 when they founded the Amusement and Supply company based in Pittsburgh. Within a period of four years the brothers began distributing across a four state area.
In 1918 the brothers opened the famous Warner Bros studio which is situated on sunset boulevard in Hollywood. The brothers then split their business workload with both Sam and Jack producing the films whilst Harry and Albert handled the finance and distribution aspect of the business in New york city with their auditor Paul Ashley Chase. In 1919 the company, now known as Warner Bros Inc captured their first important deal by their acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood’s ‘The Gold Diggers’, a broadway play from theatrical impresario David Belasco. However it was a dog named Rin Tin Tin which really boosted Wanrer Bros Inc into the Hollywood filming scene. Rin Tin Tin starred in a short film entitled ’Where the North Begins’ and his debut was so successful that he was signed to star in more short films for $1,000 per week. The success led to the rise in Darryl F. Zanuck’s career, eventually leading with him becoming a top producer for the studio and serving between the years of 1928 and 1933 as Jack Warners right hand man, which entailed the day-to-day production of films. Things where looking good for Warner Bros Inc and more success was soon to follow with the hiring of head director Ernst Lubitsch. The most successful film for the company in 1924 was The marriage circle which was on the New York Times best list for the whole year. However Warner Bros was still unable to achieve star power even with the success of Rin Tin Tin and the hiring of Lubitsch. As a result of this broadway actor John Barrymore was approached by Sam and Jack to play the lead role in their new film Beau Brummell. Due to this films success Brummel was signed to a very lucrative contract by the company. Towards the end of 1924, Warner Bros had established itself as the most successful independent film studio in Hollywood, but it still competed with the Big three studios at the time which where’ Paramount Pictures, MGM and First National. Due to an investment of $500,000 in newspaper advertising Harry saw this as an opportunity to open theatres in New York and Los Angeles. The studio prospered gaining backing from Wall street and purchasing Vita graph a nation-wide distribution system after a loan from Goldman Sachs. Due to the companies high levels of success they then went on to experiment in radio, establishing a successful radio station KFWB Los Angeles.
In 1925 by the urging of Sam Warner Bros agreed to expand their business operations by producing films with synchronized sound, Harry however was opposed to this idea and by February 1926 the studio had reportedly suffered a net loss of $333,413. After a long period of refusing to accept sam’s requests for producing movies with sound, Harry agreed to Sam’s idea as long as the studio’s usages of synchronised sounds was only used for the background music of the films. This led to the signing of Western Electric a sound engineer company and established Vitaphone, which began makin films with music and sound effect tracks in 1926, most notably seen in the John Barrymore film Don Juan. Although still a silent film it featured some vitaphone shorts. Don Juan premiered in the newly acquired Warner theatre in New York on August 6th 1926. Throughout the early history of film distribution, theatre owners had to hire orchestras to provide the sound tracks during film showings, however with Warner Bros Vitaphone provided eight shorts and got many production companies to question the necessity. Whilst Don Juan was a success at the box office, it failed to earn back the production costs and left Warner Bros in financial ruin, leading to Lubsitch leaving the company to work for rival film company MGM. Western Electric did renew their contract with Warner Bros, however with the inclusion of terms that allowed other film companies to test sound.
Due to Warner Bros growing financial problems, they released the movie the jazz singer starring Al Jolson, although having very little dialogue, it featured segments of Jolson singing and signalled the beginning of the talking pictures era and marked the twilight of silent movies.
The brothers where soon hit with more hard times at the death of Sam and this left them unable to attend the premiere of The Jazz Singer, leading to Jack becoming the sole head of production. In the years to come Jack took control and ran the studio with an iron fist firing many employees such as Rin Tin Tin and Douglas Fairbank Jr who had been First Nationals top star since the brothers had acquired the studio in 1928
Due to the success of the Jazz singer and the following successes of The singing Fool, The terror and Lights of New York, Warner Bros become wealthy enabling them to purchase a big studio in Burbank, California. However they didn’t stop there, their newfound wealth provided them with the opportunity to expand by acquiring the Stanley Corporation which are a major theatre chain, giving them a share in rival film studio First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one third. In a bidding war in 1928 with William fox Warners bought more shares in First National Pictures. 1928 also saw the release of Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its huge success the film revolutionised the industry and almost overnight converted films entirely to sound. All of the major studios by the end of 1929 where producing sound films.In 1929 saw the release of the first ever all colour, all talking feature entitled ‘On with the Show’ which was released by the Warners. Following on from this success came Gold Diggers of Broadway which played in theatres until 1939 due to its increasing popularity. The imapct on the success of these two colour features again caused a revolution in the film industry and led to other film companies to try and take on board this idea with their productions.
The success of these two colour pictures caused a colour revolution (just as the first all-talkie had created one for talkies). Warner Bros. released a large number of color films in 1929-1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), Song of the Flame (1930), Song of the West (1930), The Life of the Party (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931), Woman Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these color films were musicals. Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals with color and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making films for the London market, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios. In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals. These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.
Following this in 1929 they purchased the St Louis based theatre chain Skouras Brothers. In addition to this, Harry acquired a string of music publishers and in doing so formed Warner Bros Music, despite failing to purchase Brunswick records, Harry obtained radio companies, foreign sound patents and a lithography company. Harry’s son Lewis was then appointed to serves as Warner Bros Music’s head manager. During the year 1929 Mort Blumenstock, a screenwriter for rival film company First National agreed to become a writer at the brothers New York studios.
Also in 1929, the Warner brother took complete control over First National Pictures when Harry Warner purchased the remaining one-third share over from fox. Although at first being ordered by a judge to keep the two companies as separate entities, the warner brother where given permission to merge the companies at the time of the great depression, moving to First National studio lot in Burbank. Although the warner bothers had merged the two companies they where still required to release a few films under the First National name until 1938 and certain Warner productions were identified as A warner Bros - First National Picture.’ Due to the brothers financial success Harry was enabled to acquire more theatres in Atlantic city in 1930 despite the beginning of the great depression, however the situation soon turned as audiences where unable to afford the price of their cinema tickets leading to the studio suffering a net loss of $8 million in the first year, followed by an addition $14 million the following year.
In 1928, the Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its success, the movie industry converted entirely to sound almost overnight. By the end of 1929, all the major studios were exclusively making sound films. In 1929, National Pictures released their first film with Warner Bros., Noah's Ark. Despite its expensive budget, Noah's Ark was profitable. In 1929, the Warner’s released "On with the Show", the first all-colour all-talking feature. This was followed by Gold Diggers of Broadway which was so popular it played in theatres until 1939. The success of these two colour pictures caused a colour revolution. Warner Bros. released a large number of colour films in 1929-1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930),Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these colour films were musicals. Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals with colour and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making films for the London market, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios.In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals. These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.
Due to the collapse in the market for musicals, the head of production Darryl F. Zanuck made the decision to make more realistic and gritty storylines, this led to the Warner Bros studios to become known as a gangster studio. The studios first gangster film, Little Caesar, was a huge box office success. The next gangster film from the company The Public Enemy made James Cagney the studio’s top new star and the company decided to make more gangster films. In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became the president and stimulated the economy with the new deal, due to this economic rebound, Warner Bros studio’s again became profitable. In the same year head producer Darryl F Zanuck quit due to his strained relationship with Harry Warner and also as a result of the fact that he had to take a pay cut due to the great depression, however when the company began to generate more money Warner Bros refused to raise his salary and he subsequently left the studio to start his own company.
Also in 1933 newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearsts cosmopolitan films was brought into the Warner Bros fold, as hearst had previously been employed by rivals MGM, but ended his contract after a dispute with the companies head producer.
In the year of 1934 as a result of a fire at the Burbank studio the studio suffered a loss of $2.5 million with $500,000 of this being as a direct result of the damages caused by the fire, which destroyed over twenty years worth of early Warner Bros films. During this time, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six other movie studio figures were indicted of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, through an attempt to gain a monopoly over theatres in the St Louis area. In 1935, Harry was put on trial; after a mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theatres, at least for a short time, and the case was never reopened. 1935 also saw the studio rebound with a net profit of $674,158.00.
Warner Bros studios was one of the most prolific producers of Pre-code pictures and had a great deal of trouble with the censors once they began to clamp down on what they considered to be indecent, in the years of around 1934. As a direct result of this, Warner Bros produced a number of historical pictures from 1935 in order for them to avoid confrontations with the Breen office. In 1936, following the success of The Petrified Forest, Jack Warner also signed Humphrey Bogart to a studio contract. Warner, however, did not think Bogart was star material, and decided to only cast Bogart in infrequent roles as a villain opposite either James Cagney or Edward Robinson over the next five years.
Head producer Hal B. Wallis was brought in to succeed Zanuck in 1933 and the Hays code was enforced in 1935, as a result the studio was then forced to abandon this realistic approach and opt to chose to produce more moralistic and idealized pictures. The studio began to then produce historical dramas which would not cause any problems with the censors. Whilst including other offerings of, melodramas, swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with stars like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn. In 1936, Bette Davis, now the studio's top star, was unhappy with the roles Warner was giving her. Leading to her fleeing to England and tried to break her contract with Warners. Davis lost the lawsuit and soon returned to America. Although many of the studio's employees had problems with Jack Warner, they considered Albert and Harry fair.
This period of the companies history saw the disappearance of a huge number of actors and actresses who had characterised the realistic pre-code era, however not suited to the new trend of producing more idealised pictures.
Warner Bros. remained a top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but this changed after 1935 as other studios, notably MGM, quickly overshadowed the prestige and glamour that previously characterized Warner Bros. However, in the late 1930s, Bette Davis became the studio's top draw and was even dubbed as "The Fifth Warner Brother." In 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radio announcer Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-film actor, Warners were impressed by his performance in the final scene of Knute Rockne, All American, and agreed to pair him with Errol Flynn in their film Santa Fe Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films. After his performance in the studio's 1942 Kings Row, Warner decided to make Reagan a top star and signed him to a new contract, tripling his salary.
1930 saw the birth of Bugs Bunny and Daffy duck who are just some of the characters who became central to the companies image. During the years from 1930 - 1933 Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons which introduced the character Bosko who starred in the first ever Loony Tunes cartoon sinkin’. In 1936, Avery directed a string of cartoons, starring Porky Pig, which established the character as the studio's first bona fide star. In addition to Porky Pig, Warner Bros. cartoon characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny also achieved star power. By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States. Jack Warner eventually bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944, and in subsequent decades characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, and Porky Pig became central to the company's image. Bugs in particular remains a mascot to Warner Bros.' various divisions and Six Flags. The studio's 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie, the first pairing of Sylvester and Tweety, was a phenomenal success, and Tweety would always be paired with Sylvester from that point as a result, because the duo carried a high amount of star power.
Prior to the United States entering World War II, Harry Warner had already produced the successful anti-German film The Life of Emile Zola. After that, Harry supervised the production of several more anti-German films, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),The Sea Hawk, Sergeant York, and You're In The Army Now. After the United States officially entered World War II, Harry Warner decided to focus on producing war films. Also, one-fourth of the studio's employees, including Jack Warner and his son Jack Jr., were drafted. Warner Bros carried on producing a series of films during the war some of which where Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy and the controversial film Mission to Moscow. Towards the middle of 1943, however, it became clear audiences were tired of war films. Despite the growing pressure to abandon production of war films, Warner continued to produce them, losing money in the process. Eventually, in honour of the studio's contributions to the war cause, the United States Government named a Liberty ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner, and Harry Warner was given the honour of christening the ship. By the time the war ended, $20 million in war bonds were purchased through the studio, and 763 of the studio's employees served in the armed forces, including Harry Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling. The same year, Jack Warner also signed newly-released MGM actress Joan Crawford, a former top star who found her career fading. Crawford's first role with the studio was 1944's Hollywood Canteen. Her first starring role at the studio, in the title role as Mildred Pierce, revived her career and earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.
The record attendance figures of the World War II years made the Warner brothers rich. The gritty Warner image of the 1930s gave way to a glossier look, By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 a week and net profit $19.4 million. By the end of 1947, the studio reached a record net profit of $22 million. This dropped 50% the following year. On January 5, 1948, Warner offered the first colour newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game. In 1948, Bette Davis, still the studio's top actress and now fed up with Jack Warner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her fellow colleagues left the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest. Warner was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case of the 1940s. This action, brought by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, claimed the five integrated studio-theatre chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled in favour of the government. As a result, Warner and four other major studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In 1949, the studio's net profit was only $10 million. By 1949, with the success of television threatening the film industry more and more, Harry Warner decided to shift his focus towards television production. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not permit it. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to switch their focus to television, Harry abandoned his television efforts. In the early 1950s, the threat of television had grown greatly, and in 1953, Jack Warner decided to take a new approach to compete with the rising threat. In the wake of United Artists' successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to expand into 3-D films with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax. Unfortunately, despite the success of House of Wax, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers.
After the downfall of 3-D films, Harry Warner decided to use CinemaScope in future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and the Mighty enabled the studio to show a profit. In 1954, the studio was finally able engage in television, by providing ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents; it was not a success. The studio's next effort, Cheyenne however was a success. The studio followed this success up with a series of popular Westerns, such as Maverick, Bronco, and Colt .45. The success of these series helped to make up for the losses on the film side. As a result, Jack Warner decided to focus his emphasis on television production.
By 1956, however, the studio was losing money. In February 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of the studio's pre-1950 films to Associated Artists Productions. In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market. Jack, however, secretly organized a syndicate, headed by Boston banker Serge Semenenko to purchase 800,000 shares which worked out at 90% of the company's stock.. After the three brothers sold, Jack through his under-the-table deal joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, 200,000 shares. Shortly after the deal was completed in July, Jack — now the company's largest stockholder — appointed himself new president. By the time Harry and Albert learned of their brother's dealings, it was too late. Shortly after the deal was closed, Jack Warner announced the company and its subsidiaries would be "directed more vigorously to the acquisition of the most important story properties, talents, and to the production of the finest motion pictures possible."
New owners
Warner Bros. rebounded in the late 1950s, specializing in adaptations of popular plays like The Bad Seed (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), and Gypsy (1962). There was also a successful television unit run by William T. Orr, Jack Warner's son-in-law, offering popular series like "Maverick" (1957–62) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64). Already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, in 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records. Warner paid an unprecedented $5.5 million for the film rights to the Broadway musical My Fair Lady in February 1962. By the mid-1960s, motion picture production was in decline. There were few studio-produced films and many more co-productions and pickups of independently made pictures. In 1963, Jack Warner agreed to merge Warner Bros. Records with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. This gave Sinatra part ownership of the merged Warner Bros. In its first eighteen months, Warner Bros. Records lost around $2 million. With the success of the studio's 1965 Broadway play The Great Race, as well as its soundtrack, Warner Bros. Records became a profitable subsidiary. In November 1966, Jack gave in to advancing age and the changing times, selling control of the studio and its music business to Seven Arts Productions, run by the Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman, for $32 million. The company, including the studio, was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Jack Warner did, however, remain studio president until the summer of 1967, when Camelot failed at the box office and Warner gave up his position to the studio's longtime publicity director, Ben Kalmenson; Warner did, however, remain on board as an independent producer and vice-president. With the success of the studio's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, Warner Bros was making profits once again.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Warner Communications branched out into other business, such as its acquiring of video game company Atari, Inc in 1976, and later the Six Flags theme parks. The Time Warner merger was almost derailed when Paramount Communications launched a $12.2 billion dollar hostile takeover bid for Time Inc., forcing Time to acquire Warner for $14.9 billion dollar cash/stock offer. Paramount responded with a lawsuit filed in Delaware court to break up the merger. Paramount lost and the merger proceeded.
In 2006, Warner and CBS Paramount Television decided to close The WB and CBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television Network. In the late 1990s, Warner obtained rights to the Harry Potter novels, and released feature film adaptations of the first in 2001, the second in 2002, the third in June 2004, the fourth in November 2005, and the fifth on July 11, 2007. The sixth was slated for November 2008, but Warner moved it to July 2009 only three months before the movie was supposed to come out, citing the lack of summer blockbusters in 2009 (due to the Writer's Strike) as the reason. The decision was purely financial, this resulted in a massive fan backlash. The seventh and final adaptation, to be shown in two parts, has been announced for 2010 and 2011. Over the years, Warner Bros. has had distribution and/or co-production deals with a number of small companies. These include (but are not limited to) Amblin Entertainment, Morgan Creek Productions (now working with Universal Studios), Regency Enterprises (now working with 20th Century Fox), Village Roadshow Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Heyday Films, Virtual Studios, Silver Pictures (including Dark Castle Entertainment), The Ladd Company, and The Geffen Film Company. Warner Bros. played a large part in the discontinuation of the HD DVD format. On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announced that they would drop support of HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc. HD DVDs would continue to be released through May 2008 but only following Blu-ray and DVD releases. This started a chain of events which resulted in HD DVD development and production being halted by Toshiba on February 16, 2008, ending the format war. Warner Bros. celebrated its 90th anniversary on June 1, 2008 even though the company celebrated for its 85th anniversary for films only. In 2008, Warner Brothers broke the all-time studio record, grossing $1.753 billion breaking the previous record of $1.711 billion set by Sony in 2006. It is responsible for the Harry Potter film series, the highest grossing film series of all time. Warner Brothers is also responsible for The Dark Knight, the 2008 Academy Award-winning Batman film that eventually became the studio's highest grossing film ever with over $1 billion, as well as the 2nd highest grossing movie all time, unadjusted for inflation.
The corporate name honours the four founding Warner Brothers. Sam, Albert, Harry and Jack, who where Jews who had emigrated from Poland. In 1903 the brothers opened their first cinema, ‘The Cascade’ in Pennsylvania. Having previously acquired a movie projector with which they used to show films in Ohio and Pennsylvania the mining towns the brother began in the exhibition business. The brothers began distributing films in 1904 when they founded the Amusement and Supply company based in Pittsburgh. Within a period of four years the brothers began distributing across a four state area.
In 1918 the brothers opened the famous Warner Bros studio which is situated on sunset boulevard in Hollywood. The brothers then split their business workload with both Sam and Jack producing the films whilst Harry and Albert handled the finance and distribution aspect of the business in New york city with their auditor Paul Ashley Chase. In 1919 the company, now known as Warner Bros Inc captured their first important deal by their acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood’s ‘The Gold Diggers’, a broadway play from theatrical impresario David Belasco. However it was a dog named Rin Tin Tin which really boosted Wanrer Bros Inc into the Hollywood filming scene. Rin Tin Tin starred in a short film entitled ’Where the North Begins’ and his debut was so successful that he was signed to star in more short films for $1,000 per week. The success led to the rise in Darryl F. Zanuck’s career, eventually leading with him becoming a top producer for the studio and serving between the years of 1928 and 1933 as Jack Warners right hand man, which entailed the day-to-day production of films. Things where looking good for Warner Bros Inc and more success was soon to follow with the hiring of head director Ernst Lubitsch. The most successful film for the company in 1924 was The marriage circle which was on the New York Times best list for the whole year. However Warner Bros was still unable to achieve star power even with the success of Rin Tin Tin and the hiring of Lubitsch. As a result of this broadway actor John Barrymore was approached by Sam and Jack to play the lead role in their new film Beau Brummell. Due to this films success Brummel was signed to a very lucrative contract by the company. Towards the end of 1924, Warner Bros had established itself as the most successful independent film studio in Hollywood, but it still competed with the Big three studios at the time which where’ Paramount Pictures, MGM and First National. Due to an investment of $500,000 in newspaper advertising Harry saw this as an opportunity to open theatres in New York and Los Angeles. The studio prospered gaining backing from Wall street and purchasing Vita graph a nation-wide distribution system after a loan from Goldman Sachs. Due to the companies high levels of success they then went on to experiment in radio, establishing a successful radio station KFWB Los Angeles.
In 1925 by the urging of Sam Warner Bros agreed to expand their business operations by producing films with synchronized sound, Harry however was opposed to this idea and by February 1926 the studio had reportedly suffered a net loss of $333,413. After a long period of refusing to accept sam’s requests for producing movies with sound, Harry agreed to Sam’s idea as long as the studio’s usages of synchronised sounds was only used for the background music of the films. This led to the signing of Western Electric a sound engineer company and established Vitaphone, which began makin films with music and sound effect tracks in 1926, most notably seen in the John Barrymore film Don Juan. Although still a silent film it featured some vitaphone shorts. Don Juan premiered in the newly acquired Warner theatre in New York on August 6th 1926. Throughout the early history of film distribution, theatre owners had to hire orchestras to provide the sound tracks during film showings, however with Warner Bros Vitaphone provided eight shorts and got many production companies to question the necessity. Whilst Don Juan was a success at the box office, it failed to earn back the production costs and left Warner Bros in financial ruin, leading to Lubsitch leaving the company to work for rival film company MGM. Western Electric did renew their contract with Warner Bros, however with the inclusion of terms that allowed other film companies to test sound.
Due to Warner Bros growing financial problems, they released the movie the jazz singer starring Al Jolson, although having very little dialogue, it featured segments of Jolson singing and signalled the beginning of the talking pictures era and marked the twilight of silent movies.
The brothers where soon hit with more hard times at the death of Sam and this left them unable to attend the premiere of The Jazz Singer, leading to Jack becoming the sole head of production. In the years to come Jack took control and ran the studio with an iron fist firing many employees such as Rin Tin Tin and Douglas Fairbank Jr who had been First Nationals top star since the brothers had acquired the studio in 1928
Due to the success of the Jazz singer and the following successes of The singing Fool, The terror and Lights of New York, Warner Bros become wealthy enabling them to purchase a big studio in Burbank, California. However they didn’t stop there, their newfound wealth provided them with the opportunity to expand by acquiring the Stanley Corporation which are a major theatre chain, giving them a share in rival film studio First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one third. In a bidding war in 1928 with William fox Warners bought more shares in First National Pictures. 1928 also saw the release of Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its huge success the film revolutionised the industry and almost overnight converted films entirely to sound. All of the major studios by the end of 1929 where producing sound films.In 1929 saw the release of the first ever all colour, all talking feature entitled ‘On with the Show’ which was released by the Warners. Following on from this success came Gold Diggers of Broadway which played in theatres until 1939 due to its increasing popularity. The imapct on the success of these two colour features again caused a revolution in the film industry and led to other film companies to try and take on board this idea with their productions.
The success of these two colour pictures caused a colour revolution (just as the first all-talkie had created one for talkies). Warner Bros. released a large number of color films in 1929-1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), Song of the Flame (1930), Song of the West (1930), The Life of the Party (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931), Woman Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these color films were musicals. Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals with color and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making films for the London market, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios. In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals. These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.
Following this in 1929 they purchased the St Louis based theatre chain Skouras Brothers. In addition to this, Harry acquired a string of music publishers and in doing so formed Warner Bros Music, despite failing to purchase Brunswick records, Harry obtained radio companies, foreign sound patents and a lithography company. Harry’s son Lewis was then appointed to serves as Warner Bros Music’s head manager. During the year 1929 Mort Blumenstock, a screenwriter for rival film company First National agreed to become a writer at the brothers New York studios.
Also in 1929, the Warner brother took complete control over First National Pictures when Harry Warner purchased the remaining one-third share over from fox. Although at first being ordered by a judge to keep the two companies as separate entities, the warner brother where given permission to merge the companies at the time of the great depression, moving to First National studio lot in Burbank. Although the warner bothers had merged the two companies they where still required to release a few films under the First National name until 1938 and certain Warner productions were identified as A warner Bros - First National Picture.’ Due to the brothers financial success Harry was enabled to acquire more theatres in Atlantic city in 1930 despite the beginning of the great depression, however the situation soon turned as audiences where unable to afford the price of their cinema tickets leading to the studio suffering a net loss of $8 million in the first year, followed by an addition $14 million the following year.
In 1928, the Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its success, the movie industry converted entirely to sound almost overnight. By the end of 1929, all the major studios were exclusively making sound films. In 1929, National Pictures released their first film with Warner Bros., Noah's Ark. Despite its expensive budget, Noah's Ark was profitable. In 1929, the Warner’s released "On with the Show", the first all-colour all-talking feature. This was followed by Gold Diggers of Broadway which was so popular it played in theatres until 1939. The success of these two colour pictures caused a colour revolution. Warner Bros. released a large number of colour films in 1929-1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930),Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these colour films were musicals. Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals with colour and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making films for the London market, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios.In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals. These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.
Due to the collapse in the market for musicals, the head of production Darryl F. Zanuck made the decision to make more realistic and gritty storylines, this led to the Warner Bros studios to become known as a gangster studio. The studios first gangster film, Little Caesar, was a huge box office success. The next gangster film from the company The Public Enemy made James Cagney the studio’s top new star and the company decided to make more gangster films. In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became the president and stimulated the economy with the new deal, due to this economic rebound, Warner Bros studio’s again became profitable. In the same year head producer Darryl F Zanuck quit due to his strained relationship with Harry Warner and also as a result of the fact that he had to take a pay cut due to the great depression, however when the company began to generate more money Warner Bros refused to raise his salary and he subsequently left the studio to start his own company.
Also in 1933 newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearsts cosmopolitan films was brought into the Warner Bros fold, as hearst had previously been employed by rivals MGM, but ended his contract after a dispute with the companies head producer.
In the year of 1934 as a result of a fire at the Burbank studio the studio suffered a loss of $2.5 million with $500,000 of this being as a direct result of the damages caused by the fire, which destroyed over twenty years worth of early Warner Bros films. During this time, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six other movie studio figures were indicted of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, through an attempt to gain a monopoly over theatres in the St Louis area. In 1935, Harry was put on trial; after a mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theatres, at least for a short time, and the case was never reopened. 1935 also saw the studio rebound with a net profit of $674,158.00.
Warner Bros studios was one of the most prolific producers of Pre-code pictures and had a great deal of trouble with the censors once they began to clamp down on what they considered to be indecent, in the years of around 1934. As a direct result of this, Warner Bros produced a number of historical pictures from 1935 in order for them to avoid confrontations with the Breen office. In 1936, following the success of The Petrified Forest, Jack Warner also signed Humphrey Bogart to a studio contract. Warner, however, did not think Bogart was star material, and decided to only cast Bogart in infrequent roles as a villain opposite either James Cagney or Edward Robinson over the next five years.
Head producer Hal B. Wallis was brought in to succeed Zanuck in 1933 and the Hays code was enforced in 1935, as a result the studio was then forced to abandon this realistic approach and opt to chose to produce more moralistic and idealized pictures. The studio began to then produce historical dramas which would not cause any problems with the censors. Whilst including other offerings of, melodramas, swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with stars like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn. In 1936, Bette Davis, now the studio's top star, was unhappy with the roles Warner was giving her. Leading to her fleeing to England and tried to break her contract with Warners. Davis lost the lawsuit and soon returned to America. Although many of the studio's employees had problems with Jack Warner, they considered Albert and Harry fair.
This period of the companies history saw the disappearance of a huge number of actors and actresses who had characterised the realistic pre-code era, however not suited to the new trend of producing more idealised pictures.
Warner Bros. remained a top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but this changed after 1935 as other studios, notably MGM, quickly overshadowed the prestige and glamour that previously characterized Warner Bros. However, in the late 1930s, Bette Davis became the studio's top draw and was even dubbed as "The Fifth Warner Brother." In 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radio announcer Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-film actor, Warners were impressed by his performance in the final scene of Knute Rockne, All American, and agreed to pair him with Errol Flynn in their film Santa Fe Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films. After his performance in the studio's 1942 Kings Row, Warner decided to make Reagan a top star and signed him to a new contract, tripling his salary.
1930 saw the birth of Bugs Bunny and Daffy duck who are just some of the characters who became central to the companies image. During the years from 1930 - 1933 Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons which introduced the character Bosko who starred in the first ever Loony Tunes cartoon sinkin’. In 1936, Avery directed a string of cartoons, starring Porky Pig, which established the character as the studio's first bona fide star. In addition to Porky Pig, Warner Bros. cartoon characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny also achieved star power. By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States. Jack Warner eventually bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944, and in subsequent decades characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, and Porky Pig became central to the company's image. Bugs in particular remains a mascot to Warner Bros.' various divisions and Six Flags. The studio's 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie, the first pairing of Sylvester and Tweety, was a phenomenal success, and Tweety would always be paired with Sylvester from that point as a result, because the duo carried a high amount of star power.
Prior to the United States entering World War II, Harry Warner had already produced the successful anti-German film The Life of Emile Zola. After that, Harry supervised the production of several more anti-German films, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),The Sea Hawk, Sergeant York, and You're In The Army Now. After the United States officially entered World War II, Harry Warner decided to focus on producing war films. Also, one-fourth of the studio's employees, including Jack Warner and his son Jack Jr., were drafted. Warner Bros carried on producing a series of films during the war some of which where Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy and the controversial film Mission to Moscow. Towards the middle of 1943, however, it became clear audiences were tired of war films. Despite the growing pressure to abandon production of war films, Warner continued to produce them, losing money in the process. Eventually, in honour of the studio's contributions to the war cause, the United States Government named a Liberty ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner, and Harry Warner was given the honour of christening the ship. By the time the war ended, $20 million in war bonds were purchased through the studio, and 763 of the studio's employees served in the armed forces, including Harry Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling. The same year, Jack Warner also signed newly-released MGM actress Joan Crawford, a former top star who found her career fading. Crawford's first role with the studio was 1944's Hollywood Canteen. Her first starring role at the studio, in the title role as Mildred Pierce, revived her career and earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.
The record attendance figures of the World War II years made the Warner brothers rich. The gritty Warner image of the 1930s gave way to a glossier look, By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 a week and net profit $19.4 million. By the end of 1947, the studio reached a record net profit of $22 million. This dropped 50% the following year. On January 5, 1948, Warner offered the first colour newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game. In 1948, Bette Davis, still the studio's top actress and now fed up with Jack Warner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her fellow colleagues left the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest. Warner was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case of the 1940s. This action, brought by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, claimed the five integrated studio-theatre chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled in favour of the government. As a result, Warner and four other major studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In 1949, the studio's net profit was only $10 million. By 1949, with the success of television threatening the film industry more and more, Harry Warner decided to shift his focus towards television production. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not permit it. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to switch their focus to television, Harry abandoned his television efforts. In the early 1950s, the threat of television had grown greatly, and in 1953, Jack Warner decided to take a new approach to compete with the rising threat. In the wake of United Artists' successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to expand into 3-D films with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax. Unfortunately, despite the success of House of Wax, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers.
After the downfall of 3-D films, Harry Warner decided to use CinemaScope in future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and the Mighty enabled the studio to show a profit. In 1954, the studio was finally able engage in television, by providing ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents; it was not a success. The studio's next effort, Cheyenne however was a success. The studio followed this success up with a series of popular Westerns, such as Maverick, Bronco, and Colt .45. The success of these series helped to make up for the losses on the film side. As a result, Jack Warner decided to focus his emphasis on television production.
By 1956, however, the studio was losing money. In February 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of the studio's pre-1950 films to Associated Artists Productions. In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market. Jack, however, secretly organized a syndicate, headed by Boston banker Serge Semenenko to purchase 800,000 shares which worked out at 90% of the company's stock.. After the three brothers sold, Jack through his under-the-table deal joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, 200,000 shares. Shortly after the deal was completed in July, Jack — now the company's largest stockholder — appointed himself new president. By the time Harry and Albert learned of their brother's dealings, it was too late. Shortly after the deal was closed, Jack Warner announced the company and its subsidiaries would be "directed more vigorously to the acquisition of the most important story properties, talents, and to the production of the finest motion pictures possible."
New owners
Warner Bros. rebounded in the late 1950s, specializing in adaptations of popular plays like The Bad Seed (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), and Gypsy (1962). There was also a successful television unit run by William T. Orr, Jack Warner's son-in-law, offering popular series like "Maverick" (1957–62) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64). Already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, in 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records. Warner paid an unprecedented $5.5 million for the film rights to the Broadway musical My Fair Lady in February 1962. By the mid-1960s, motion picture production was in decline. There were few studio-produced films and many more co-productions and pickups of independently made pictures. In 1963, Jack Warner agreed to merge Warner Bros. Records with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. This gave Sinatra part ownership of the merged Warner Bros. In its first eighteen months, Warner Bros. Records lost around $2 million. With the success of the studio's 1965 Broadway play The Great Race, as well as its soundtrack, Warner Bros. Records became a profitable subsidiary. In November 1966, Jack gave in to advancing age and the changing times, selling control of the studio and its music business to Seven Arts Productions, run by the Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman, for $32 million. The company, including the studio, was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Jack Warner did, however, remain studio president until the summer of 1967, when Camelot failed at the box office and Warner gave up his position to the studio's longtime publicity director, Ben Kalmenson; Warner did, however, remain on board as an independent producer and vice-president. With the success of the studio's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, Warner Bros was making profits once again.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Warner Communications branched out into other business, such as its acquiring of video game company Atari, Inc in 1976, and later the Six Flags theme parks. The Time Warner merger was almost derailed when Paramount Communications launched a $12.2 billion dollar hostile takeover bid for Time Inc., forcing Time to acquire Warner for $14.9 billion dollar cash/stock offer. Paramount responded with a lawsuit filed in Delaware court to break up the merger. Paramount lost and the merger proceeded.
In 2006, Warner and CBS Paramount Television decided to close The WB and CBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television Network. In the late 1990s, Warner obtained rights to the Harry Potter novels, and released feature film adaptations of the first in 2001, the second in 2002, the third in June 2004, the fourth in November 2005, and the fifth on July 11, 2007. The sixth was slated for November 2008, but Warner moved it to July 2009 only three months before the movie was supposed to come out, citing the lack of summer blockbusters in 2009 (due to the Writer's Strike) as the reason. The decision was purely financial, this resulted in a massive fan backlash. The seventh and final adaptation, to be shown in two parts, has been announced for 2010 and 2011. Over the years, Warner Bros. has had distribution and/or co-production deals with a number of small companies. These include (but are not limited to) Amblin Entertainment, Morgan Creek Productions (now working with Universal Studios), Regency Enterprises (now working with 20th Century Fox), Village Roadshow Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Heyday Films, Virtual Studios, Silver Pictures (including Dark Castle Entertainment), The Ladd Company, and The Geffen Film Company. Warner Bros. played a large part in the discontinuation of the HD DVD format. On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announced that they would drop support of HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc. HD DVDs would continue to be released through May 2008 but only following Blu-ray and DVD releases. This started a chain of events which resulted in HD DVD development and production being halted by Toshiba on February 16, 2008, ending the format war. Warner Bros. celebrated its 90th anniversary on June 1, 2008 even though the company celebrated for its 85th anniversary for films only. In 2008, Warner Brothers broke the all-time studio record, grossing $1.753 billion breaking the previous record of $1.711 billion set by Sony in 2006. It is responsible for the Harry Potter film series, the highest grossing film series of all time. Warner Brothers is also responsible for The Dark Knight, the 2008 Academy Award-winning Batman film that eventually became the studio's highest grossing film ever with over $1 billion, as well as the 2nd highest grossing movie all time, unadjusted for inflation.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
History of film Trailers
Trailers or previews are film advertisements for feature films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film program. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theatre after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature program) begins.
Besides in front of theatrical releases, movie trailers have now become extremely popular on the internet. Of some 10-billion videos watched online annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video. History
The first trailer shown in a U.S. movie theatre was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theatre chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Loew adopted the practice, which was reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln Daily Star, describing it as "an entirely new and unique stunt," and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew’s picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising." Granlund was also first to introduce trailer material for an upcoming motion picture, using a slide technique to promote an upcoming film featuring Charlie Chaplin at Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914. Up until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries. Most trailers had some form of narration and those that did featured stentorian voices.
In the early 1960s, the face of motion picture trailers changed. Textless, montage trailers and quick-editing became popular, largely due to the arrival of the "new Hollywood" and techniques that were becoming increasingly popular in television. Among the trend setters were Stanley Kubrick with his montage trailers for Lolita, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick's main inspiration for the Dr. Strangelove trailer was the short film "Very Nice, Very Nice" by Canadian film visionary Arthur Lipsett. In 1964, Andrew J. Kuehn distributed his independently-produced trailer for Night of the Iguana, using stark, high-contrast photography, fast-paced editing and a provocative narration by a young James Earl Jones. His format was so successful, he began producing this new form of trailer with partner Dan Davis.
Kuehn opened the west coast office of Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 and Kuehn and his company became a major player in the trailer industry for the next three decades. As Hollywood began to produce bigger blockbuster films and invest more money in marketing them, directors like Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Barbra Streisand began to depend on Kuehn and Kaleidoscope for their ability to create the best trailers theatre-goers could see. Kuehn alumni include leading trailer makers and marketing creative’s. Top trailer companies have all been run by former Kaleidoscope creative’s, like The Cimarron Group (Chris Arnold), Ant Farm, Aspect Ratio (Mark Trugman), Trailer Park (Benedict Coulter) and Motor Entertainment, run by Greg McClatchy, who previously headed up the film marketing division at 20th Century Fox. Michael Camp headed the trailer department at Paramount Pictures, Tom Kennedy at MGM, Jeff Werner and Vince Arcaro all started their own successful trailer companies and Bob Harper began his career as a messenger at Kaleidoscope before becoming a producer and quickly Vice-Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment and, in 2007, Chairman of Regency Entertainment. Top industry trailer composer John Beal credits his career success to the thirty-year collaboration with Kuehn and their revolutionary approach of creating original scores using a whole new musical template.In earlier decades of cinema, trailers were only one part of the entertainment which included cartoon shorts and serial adventure episodes. These earlier trailers were much shorter and often consisted of little more than title cards and stock footage. Today, longer, more elaborate trailers and commercial advertisements have replaced other forms of pre-feature entertainment and in major multiplex chains, about the first twenty minutes after the posted show time is devoted to trailers.
Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by theatres. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose trailer featured elaborate special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film itself. Dimension Films also shot extra scenes for their 2006 horror remake, Black Christmas - these scenes were used in promotional footage for the film, but are similarly absent from the theatrical release. A trailer for the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man had an entire action sequence especially constructed that involved escaping bank robbers in a helicopter getting caught in a giant web between the World Trade Centre’s two towers. However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks the studio pulled it from theatres. One of the most famous "special shoot" trailers is that used for the 1960s thriller Psycho, which featured director Alfred Hitchcock giving viewers a guided tour of the Bates Motel, eventually arriving at the infamous shower. At this point, the soft-spoken Hitchcock suddenly throws the shower curtain back to reveal Janet Leigh with a blood-curdling scream.
The people who create trailers often begin their work while the movie is still being shot. Since the edited movie does not exist at this point, the trailer editors work from rushes or dailies. The trailer may be created at agencies while the movie itself is being cut together at the studio. Thus, the trailer may contain footage that is not in the final movie, or the trailer editor and the movie editor may use different takes of a particular shot. Another common technique is including music on the trailer which does not appear on the movie's soundtrack. This is nearly always a requirement, as trailers and teasers are created long before the composer has even been hired for the film score — sometimes as much as a year ahead of the movie's release date — while composers are usually the last creative people to work on the film.Some trailers that incorporate material not in the movie are particularly coveted by collectors, especially trailers for classic films. For example, in a trailer for Casablanca the character Rick Blaine says, "OK, you asked for it!" before shooting Major Strasser, an event that does not occur in the final film.
Trailers tell the story of a movie in a highly condensed fashion that must have maximum appeal. In the decades since movie marketing has become a large industry, trailers have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able to present even poor movies in an attractive light. Some of the elements common to many trailers are listed below. Trailers are typically made up of scenes from the film they are promoting, but sometimes contain deleted scenes from the film.
Most trailers have a three-act structure similar to a feature-length film. They start with a beginning (act 1) that lays out the premise of the story. The middle (act 2) drives the story further and usually ends with a dramatic climax. Act 3 usually features a strong piece of "signature music" (either a recognizable song or a powerful, sweeping orchestral piece). This last act often consists of a visual montage of powerful and emotional moments of the film and may also contain a cast run if there are noteworthy stars that could help sell the movie.
Voice-over narration is used to briefly set up the premise of the movie and provide explanation when necessary ("In a world..."). Since the trailer is a highly condensed format, voice-over is a useful tool to enhance the audience's understanding of the plot. Some of the best-known, modern-day trailer voice-over artists are the late Don LaFontaine, Howard Parker, Percy Rodriguez, Harlan Rector, Andy Geller, Hal Douglas, Mark Elliot, Keanu Reeves, Corey Burton, George DelHoyo, Peter Cullen, Ashton Smith, John Garry, Jim Cummings, Ben Patrick Johnson, Bill J. Lloyd, and Brian Cummings. Some movie trailers are now being voiced by women. Sylvia Villagran is one of the few women working in movie trailers today. Classic voice-over artists in movie trailers of the 1950s and 1960s included Art Gilmore, Knox Manning, Reed Hadley, Fred Foy, Karl Weber and Bob Marcato. Hollywood trailers of the classic film era were renowned for clichés such as "Colossal!", "Stupendous!", etc. Some trailers have used voice over clichés for satirical effect.Music helps set the tone and mood of the trailer. Usually the music used in the trailer is not from the film itself. One of the most famous Hollywood trailer music composers, credited with creating the musical voice of contemporary trailers, is John Beal, who began scoring trailers in the 1970s and, in the course of a thirty-year career, created original music for over 2,000 movie trailer projects, including 40 of the top-grossing films of all time, such as Star Wars, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Aladdin, Braveheart, Ghost, The Last Samurai and The Matrix.
A cast run is a list of the stars that appear in the movie. If the director or producer is well-known or has made other popular movies, they often warrant a mention as well. Most trailers conclude with a billing block, which is a list of the principal cast and crew. It is the same list that appears on posters and print publicity materials, and also usually appears on-screen at the beginning (or end) of the movie. Studio production logos are usually featured near the beginning of the trailer. Until the late 1970s, they were put only at the end of the trailer. Often there will be logos for both the production company and distributor of the film. Technical elements Sound mix: many movie trailers are presented in Dolby Digital or any other multi-channel sound mix. Scenes including sound effects and music that are enhanced by stereophonic sound are therefore the focus point of many modern trailers. Video resolution: movie trailers preceding feature films are generally presented in the same format as the feature, being in general terms 35mm film or a digital format. High bandwidth internet connections allow for trailers to be distributed at any resolution up to 1080p.
These rating cards appear at the head of movie trailers in the United States. For information about the MPAA ratings, see Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. The MPAA mandates that theatrical trailers not exceed two minutes and thirty seconds in length, and each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year. There are no time restrictions concerning internet and home video trailers.
A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer. Until April of 2009, these cards read: "The following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America," and often include the movie's MPAA rating. This signifies that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which includes limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery. In April of 2009, without any public announcement, the MPAA began to permit the green band language to say that the trailer is approved for "appropriate" audiences. (for example, the trailers of 2012,[10] Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and Where the Wild Things Are). This means that the material in the trailer will be appropriate for audiences in theatres, based on the content of the movie they have come to see. When it appears in trailers on the internet, especially in aggregating sites like YouTube or Trailer Park, the "appropriateness" of the content has no context.
A yellow band is a yellow graphic that reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved ONLY for AGE-APPROPRIATE internet users by the Motion Picture Association of America" (for example, the trailers for Halloween, Burn After Reading and The Strangers). Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America" or "The following PREVIEW has been approved for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America," and may only be shown before an R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movie. The Amityville Horror, Saw, Pineapple Express, Superbad, My Best Friend's Girl, Bruno, Inglorious Basterds, Tropic Thunder, Not Another Teen Movie, Falling, Adventureland, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jackass: The Movie, Legion, and Jennifer's Body carry this banner.[11] Due in part to the rising popularity of red band trailers, Regal Entertainment Group announced on March 2008 that they would begin allowing red band trailers to play in their theaters.[12] With the demand for restricted trailers on the rise, the MPAA had to quickly decide how to control red band trailers that appeared online. The MPAA requires that all red band trailers open to an Age gate, which theoretically prevents underage users from watching. Use of trailers in other media The concept of the trailer format has spread to other non-cinema media as well. Trailers for computer games have become especially popular. Comic book trailers have also pleased fans of the genre; Marvel Comics has been at the forefront of this type of marketing.Awards for trailers Every year there are two main events that give awards to outstanding movie trailers: The Key Art Awards, presented by the Hollywood Reporter, and The Golden Trailer Awards. While the Golden Trailer Awards allow only trailers to be entered in the competition, the Key Art Awards pick winners in all creative parts of movie advertising, from trailers and TV spots to posters and print ads. The yearly Key Art Awards ceremony is often held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Besides in front of theatrical releases, movie trailers have now become extremely popular on the internet. Of some 10-billion videos watched online annually, movie trailers rank #3, after news and user-created video. History
The first trailer shown in a U.S. movie theatre was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theatre chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. Loew adopted the practice, which was reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln Daily Star, describing it as "an entirely new and unique stunt," and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew’s picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising." Granlund was also first to introduce trailer material for an upcoming motion picture, using a slide technique to promote an upcoming film featuring Charlie Chaplin at Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914. Up until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries. Most trailers had some form of narration and those that did featured stentorian voices.
In the early 1960s, the face of motion picture trailers changed. Textless, montage trailers and quick-editing became popular, largely due to the arrival of the "new Hollywood" and techniques that were becoming increasingly popular in television. Among the trend setters were Stanley Kubrick with his montage trailers for Lolita, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick's main inspiration for the Dr. Strangelove trailer was the short film "Very Nice, Very Nice" by Canadian film visionary Arthur Lipsett. In 1964, Andrew J. Kuehn distributed his independently-produced trailer for Night of the Iguana, using stark, high-contrast photography, fast-paced editing and a provocative narration by a young James Earl Jones. His format was so successful, he began producing this new form of trailer with partner Dan Davis.
Kuehn opened the west coast office of Kaleidoscope Films in 1968 and Kuehn and his company became a major player in the trailer industry for the next three decades. As Hollywood began to produce bigger blockbuster films and invest more money in marketing them, directors like Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Barbra Streisand began to depend on Kuehn and Kaleidoscope for their ability to create the best trailers theatre-goers could see. Kuehn alumni include leading trailer makers and marketing creative’s. Top trailer companies have all been run by former Kaleidoscope creative’s, like The Cimarron Group (Chris Arnold), Ant Farm, Aspect Ratio (Mark Trugman), Trailer Park (Benedict Coulter) and Motor Entertainment, run by Greg McClatchy, who previously headed up the film marketing division at 20th Century Fox. Michael Camp headed the trailer department at Paramount Pictures, Tom Kennedy at MGM, Jeff Werner and Vince Arcaro all started their own successful trailer companies and Bob Harper began his career as a messenger at Kaleidoscope before becoming a producer and quickly Vice-Chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment and, in 2007, Chairman of Regency Entertainment. Top industry trailer composer John Beal credits his career success to the thirty-year collaboration with Kuehn and their revolutionary approach of creating original scores using a whole new musical template.In earlier decades of cinema, trailers were only one part of the entertainment which included cartoon shorts and serial adventure episodes. These earlier trailers were much shorter and often consisted of little more than title cards and stock footage. Today, longer, more elaborate trailers and commercial advertisements have replaced other forms of pre-feature entertainment and in major multiplex chains, about the first twenty minutes after the posted show time is devoted to trailers.
Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by theatres. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose trailer featured elaborate special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film itself. Dimension Films also shot extra scenes for their 2006 horror remake, Black Christmas - these scenes were used in promotional footage for the film, but are similarly absent from the theatrical release. A trailer for the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man had an entire action sequence especially constructed that involved escaping bank robbers in a helicopter getting caught in a giant web between the World Trade Centre’s two towers. However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks the studio pulled it from theatres. One of the most famous "special shoot" trailers is that used for the 1960s thriller Psycho, which featured director Alfred Hitchcock giving viewers a guided tour of the Bates Motel, eventually arriving at the infamous shower. At this point, the soft-spoken Hitchcock suddenly throws the shower curtain back to reveal Janet Leigh with a blood-curdling scream.
The people who create trailers often begin their work while the movie is still being shot. Since the edited movie does not exist at this point, the trailer editors work from rushes or dailies. The trailer may be created at agencies while the movie itself is being cut together at the studio. Thus, the trailer may contain footage that is not in the final movie, or the trailer editor and the movie editor may use different takes of a particular shot. Another common technique is including music on the trailer which does not appear on the movie's soundtrack. This is nearly always a requirement, as trailers and teasers are created long before the composer has even been hired for the film score — sometimes as much as a year ahead of the movie's release date — while composers are usually the last creative people to work on the film.Some trailers that incorporate material not in the movie are particularly coveted by collectors, especially trailers for classic films. For example, in a trailer for Casablanca the character Rick Blaine says, "OK, you asked for it!" before shooting Major Strasser, an event that does not occur in the final film.
Trailers tell the story of a movie in a highly condensed fashion that must have maximum appeal. In the decades since movie marketing has become a large industry, trailers have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able to present even poor movies in an attractive light. Some of the elements common to many trailers are listed below. Trailers are typically made up of scenes from the film they are promoting, but sometimes contain deleted scenes from the film.
Most trailers have a three-act structure similar to a feature-length film. They start with a beginning (act 1) that lays out the premise of the story. The middle (act 2) drives the story further and usually ends with a dramatic climax. Act 3 usually features a strong piece of "signature music" (either a recognizable song or a powerful, sweeping orchestral piece). This last act often consists of a visual montage of powerful and emotional moments of the film and may also contain a cast run if there are noteworthy stars that could help sell the movie.
Voice-over narration is used to briefly set up the premise of the movie and provide explanation when necessary ("In a world..."). Since the trailer is a highly condensed format, voice-over is a useful tool to enhance the audience's understanding of the plot. Some of the best-known, modern-day trailer voice-over artists are the late Don LaFontaine, Howard Parker, Percy Rodriguez, Harlan Rector, Andy Geller, Hal Douglas, Mark Elliot, Keanu Reeves, Corey Burton, George DelHoyo, Peter Cullen, Ashton Smith, John Garry, Jim Cummings, Ben Patrick Johnson, Bill J. Lloyd, and Brian Cummings. Some movie trailers are now being voiced by women. Sylvia Villagran is one of the few women working in movie trailers today. Classic voice-over artists in movie trailers of the 1950s and 1960s included Art Gilmore, Knox Manning, Reed Hadley, Fred Foy, Karl Weber and Bob Marcato. Hollywood trailers of the classic film era were renowned for clichés such as "Colossal!", "Stupendous!", etc. Some trailers have used voice over clichés for satirical effect.Music helps set the tone and mood of the trailer. Usually the music used in the trailer is not from the film itself. One of the most famous Hollywood trailer music composers, credited with creating the musical voice of contemporary trailers, is John Beal, who began scoring trailers in the 1970s and, in the course of a thirty-year career, created original music for over 2,000 movie trailer projects, including 40 of the top-grossing films of all time, such as Star Wars, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Aladdin, Braveheart, Ghost, The Last Samurai and The Matrix.
A cast run is a list of the stars that appear in the movie. If the director or producer is well-known or has made other popular movies, they often warrant a mention as well. Most trailers conclude with a billing block, which is a list of the principal cast and crew. It is the same list that appears on posters and print publicity materials, and also usually appears on-screen at the beginning (or end) of the movie. Studio production logos are usually featured near the beginning of the trailer. Until the late 1970s, they were put only at the end of the trailer. Often there will be logos for both the production company and distributor of the film. Technical elements Sound mix: many movie trailers are presented in Dolby Digital or any other multi-channel sound mix. Scenes including sound effects and music that are enhanced by stereophonic sound are therefore the focus point of many modern trailers. Video resolution: movie trailers preceding feature films are generally presented in the same format as the feature, being in general terms 35mm film or a digital format. High bandwidth internet connections allow for trailers to be distributed at any resolution up to 1080p.
These rating cards appear at the head of movie trailers in the United States. For information about the MPAA ratings, see Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. The MPAA mandates that theatrical trailers not exceed two minutes and thirty seconds in length, and each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year. There are no time restrictions concerning internet and home video trailers.
A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer. Until April of 2009, these cards read: "The following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America," and often include the movie's MPAA rating. This signifies that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which includes limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery. In April of 2009, without any public announcement, the MPAA began to permit the green band language to say that the trailer is approved for "appropriate" audiences. (for example, the trailers of 2012,[10] Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant and Where the Wild Things Are). This means that the material in the trailer will be appropriate for audiences in theatres, based on the content of the movie they have come to see. When it appears in trailers on the internet, especially in aggregating sites like YouTube or Trailer Park, the "appropriateness" of the content has no context.
A yellow band is a yellow graphic that reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved ONLY for AGE-APPROPRIATE internet users by the Motion Picture Association of America" (for example, the trailers for Halloween, Burn After Reading and The Strangers). Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America" or "The following PREVIEW has been approved for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America," and may only be shown before an R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movie. The Amityville Horror, Saw, Pineapple Express, Superbad, My Best Friend's Girl, Bruno, Inglorious Basterds, Tropic Thunder, Not Another Teen Movie, Falling, Adventureland, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jackass: The Movie, Legion, and Jennifer's Body carry this banner.[11] Due in part to the rising popularity of red band trailers, Regal Entertainment Group announced on March 2008 that they would begin allowing red band trailers to play in their theaters.[12] With the demand for restricted trailers on the rise, the MPAA had to quickly decide how to control red band trailers that appeared online. The MPAA requires that all red band trailers open to an Age gate, which theoretically prevents underage users from watching. Use of trailers in other media The concept of the trailer format has spread to other non-cinema media as well. Trailers for computer games have become especially popular. Comic book trailers have also pleased fans of the genre; Marvel Comics has been at the forefront of this type of marketing.Awards for trailers Every year there are two main events that give awards to outstanding movie trailers: The Key Art Awards, presented by the Hollywood Reporter, and The Golden Trailer Awards. While the Golden Trailer Awards allow only trailers to be entered in the competition, the Key Art Awards pick winners in all creative parts of movie advertising, from trailers and TV spots to posters and print ads. The yearly Key Art Awards ceremony is often held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.
Sony entertainment was founded in 1987 as Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc, however was then renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment in the year of 1991. The headquarters of Sony entertainment are situated in the United states in California. The main figures involved in this well-known and established, highly successful film production compant are the chairman Howard Stringer, President of Sony Corporation Michael Leyton, chairman and CEO Amy Pascal and the vice-chairman Jeff Blake.
Sony entertainment was founded in 1987 as Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc, however was then renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment in the year of 1991. The headquarters of Sony entertainment are situated in the United states in California. The main figures involved in this well-known and established, highly successful film production compant are the chairman Howard Stringer, President of Sony Corporation Michael Leyton, chairman and CEO Amy Pascal and the vice-chairman Jeff Blake.
▲US$8.58 billion (2007) Operating income
▲US$540 million (2007)
History
History
On September 28, 1989, Sony acquired the American film and television production company Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, etc.) from The Coca-Cola Company for US$3.4 billion. The company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991. One day later, Sony also acquired the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company for $200 million. Sony has since created numerous other film production and distribution units, such as creating Sony Pictures Classics for art-house fare, by forming Columbia TriStar Pictures (also known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) by merging Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1998, revitalizing Columbia's former television division Screen Gems, and expanded its growth on April 8, 2005, when a consortium led by Sony and its equity partners acquired the legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a deal worth nearly US$5 billion. On June 4, 2008, SPE's wholly-owned group 2JS Productions B.V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N.V., famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million ($223.2 million in US dollars). Mario Gabelli, a veteran investor, said Paramount Pictures could merge with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios or another movie studio, depending on the consolidation in the industry.
The Karate Kid: Four films including the television series The Karate Kid: The Animated Series. Spider-Man: Beginning with the 2002 film with two sequels including two series Spider-Man: The New Animated Series and The Spectacular Spider-Man in conjunction with Marvel Comics Stuart Little: Beginning with the 1999 film with two sequels and one television series Stuart Little: The Animated Series. Based on the novel by E. B. White. Wheel of Fortune: Created by Merv Griffin in 1975 and syndicated in September 1983 by King World (now CBS Television Distribution). Including spin-off Wheel 2000. Acquired in 1986 after acquiring Merv Griffin Enterprises. Jeopardy!: Created by Merv Griffin in 1964. Including spin-offs (Super Jeopardy!, Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, and Jep!). First syndicated in September 1983 until officially syndicated in September 1984 by King World (now CBS Television Distribution). Acquired in 1986 after acquiring Merv Griffin Enterprises. Men in Black: Starting with the 1997 film with a 2002 sequel including the cartoon Men in Black: The Series. Based on the Malibu comic created by Lowell Cunningham.
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group With a library of more than 4,000 films (including 12 Academy Award for Best Picture winners), as of 2004 this unit of Sony distributes about 22 films a year under its various studio brands in 67 countries. The group owns studio facilities in the United States, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan. In addition to the below company-owned brands, Columbia TriStar also has a contract to distribute films for independent Revolution Studios and select films by MGM and United Artists. Columbia Pictures: Founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn, Sony acquired the studio in 1989 from The Coca-Cola Company for $3.4 billion.TriStar Pictures Formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS. Became part Columbia Pictures Entertainment in December 1987 and the Sony ownership in 1989. Was re-launched in 2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit with a particular emphasis on genre films. Sony Pictures India, production house established by Sony to release Indian movies and distribute Hollywood movies, released under Columbia Pictures. Sony Pictures Classics (SPC): Specializes in acquiring distribution rights to independent and art films as well as producing lower-budget productions geared to limited audiences.
Screen Gems: Originally Columbia's animation division and later a television production company best known for TV's Bewitched and The Partridge Family, as well as bringing The Three Stooges short subjects to TV in 1958. Sony revived the Screen Gems brand to develop mid-priced movies (production budget of between $20 million and $50 million) in specific genres such as science fiction, horror, black cinema and franchise films. Triumph Films: The label Sony uses for its low-budget or direct to video films. Originally a joint venture between Columbia Pictures and Gaumont in 1982. Destination Films: A "niche" motion picture company purchased by Sony in 2001. Affirm Films: A motion picture label launched in 2008 to release gospel and Christian films. FEARnet A joint venture between SPE, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Comcast for horror, suspense, and thriller movies online.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Manufactures and distributes the Sony film library on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, video cassette, and UMD forms to global markets.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Manufactures and distributes the Sony film library on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, video cassette, and UMD forms to global markets.
Sony Pictures Television Group: (formerly Columbia TriStar Television Group) The successor-in-interest to Columbia's television division (first Screen Gems, later Columbia Pictures Television, Coca-Cola Television, TriStar Television (A division of Columbia Pictures Television), and Columbia TriStar Television), as of 2004 the unit was producing 60 titles for various television outlets globally. Contains a library that includes more than 35,000 episodes of more than 270 television series and 22,000 game show episodes under the Columbia TriStar Television brand, and the television rights to the Embassy Pictures library (including The Graduate and The Lion in Winter) and also the owner of the television division "Embassy Television"--among most recent notable shows in this library are Seinfeld, King of Queens, Days of our Lives and The Young and the Restless.
Crackle C-Spot:C-Spot is an internet television network of Sony Pictures. It hosts videos on Youtube, Crackle, and Hulu. The serials and shorts are produced for the channel or taken from other producers. One episode airs each day of the week and the budget for each episode is $10k.[citation needed] Merv Griffin Enterprises: Founded in 1964 by Merv Griffin as Merv Griffin Productions. He sold his company to The Coca-Cola Company in 1986 as Merv Griffin Enterprises. It is now a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment since 1991.
ELP Communications (ELPC) and Tandem Licensing Corporation (TLC): The two in-name only units of Sony Pictures Television own the productions' copyrights presented by Norman Lear's companies: Tandem Productions and ELP Communications (series from TAT to ELP Communications). The companies were formed by Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear in 1963 as Tandem Productions. Yorkin sold his shares to Lear in 1975. Lear sold Tandem/Embassy Television to The Coca-Cola Company in 1985 and later became Embassy Communications in 1986 (later became ELP Communications in 1988). ELPC and TLC are part of
Sony Pictures Television International: Formed in 1995 as the worldwide television distribution arm for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Formerly known as Columbia TriStar International Television from 1995-2002.
ELP Communications (ELPC) and Tandem Licensing Corporation (TLC): The two in-name only units of Sony Pictures Television own the productions' copyrights presented by Norman Lear's companies: Tandem Productions and ELP Communications (series from TAT to ELP Communications). The companies were formed by Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear in 1963 as Tandem Productions. Yorkin sold his shares to Lear in 1975. Lear sold Tandem/Embassy Television to The Coca-Cola Company in 1985 and later became Embassy Communications in 1986 (later became ELP Communications in 1988). ELPC and TLC are part of
Sony Pictures Television International: Formed in 1995 as the worldwide television distribution arm for Sony Pictures Entertainment. Formerly known as Columbia TriStar International Television from 1995-2002.
Animax: Instituted in Japan by Sony in 1998, Animax is the world's largest anime television network, with respective networks operating across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America and other regions.AXN: Formed in 1997, AXN is Sony's entertainment television network, which airs across Japan, Asia, Latin America and Europe. 2waytraffic Acquired by Sony in 2008, this television production company owns a number of formats, most notably including Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) (SPEJ): The company plans, produces, manufactures, sells, imports, exports, leases, broadcasts and distributes movies, TV programs, videos and audio-visual software in Japan. The company web site says it was established on February 10, 1984, predating Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment by 5 years. SPEJ was formed in 1991 through the merger of Columbia Tristar Japan, RCA Columbia Pictures Video Japan, and Japan International Enterprises. Based in Tokyo, Japan.
Sony Pictures Loot: A newly formed group of developers that creates experiences and products for PlayStation Home. Their products include premium personal spaces and decorative ornaments and clothes/costumes for the users personal spaces and avatars. The premium personal spaces have equipment that allows users, if hooked up to a video capture system, make their own machinimas in Home.
Sony Pictures Loot: A newly formed group of developers that creates experiences and products for PlayStation Home. Their products include premium personal spaces and decorative ornaments and clothes/costumes for the users personal spaces and avatars. The premium personal spaces have equipment that allows users, if hooked up to a video capture system, make their own machinimas in Home.
MGM is an American media company, involved in the production and distribution of films and television programs. Its operating units include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, United Artists (UA), Orion Pictures, MGM Television, MGM Worldwide Television, MGM Home Entertainment and others. On April 8, 2005, a consortium led by Sony, Comcast and their equity partners acquired the legendary Hollywood studio in a deal finalized, worth nearly $5 billion. MGM ownership is as follows: Providence Equity Partners (29%), TPG Capital, L.P. (formerly Texas Pacific Group) (21%), Sony Corporation of America (20%), Comcast (20%), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (7%) and Quadrangle Group (3%). Officially, unlike Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is not a part of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony owns 20% of the total equity (which includes 45% of the total outstanding common stock) of MGM Holdings, Inc. MGM has operating agreements with SPE in regard to the distribution of MGM's library and co-production of new films. In 2006, MGM ended their distribution agreement with SPE and transferred their home video output from SPE to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (excepting those Columbia TriStar/MGM/UA co-productions).
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Film Corporation
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corportation which is also more commonly known as 20th Century Fox, is another one of the major American film production studios. The company was founded in December of 1934 as the result of a merger between two entities Fox Film Corporation which had been founded by William Fox in the year of 1915 and Twentieth Century Pictures which was founded by Darryl F Zanuck and Joseph Schenck in the year of 1933. Twentieth Century Fox studios are located in Century City in Los Angeles, the studio is a subsidiary of News Corporation, which is the media conglomerate which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Some of 20th Century Fox’s most well-known movie’s include; Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Home Alone, Alien and Night at the Museum, with some of the well known stars to have come out of this company being Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe.
With Fox being more of an entrepreneur than a showman, he focused his attention on acquiring and building theaters; pictures were secondary. The company's first film studios were set up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, but in 1917, William Fox sent Sol M. Wurtzel to Hollywood, California to oversee the studio's new West Coast production facilities where a more hospitable and cost effective climate existed for film making. With the introduction of sound technologies, Fox moved to acquire the rights to a sound-on-film process. In the years 1925-26, Fox purchased the rights to the work of Freeman Harrison Owens, the U.S. rights to the Tri-Ergon system invented by three German inventors, and the work of Theodore Case. This resulted in the Movietone sound system later known as 'Fox Movietone'. Later that year, the company began offering films with a music-and-effects track, and the following year Fox began the weekly Fox Movietone News feature, which ran until 1963. The growing company needed space, and in 1926 Fox acquired 300 acres in the open country west of Beverly Hills and built "Movietone City", the best-equipped studio of its time. When rival Marcus Loew died in 1927, Fox offered to buy the Loew family's holdings. Loew's Inc. controlled more than 200 theaters as well as the MGM studio. When the family agreed to the sale, the merger of Fox and Loew's Inc. was announced in 1929. But MGM studio-boss Louis B. Mayer, not included in the deal, fought back. Using political connections, Mayer called on the Justice Department's anti-trust unit to block the merger.
With Fox now being close to bankruptcy, he was stripped of his empire and even ended up in jail. Fox Film, with more than 500 theatres as a result of this Fox ended up being placed in receivership. A bank-mandated reorganization propped the company up for a time, but it was clear a merger was the only way Fox Film could survive. Under the new president Sidney Kent, the new owners began negotiating with an upstart but powerful independent organization called Twentieth Century Pictures in the early spring of 1935.
Twentieth Century Pictures was an independent Hollywood motion picture production company created in 1932 by Joseph Schenck, the former president of United Artists, Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Brothers, William Goetz from Fox Films, and Raymond Griffith. Financial backing came from Schenck's older brother Nicholas Schenck and the father-in-law of Goetz, Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM Studios .
Schenck was President of 20th Century while Zanuck was named Vice President in Charge of Production and Goetz served as vice-president. In 1935, they produced the classic film Les Misérables, from Victor Hugo's novel, which was nominated for Best Picture. Joe Schenck and Fox management agreed to a merger; Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox-West Coast theaters, helped in the merger. Although Twentieth Century was the senior partner in the merger, it was still a dwarf compared to Fox. With this in mind, observers of this mouse-and-elephant combination expected that the new company would be called "Fox-Twentieth Century." However, the new company was called The Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, which began trading on December 28, 1934Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President. Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Fox's longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan.
Aside from the theatre chain and a first-rate studio lot, Zanuck and Schenck felt there wasn't much else to Fox. The studio's biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity. Promising leading men James Dunn and Spencer Tracy had been dropped because of heavy drinking. Zanuck quickly signed young actors who would carry Twentieth Century-Fox for years: Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, ice-skater Sonja Henie,Gene Tierney and Betty Grable. And also on the Fox payroll he found two players whom he would build into the studio's leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple. Favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox passed RKO and mighty MGM to become the third-most profitable studio. While Zanuck went off for eighteen months' war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by emphasizing light entertainment.
In 1942 Spyros Skouras succeeded Schenck as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Fox's output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razor's Edge, Wilson, Gentleman's Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books and Broadway musicals, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein films, beginning with the musical version of State Fair in 1945, and continuing on years later with Carousel in 1956, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. They also distributed, but did not make, the CinemaScope version of Oklahoma! and the 1958 film version of South Pacific. After the war, audiences drifted away, and the arrival of television hastened the process. Fox held on to its theatres until a court-mandated divorce; they were spun off as Fox National Theatres in 1953. That year, with attendance at one-half 1946's level, Fox gambled on an unproven gimmick. Noting that the two movie sensations of 1952 had been Cinerama, which required three projectors to fill a giant curved screen, and "Natural Vision" 3-D, which got its effects of depth by requiring the use of polarized glasses, Fox mortgaged its studio to buy rights to a French anamorphic projection system which gave a slight illusion of depth without glasses. President Spyros Skouras struck a deal with the inventor Henri Chrétien, leaving the other filmstudios empty-handed, and in 1953 introduced CinemaScope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film The Robe.
The success of The Robe was so massive that in February 1953 Zanuck announced that henceforth all Fox pictures would be made in CinemaScope. To convince theater owners to install this new process, Fox agreed to help pay conversion costs (about $25,000 per screen); and to ensure enough product, Fox gave access to CinemaScope to any rival studio choosing to use it. Seeing the box-office for the first two CinemaScope features, The Robe and How to Marry a Millionaire, Warner Bros., MGM, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures (1 film only while others are VistaVision), Columbia Pictures and Disney quickly adopted the process. CinemaScope brought a brief up-turn in attendance, but by 1956 the numbers again began to slide. That year Darryl Zanuck announced his resignation as head of production. Officially attributed to burn-out, rumors persisted that his wife had threatened divorce (in community-property California) after discovering Zanuck's affair with actress Bella Darvi. Zanuck moved to Paris, setting up as an independent producer; he did not set foot in California again for fifteen years. [edit] Production and financial problems His successor, producer Buddy Adler, died a year later. President Spyros Skouras brought in a series of production executives, but none had Zanuck's success. By the early 1960s Fox was in trouble. A remake of Theda Bara's Cleopatra had begun in 1959 with Joan Collins in the lead. As a publicity gimmick, producer Walter Wanger offered one million dollars to Elizabeth Taylor if she would star. Taylor accepted, and costs for Cleopatra began to escalate, aggravated by Richard Burton's on-set romance with Taylor, and the media frenzy that surrounded it. Meanwhile, another remake—this one of the 1940 Cary Grant hit My Favourite Wife—was rushed into production in an attempt to turn over a quick profit to help keep Fox afloat. The romantic comedy, titled Something's Got to Give paired Fox's most bankable star of the 1950s—Marilyn Monroe—with Dean Martin, but with a troubled star and director (George Cukor) causing delays on a daily basis, it quickly descended into a costly debacle. As Cleopatra's budget passed the ten-million dollar mark, Fox sold its back lot (now the site of Century City) to Alcoa in 1961 to raise cash. After several months of very little progress, Marilyn Monroe was fired from Something's Got to Give, although somewhat controversially Elizabeth Taylor's highly disruptive reign on the Cleopatra set continued unchallenged. With few pictures on the schedule, Skouras wanted to rush Zanuck's big-budget war epic The Longest Day, a highly accurate recounting of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, into release as another source of quick cash. This offended Zanuck, still Fox's largest shareholder, for whom The Longest Day was a labour of love that he had dearly wanted to produce for years. After it became clear that Something's Got to Give would not be able to progress without Monroe in the lead (Martin had refused to work with anyone else), Skouras finally relented and re-signed her. But days before filming was due to resume, she was found dead at her Los Angeles home and the unfinished scenes from Something's Got to Give were shelved. They wouldn't see the light of day for nearly 40 years. Rather than being rushed into release as if it were a B-picture, The Longest Day was lovingly and carefully produced under Zanuck's supervision. It was finally released at a length of three hours, with a huge international cast, and went on to be recognized as one of the great World War II films. At the next board meeting, Zanuck spoke for eight hours, convincing directors that Skouras was mis-managing the company and that he was the only possible successor. Zanuck was installed as chairman, and then named his son Richard Zanuck as president. This new management group seized Cleopatra and rushed it to completion, shut down the studio, laid off the entire staff to save money, axed the long-running Movietone Newsreel and made a series of cheap, popular pictures that restored Fox as a major studio. The biggest boost to the studio's fortunes came from the tremendous success of The Sound of Music (1965), an expensive and handsomely produced adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, which became one of the all-time greatest box office hits. Fox also had two big science-fiction hits in the 1960's: Fantastic Voyage (which introduced Racquel Welch to movie audiences) in 1966, and the original Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston, in 1968. Zanuck stayed on as chairman until 1971 but his last years saw several expensive flops, resulting in Fox posting losses from 1969 to 1971. Following his removal, and after an uncertain period, new management brought Fox back to health. Under president Dennis Stanfill and production head Alan Ladd, Jr., Fox films connected with modern audiences. Stanfill used the profits to acquire resort properties, soft-drink bottlers, Australian theatres, and other properties in an attempt to diversify enough to offset the boom-or-bust cycle of picture-making. In 1977, Fox's success would also reach new heights and produced the most profitable film made up to that time, Star Wars.
With financial stability came new owners, and in 1978 control passed to the investors Marc Rich and Marvin Davis. In early 1985, Davis sold Rich's (who had fled the U.S. after evading $100,000,000 in U.S. income taxes) half of Fox to News Corp. Six months later, Davis sold his half of Fox, giving Rupert Murdoch's company complete control. To run the studio, Murdoch hired Barry Diller from Paramount. Diller brought with him a plan which Paramount's board had refused: a studio-backed, fourth free-to-air commercial television-network. But to gain FCC approval of Fox's purchase of Metromedia's television holdings (once the stations of the old DuMont network), Murdoch had to become an American citizen. He did so in 1985 (the same year Twentieth Century Fox dropped the hyphen from its name), and in 1986, the new Fox Broadcasting Company took to the air. Over the next twenty-odd years the network and owned-stations group have expanded to become extremely profitable for News Corp. The film studio has prospered too, with Fox choosing to back away from its reputation for literary adaptations and adult themes to concentrate on larger movies such as the Star Wars trilogies (1977-1983 and 1999-2005), 1997's Titanic (a co-production with Paramount Pictures), and others. Since January 2001, this company has been the international distributor for MGM/UA releases, and as of 2006, the worldwide video distributor for the MGM/UA library. In the 1980s, Fox – through a joint venture with CBS, called CBS/Fox Video, had distributed certain UA films on video, thus UA has come full circle by switching to Fox for video distribution. Fox also makes money distributing movies for small independent film companies. In 2008, Fox announced an Asian subsidiary, Fox STAR Studios, a joint venture with STAR TV, also owned by News Corporation. Fox STAR will start producing films for the Bollywood market first, then will expand to several Asian markets in the coming years.
The distinctive Art Deco 20th Century Fox logo, designed by famed landscape artist Emil Kosa, Jr., originated as the 20th Century Pictures logo, with the name "Fox" substituted for "Pictures, Inc." in 1935. The logo was originally created as a painting on several layers of glass and animated frame-by-frame. It had very little animation – just a sideline view of the tower with searchlights, some moving and some non-moving. Over the years, the logo's design went through several changes. In the 1950s, Rocky Longo, an artist at Pacific Title, was hired to recreate the original design for the new CinemaScope process. In order to give the rather static design the required "width", Longo tilted the "0" in 20th—an idiosyncratic element which became part of the design for more than two decades. In 1981, after Longo repainted the eight-layered glass panels (and straightened the "0"), his revised logo became the official trademark. In 1994, after a few false starts and expensive failed attempts (which even included trying to film the familiar monument as an actual three-dimensional model), Fox in-house television producer Kevin Burns was hired to produce an all-new, standardized logo – this time using the new process of CGI. With the help of graphics producer Steve Soffer and his company Studio Productions Burns directed that the new logo contain more detail and animation, so that the longer (21 second) Fox fanfare with the "CinemaScope extension" could be used as the underscore. This required a virtual Los Angeles City be designed around the monument—one in which buildings, moving cars and street lights can be briefly glimpsed. In the background can be seen the famous Hollywood sign, which would give the monument an actual location. One final touch was the addition of store front signs – each one bearing the name of Fox executives who were at the studio at the time. One of the signs reads, "Murdoch's Department Store"; another says "Chernin's" and a third reads: "Burns Tri-City Alarm" (an homage to Burns' late father who owned a burglar and fire alarm company in Upstate New York). The 1994 CGI logo was also the first time that Twentieth Century Fox was recognized as "A News Corporation Company" in the logo, despite being owned by News Corp. for eight years to that point. The Fox fanfare was originally composed in 1933 by Alfred Newman, head of Fox's music department from 1940 until the 1960s. It originally was used in films made by Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures before the company merged with Fox films.In 1953, an extended version was created for CinemaScope films, and debuted on the film How to Marry a Millionaire, released that same year. (The Robe, the first film released in CinemaScope, used the sound of a choir singing over the logo, instead of the regular fanfare.) By the 1970s, the Fox fanfare was only being used sporadically in films. George Lucas enjoyed the Alfred Newman music so much that he insisted it be used for Star Wars (1977), which features the CinemaScope version. Composer John Williams composed the Star Wars main theme in the same key as the Fox fanfare as an extension to Newman's score. In 1980, Williams conducted a new version of the fanfare for The Empire Strikes Back. Williams' recording of the Fox fanfare has been used in every Star Wars film since. As the CGI logo was being prepped to premiere at the beginning of James Cameron's True Lies (1994), Burns tapped composer Bruce Broughton to perform a new version of the familiar fanfare. In 1997, Alfred's son, composer David Newman, recorded the version of the fanfare that is currently being used. Parodies of the fanfare have appeared at the start of the films The Cannonball Run (cars drive around the logo), White Men Can't Jump, The Day After Tomorrow (thunderstorm on the set), Live Free or Die Hard (where the spotlights go out as a result of a terrorist-controlled power outage), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (piano-rock version of the fanfare), The Simpsons Movie (Ralph Wiggum "sings along" with the fanfare; in trailers and commercials, the "0" in the tower is replaced by a pink, half-bitten donut, the type Homer eats), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (with snow and volcanoes covering the logo; international prints used the regular logo like the previous Ice Age films), Minority Report, where the logo, alongside its DreamWorks counterpart, appears immersed in water, similar to the film's "precog" characters, Max Payne, and Mirrors. In the 2003 production, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the logo appears as a huge unlit monument dominating the nighttimes London skyline. One parody of particular interest was seen at the end of Fox's Futurama, the words "20th Century Fox" were changed to "30th Century Fox" as a nod to the shows setting, the 30th and 31st centuries. As a surprise twist, the opening fanfare for Alien³ has the music "freeze" on the penultimate melody tone, and then adds wailing French horns and bending strings, before continuing with a crash into the opening titles, thus setting the dark mood for the movie. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Foxstar Productions, and Fox Studios Australia are just a few of the other corporate entities that have used variations on the original 1933 design. A new logo of the studio was unveiled in the teaser trailer for James Cameron's Avatar, which was announced that Avatar will be the first film from 20th Century Fox to use the new unveiled logo.
Walt disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures was established in was established in 1983, prior to which films produced by Disney had been released under the name of their parent company Walt Disney Productions. During the year of 1984 Touchstone Pictures was created which enabled Disney to produce and release alternative films to the current one that where officially associated with the Disney name (Such as typically children’s films). This then allowed Disney to produce films with a more mature content.
Walt Disney Pictures and Television which is a subsidiary company to that of Walt disney Studio Entertainment and is also the main production company which produces the live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures group, which acquires and produces the outputs that are released under the film banners of Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures. Their most commercially successful partners in the area of production in the later years have included; Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean Films, Spy Glass Entertainment, Mandevillle films and Walden Media.
The animated feature films which have been produced and released by Walt Disney Animation Studios, or Pixar Animation Studios, Image Movers and DisneyToom studios where usually released by Walt Disney Pictures under the films Disney banner. However, expectations included the feature of Who framed Roger Rabbit and the popular animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas originally ended up being released under Disney’s Touchstone Imprint.
The distribution aspect of the filming process is handled by Walt Disney Pictures who distribute all of their own films internationally via the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, with a few exceptions including Canada where another billion dollar distribution franchise known as Alliance Films which have DVD rights to Universal Home Entertainment among with other films distributed in Canada for alliance films. An alternative distribution company named United International Pictures are also responsible for distributing Walt Disney films to Turkey.
Paramount
Paramount PicturesThe worldwide American film production and distribution company Paramount Pictures is situated in Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Whilst being the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, it is also the worlds oldest existing American film studio. Paramount Pictures was founded in 1912 and is now currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is consistently ranked as one of the top grossing movie studios.
Paramount Pictures can trace its beginning to the creation in May 1912 of the Famous Players Film Company. Founder Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, who had been an early investor in nickelodeons, saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time. By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky, opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn. The Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille, who would find a suitable location site in Hollywood, near Los Angeles, for his first film, The Squaw Man. Beginning in 1914, both Lasky and Famous Players released their films through a start-up company, Paramount Pictures Corporation, organized early that year by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson, who had bought and merged several smaller firms. Hodkinson and actor, director, producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nation-wide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a state-wide or regional basis. Not only was this inefficient, but it had proved costly to film producers. Also while Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned Paramount was a corporation so the other two companies were merged into Paramount. Soon the ambitious Zukor, unused to taking a secondary role, began courting Hodkinson and Lasky. In 1916, Zukor maneuvered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. The new company, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, grew quickly, with Lasky and his partners Goldfish and DeMille running the production side, Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution, and Zukor making great plans. With only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players-Lasky and its "Paramount Pictures" soon dominated the business.
Because Zukor believed in stars, he signed and developed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and Wallace Reid. With so many important players, Paramount was able to introduce "block booking", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years. The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor. All through the teens and twenties, he built a mighty theatrical chain of nearly 2,000 screens, ran two production studios, and became an early investor in radio, taking a 50% interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928. By acquiring the successful Balaban & Katz chain in 1926, he gained the services of both Barney Balaban, who became Paramount's president, and Sam Katz, who ran the Paramount-Publix theatre chain. Zukor also hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg, an unerring eye for new talent, to run the West Coast studio. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took on the name Paramount-Famous Lasky Corporation. Three years later, because of the importance of the Publix theater chain, it was later known as Paramount-Publix Corporation. Also in 1928, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps animated cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios in New York City. The Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, would prove to be among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney. The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957.
Eventually Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldfish/Goldwyn were out by 1917 while Lasky hung on until 1932, when, blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the Depression years, he too was tossed out. Zukor's over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases led the company into receivership in 1933. A bank-mandated reorganization team, led by John Hertz and Otto Kahn kept the company intact, and, miraculously, kept Zukor on. In 1935, Paramount Publix went bankrupt. in 1936, Barney Balaban became president, and Zukor was bumped up to chairman of the board. In this role, Zukor reorganized the company as Paramount Pictures, Inc. and was able to successfully bring the studio out of bankruptcy. As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars; in the 1920s there were Swanson, Valentino, and Clara Bow. By the 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful new draws: Miriam Hopkins, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Lamour, Carole Lombard, Bing Crosby, the band leader Shep Fields and the famous Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel among them. In this period Paramount can truly be described as a movie factory, turning out sixty to seventy pictures a year. Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along. In 1933, Mae West would also add greatly to Paramount's success with her movies She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel. However, the sex appeal West gave in these movies would also lead to the enforcement of the Production Code, as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it wasn't enforced. Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful. One Fleischer series, Screen Songs, featured live-action music stars under contract to Paramount hosting sing-alongs of popular songs. However, a huge blow to Fleischer Studios occurred in 1934, after the Production Code was enforced and Betty Boop's popularity declined as she was forced to have a more tame personality and wear a longer skirt. The animation studio would rebound with Popeye, and in 1935, polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse. After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films, as well as the fact that Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another, Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount, which renamed the operation Famous Studios and continued cartoon production until 1967.
In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Immediately Paramount cut back on production, from sixty-plus pictures to a more modest twenty annually in the war years. Still, with more new stars (like Bob Hope, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Paulette Goddard, and Betty Hutton), and with war-time attendance at astronomical numbers, Paramount and the other integrated studio-theatre combines made more money than ever. At this, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios. Paramount also had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters as well. This led to the Supreme Court decision United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) holding that movie studios could not also own movie theater chains. This decision broke up Adolph Zukor's amazing creation and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system.
With the separation of production and exhibition forced by the U.S. Supreme Court, Paramount Pictures Inc. was split in two. Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company, with the 1,500-screen theater chain handed to the new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949. Leonard Goldenson, who had headed the chain since 1938, remained as the new company's president. The Balaban and Katz theatre division was spun off with UPT. The Balaban and Katz trademark is now owned by the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation. Cash-rich and controlling prime downtown real estate, Goldenson began looking for investments; barred from film-making, he acquired the struggling ABC television network in February, 1953. Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television, launching experimental stations in 1939 in Los Angeles (later to become KTLA) and Chicago (which was sold off as part of UPT and eventually became WBBM-TV). It was also an early investor in the pioneer DuMont Laboratories and through that, the DuMont Television Network, but because of anti-trust concerns after the 1948 ruling, and station ownership issues (DuMont owned three stations in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh; but because of Paramount's involvement, KTLA and WBBM were also recognized by the FCC as network O&O stations, even though the former was only an affiliate in 1947 and the latter never carried a DuMont program) proved to be a timid and obstructionist partner, refusing to aid DuMont as it sank in the mid-1950s.With the loss of the theater chain, Paramount Pictures went into a decline, cutting studio-backed production, releasing its contract players, and making production deals with independents. By the mid-1950s, all the great names were gone; only C.B. DeMille, associated with Paramount since 1913, kept making pictures in the grand old style. Despite Paramount's losses, DeMille would, however, give the studio some relief and create his most successful film at Paramount, a 1956 remake of his 1923 film The Ten Commandments. Like some other studios, Paramount saw little value in its film library (see below for more info on the early Paramount library). DeMille died in 1959.
By the early 1960s Paramount's future was doubtful. The high-risk movie business was wobbly; the theater chain was long gone; investments in DuMont and in early pay-television came to nothing. Even the flagship Paramount building in Times Square was sold to raise cash, as was KTLA (sold to Gene Autry in 1964 for a then-phenomenal $12.5 million). Founding father Adolph Zukor (born in 1873) was still chairman emeritus; he referred to chairman Barney Balaban (born 1888) as 'the boy'. Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount was sold to Charles Bluhdorn's industrial conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries. Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio, installing a virtually unknown producer, Robert Evans, as head of production. Despite some rough times, Evans held the job for eight years, restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple, Love Story, Chinatown, and Rosemary's Baby. Gulf and Western Industries also bought the neighboring Desilu television studio (once the lot of RKO Pictures) from Lucille Ball in 1967. Using Desilu's established shows like Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Mannix as a foot in the door at the networks, the newly-reincorporated Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half-hour situation comedies.
In 1970, Paramount teamed with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation, a new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would become a partner in the mid 1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now Paramount Home Entertainment) and CIC Video, respectively. Robert Evans quit as head of production in 1974; his successor Richard Sylbert, was too literary and tasteful for Gulf + Western's Bluhdorn. By 1976, a new, television-trained team was in place: Barry Diller, and his 'killer-Dillers,' associates Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dawn Steel and Don Simpson. The specialty now was simpler, 'high concept' pictures like Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Mario Puzo's The Godfather and Mario Puzo's The Godfather Part II. With his television background, Diller kept pitching an idea of his to the board: a fourth commercial network. But the board, and Bluhdorn, wouldn't bite. Neither would Bluhdorn's successor, Martin Davis. Diller took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1984, where the new proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, was a more interested listener.
Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Flashdance, Footloose, Fatal Attraction, the Friday the 13th slasher series, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequels. Other examples are the Star Trek series and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy (such as Beverly Hills Cop). While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional less commercial but more artistic and intellectual efforts like I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, The Elephant Man, Atlantic City, and Terms of Endearment. During this period responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Frank Mancuso Sr. (1984) and Ned Tanen (1984) to Stanley Jaffe (1991) and Sherry Lansing (1992). More so than most, Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spinoffs; while sometimes commercially successful, there have been few compelling films of the kind that once made Paramount the industry leader. In 1981, Cinema International Corporation was reorganized as United International Pictures. This was necessary because MGM had merged with United Artists which had its own international distribution unit, but MGM was not allowed to leave the venture at the time (they finally did in 2001, switching international distribution to 20th Century Fox). In 1985, Dawn Steel became head of Motion Picture Production.
When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly, his successor Martin Davis dumped all of G+W's industrial, mining, and sugar-growing subsidiaries and refocused the company, renaming it Paramount Communications in 1989. With the influx of cash from the sale of G+W's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks. In 1993, Sumner Redstone's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made a bid for Paramount; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller. But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $10 billion for the Paramount holdings.
Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper. When Paramount moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of the film community. Since then, former next-door neighbor RKO closed up shop in 1957; Warner Bros. (whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in 1949 as a home for KTLA) moved to Burbank in 1930; Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in 1973 then moved again to Culver City in 1989; and the Pickford-Fairbanks-Goldwyn-United Artists lot, after a lively history, has been turned into a post-production and music-scoring facility for Warners, known simply as "The Lot". For a time the semi-industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline, but has now come back. The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors, and its studio tour is a popular attraction.
During this time period, Paramount Pictures went under the guidance of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing, president. During their administration over Paramount, the studio had an extremely successful period of films with two of Paramount's ten highest grossing films being produced during this period. The most successful of these films, Titanic, went on to become the highest grossing film of all time grossing over $1.8 billion worldwide. Also during this time, three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Titanic, Braveheart, and Forrest Gump. Dolgen and Lansing also presided over the production and release of other films including Saving Private Ryan (outside the US; DreamWorks handled American distribution), as well as the Mission: Impossible films.
In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries' United Television launched United Paramount Network (UPN), fulfilling Barry Diller's 1970s plan for a Paramount network. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 1999 - an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS as well.In 2002, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. formed the Digital Cinema Initiative. DCI was created "to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality control."
2005 to present
CBS Corporation/Viacom split
Reflecting in part the troubles of the broadcasting business, in 2005 Viacom wrote off over $28 billion from its radio acquisitions and, early that year, announced that it would split itself in two. The split was completed in January 2006. The CBS television and radio networks, the Infinity radio-station chain (now called CBS Radio), the Paramount Television production unit (known as CBS Paramount (Network) Television) and the network UPN (replaced by The CW Television Network, co-owned with rival Time Warner's Warner Bros.) are part of CBS Corporation, as was Paramount Parks prior to its June 2006 sale by CBS to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. CBS Corporation also merged its television distribution arms, KingWorld, CBS Paramount International Television and CBS Paramount Television, into CBS Television Distribution in 2006. Paramount Pictures is now lumped in with MTV, BET, and other highly profitable channels owned by the new Viacom. With the announcement of the split of Viacom, Dolgen and Lansing were replaced by former television executives Brad Grey and Gail Berman. The decision was made to split Viacom into two companies, which in turn led to a dismantling of the Paramount Studio/Paramount TV infrastructure. The current Paramount is about one-quarter the size it was under Dolgen and Lansing and consists only of the movie studio. The famed Paramount Television studio was made part of CBS in the split. The remaining businesses were sold off or parceled out to other operating groups. Paramount's home entertainment unit continues to distribute the Paramount TV library through CBS DVD, as both Viacom and CBS Corporation are controlled by National Amusements. However, CBS ended the use of Paramount name in 2009 and renamed itself as CBS Television Studios, thus the Paramount name is now gone from television. It is one of only 2 of the Big Six to have this fate (the other being Columbia Pictures).
DreamWorks
On December 11, 2005, Paramount announced that it had purchased DreamWorks SKG (which was co-founded by former Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg) in a deal worth $1.6 billion. The announcement was made by Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, who noted that enhancing Paramount's pipeline of pictures is a "key strategic objective in restoring Paramount's stature as a leader in filmed entertainment." The agreement doesn't include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the most profitable part of the company that went public the previous year.
Under the deal, Paramount is required to distribute the DreamWorks animated films for a small fee intended only to cover Paramount's out of pocket costs with no profit to the studio, including the Shrek franchise (and ending for the 2004 installment, Shrek 2). The first film distributed under this deal is Over the Hedge. The deal closed on February 6, 2006. This acquisition was seen at the time as a stopgap measure as Brad Grey had been unsuccessful in assembling sufficient films for production and distribution and the DreamWorks films would fill the gap. On October 6, 2008, Paramount and DreamWorks announced the joint venture was ending and that DreamWorks would be seeking new distributors for its films.
Grey also broke up the famous UIP international distribution company, the most successful international film distributor in history, after a 25-year partnership with Universal Studios and has started up a new international group. As a consequence Paramount fell from #1 in the international markets to the lowest ranked major studio in 2006 but recovered in 2007 if the DreamWorks films, acquired by Paramount, are included in Paramount's market share. Grey also launched a Digital Entertainment division to take advantage of emerging digital distribution technologies. This led to Paramount becoming the second movie studio to sign a deal with Apple Inc. to sell its films through the iTunes store. They also signed an exclusive agreement with the failed HD DVD consortium and subsequently gave up the guarantees they had received and will now release in the Blu-ray format.
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Video and Paramount Video) is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video and was founded in late 1975. PHE distributes films by Paramount (under its own label) and DreamWorks (under the DreamWorks Pictures Home Entertainment label), shows from MTV Networks (under the MTV DVD, Nickelodeon DVD, Nickelodeon Movies DVD, Comedy Central DVD and Spike DVD labels), PBS (under the PBS Home Video label), Showtime (under its own label), and CBS-owned programs (under the CBS Home Entertainment label) on DVD. Films from Republic Pictures, Paramount's other subsidiary, are not distributed on video and DVD by PHE (with some exceptions), but are distributed on video and DVD by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, which recently signed a deal to distribute some of Paramount's own films on DVD (in addition to the aforementioned Republic library). Also, as a result of this deal, Lionsgate has recently relased "triple features" of their own library of films on DVD using the package design originated by Paramount.
PHE have developed a well-known trademark by giving their Special Edition/Director's Cut editions different names rather than the usual "Special Edition," or "Director's Edition". Paramount Home Entertainment gives them different names such as Grease: The Rockin' Rydell Edition, Beavis & Butthead Do America: The Edition That Doesn't Suck and Airplane!: The "Don't Call Me Shirley" Edition. Internationally, PHE holds the DVD rights to several shows on HBO. PHE also distributes in Germany the DVD releases of films distributed theatrically by Prokino Filmverleih. As Paramount Home Video, the company once distributed several Miramax releases on video - the video rights to some of these films (such as Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth) are still owned by Paramount. Recently, PHE launched a direct-to-video label, Paramount Famous Productions (with the "Famous" part of the name a throwback to the days when the company was called Famous Players). Had CBS/Fox Video not been bought by 20th Century Fox just before the CBS/Viacom merger of 1999, itself and Paramount may have shared a single home entertainment arm.
HD DVD & Blu-ray support
Paramount brands the majority of its HD content under the label 'Paramount High Definition' which is seen both on the title box cover and as an in-movie opening. Films from Paramount subsidiaries such as Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films as well as from sister studio DreamWorks SKG use no special branding, Paramount Vantage (another subsidiary) releases only select titles under the Paramount High Definition banner such as Babel. In October 2005, Paramount announced that it would be supporting the HD video format Blu-ray Disc in addition to rival format HD DVD, becoming the first studio to release on both formats. Its first four HD DVD releases came in July 2006, and it released four titles on Blu-ray two months later. In August 2007, Paramount (along with DreamWorks SKG and DreamWorks Animation) announced their exclusive support for HD DVD. However, when other studios eventually dropped HD DVD and players for the technology stopped being manufactured, Paramount switched to Blu-ray. In May 2008, it released 3 titles on Blu-ray and continues to release its high-definition discs in that format exclusively. However they are not a member of the Blu-ray Disk Association.
The Paramount library
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, many of Paramount's early cartoons, shorts, and feature films are owned by numerous entities. In 1955, Paramount acquired Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which produced only 2 films in the late 1940s: It's a Wonderful Life, released originally by RKO Radio Pictures, and State of the Union, released originally by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Around that same time, as mentioned before, Paramount saw little value in its library, and decided to sell off its back catalog.
The pre-1948 Paramount feature films (both sound and certain silent films) went to EMKA, Ltd., the subsidiary of MCA. The Paramount cartoons and shorts went to various television distributors, with U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. acquiring the majority of the cartoons and live action short subjects made before 1951. Some lesser known features were included in this deal as well, as was It's a Wonderful Life. However, the Popeye cartoons were sold to Associated Artists Productions, and the Superman cartoons went to Motion Pictures for Television, producers of the Superman television series. U.M.&M. was later sold to National Telefilm Associates (or NTA). NTA changed its name to Republic Pictures (which was previously the name of a minor film studio, whose backlog had been sold to NTA) in 1984, and was sold to Viacom in 1999, hence all the material sold to U.M.&M. would return to Paramount (though, except for It's a Wonderful Life, video rights belong to Lionsgate).
The Popeye cartoons passed on to United Artists after its purchase of a.a.p., then to MGM after they purchased UA. After Ted Turner failed in an attempt to buy MGM/UA in 1986, he settled for ownership of the library, which included the a.a.p. material. Turner Entertainment, the holding company for Turner's film library, would later be sold to Time Warner. Turner technically holds the rights to the Popeye cartoons today, but sales and distribution is in the hands of Warner Bros. Entertainment. WB also owns Superman's publisher, DC Comics, and although the Superman cartoons are now in the public domain, WB owns the original film elements.
The rest of the majority of cartoons by Famous Studios were sold to Harvey Comics and are now owned by Classic Media. Except for the Superman cartoons and the features sold to MCA (to end up with Universal), most television prints of these films have had their titles remade to remove most traces of their connection to Paramount (The original copyright lines were left intact on Popeye cartoons). The Popeye cartoons have been restored for DVD release with the original Paramount titles.
When the talent agency Music Corporation of America (better known as MCA), then wielding major influence on Paramount policy, offered $50 million for 750 pre-1949 features (with payment to be spread over many years), a cash-strapped Paramount thought it had made the best possible deal. To address anti-trust concerns, MCA set up a separate company, EMKA, Ltd., to sell these films to television. The deal included such notable Paramount films as the early Marx Brothers films, most of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "Road" pictures, and such Oscar contenders as Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, and The Heiress. MCA later admitted that over the next forty years it took in more than a billion dollars in rentals of these supposedly "worthless" pictures. MCA later purchased the US branch of Decca Records, which owned Universal Studios (now a part of NBC Universal), and thus Universal now owns these films, though EMKA continues to hold the copyright and technically are part of the television unit of NBC Universal.
Several other feature films ended up in Republic Pictures's possession, yet others had been retained by Paramount due to other rights issues (such as The Miracle of Morgan's Creek). As for Paramount's silent features, some still are under Paramount ownership—for example, 1927's Wings, the first "Best Picture" Academy Award winner—but many others are either lost or in the public domain. Also, one additional pre-1950 film, the 1931 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 who filmed a remake that same year - this film is also now owned by WB/Turner Entertainment.
Rights to some of Paramount's films from 1950 onward would also change hands. Most notably, the rights to five Paramount films directed by Alfred Hitchcock -- Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo and Psycho - eventually reverted to ownership by the director himself with the exception of Psycho, which was sold directly to Universal in 1968. Following Hitchcock's death, Universal eventually acquired the distribution rights to the four other films in 1983 from the Hitchcock estate (which still holds all other ancillary rights to these films—the estate is overseen by his daughter, Patricia). However, one Hitchcock film, To Catch A Thief, is still under Paramount's ownership.
The later Bob Hope films originally released by Paramount (including The Seven Little Foys and The Lemon Drop Kid) are now co-owned by Sony Pictures Television and FremantleMedia, both successors-in-interest to a joint venture called Colex Enterprises, which had consisted of respective predecessor companies Columbia Pictures Television and LBS Communications. A number of films merely distributed by Paramount would also end up with other companies - for example, the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was produced by Wolper Productions; Warner Bros. acquired the rights to the film from the film's financer The Quaker Oats Company in 1977, after Paramount no longer had any interest to own the distribution rights to the film due to the initial failure of Willy Wonka. WB also owns the rights to several films originally distributed by Paramount that were produced by Lorimar Productions, which was sold to WB in 1989. Some other films from 1950 onward went into the public domain as well. Paramount's association with the comedian Jerry Lewis, which produced The Nutty Professor among other films, ended in the 1970s, and the rights to these films were given back to Lewis. As a consequence, the hit remakes starring Eddie Murphy were released by Universal Pictures. This reversion to Jerry Lewis resulted from a promise made by then-Paramount CEO Barney Balaban who gratuitously offered to give the rights back to Lewis as a birthday present. Paramount, however, has retained full distribution rights to the Lewis films. Balaban, consistent with his other decisions to sell off rights and dismantle Paramount's library, was of the opinion that there was no future economic value to 'old' movies. This "strategy" of the gradual dismantling Paramount's assets and library has continued under current Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman who not only split the company in half and gave the television library and distribution rights to the feature films to CBS, but also sold off the Company's music library, Famous Music.
In the 1970s, Paramount acquired the rights to the Frank Capra film Broadway Bill, which was originally released by Columbia Pictures. Paramount had remade the film as Riding High in 1950. Then in 2004, Paramount bought all worldwide rights to the original 1975 version of The Stepford Wives (also released by Columbia), in connection with the release of the remake. Paramount owns DVD rights to many films produced by Full Moon Entertainment, due to a deal made with the company years before. Paramount also owns DVD rights to several films released by Miramax Films prior to that firm's acquisition by Disney in 1993, also a result of a deal. Independent company Hollywood Classics now represents Paramount in the theatrical distribution of all the films produced by the various motion picture divisions of CBS over the years, as a result of the Viacom/CBS merger. This also includes US rights to the 1951 film The African Queen, originally distributed by United Artists (the international rights are with ITV Global Entertainment Ltd.). Paramount (via CBS DVD) has outright video distribution to the aforementioned CBS library with few exceptions-for example, the original Twilight Zone DVDs are handled by Image Entertainment. Until 2009, the video rights to My Fair Lady were with original theatrical distributor Warner Bros., under license from CBS (the video license to that film has now reverted to CBS DVD under Paramount).
As for distribution of the material Paramount itself still owns, it has been split in half, with Paramount themselves owning theatrical rights. But from 2006-2009, the library was distributed by CBS Television Distribution, the television distribution arm of CBS Paramount Television (now CBS Television Studios). The films are now distributed by Trifecta Entertainment & Media on television.
In early 2008, Paramount partnered with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to make short scenes taken from its film library available to users on Facebook. The application, called VooZoo, allows users to send movie clips to other Facebook users and to post clips on their profile pages. Paramount engineered a similar deal with Makena Technologies to allow users of vMTV and There.com to view and send movie clips.
The logo
This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive trivia, praise, criticism, lists and collections of links. (July 2009) The distinctively pyramidal Paramount mountain has been the company's logo since its inception and is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo. Legend has it that the mountain is based on a doodle made by W. W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Adolph Zukor. It is said to be based on the memories of his childhood in Utah. Some claim that Utah's Ben Lomond is the mountain Hodkinson doodled, and that Peru's Artesonraju is the mountain in the live-action logo. Many residents of the County of Sutherland in the north western Scottish Highlands believe that the logo of Paramount is based on a local mountain, Ben Stack. Indeed, looking at the North-Eastern side of the mountain, it is not hard to see why this assumption was made. The lochs and hillocks below and around the mountain do resemble the logo very closely, almost to the point of uniformity.
The logo began as a somewhat indistinct charcoal rendering of the mountain ringed with superimposed stars. The logo originally had twenty-four stars, as a tribute to the then current system of contracts for actors, since Paramount had twenty-four stars signed at the time. In 1952, the logo was redesigned as a matte painting. The current mountain style debuted in 1954. In 1974 the logo was simplified, adopting the design of the then-current television version, and the number of stars was changed to twenty-two; this version of the logo is still in use as Paramount's current print logo. The visual logo was replaced in 1987, Paramount's 75th Anniversary, by a version created by Apogee, Inc. with a computer generated lake and stars. For Paramount's 90th anniversary in 2002, a new, completely computer-generated logo was created.
Not long before the United Paramount Network (UPN) was merged with The WB to form the CW Network, there were plans to re-brand UPN as The Paramount Network, featuring a stylized mountain/stars logo to identify the newly-named network with the studio, but the plans were scrapped. In contrast, UPN's initial logo from its January 1995 launch featured its initials in geometric shapes. The "U" (for "United") was in a circle, the "P" ("Paramount") in a triangle, and the "N" ("Network") in a square, with the "P" triangle being a nod to the Paramount mountain
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