Projecting the Past analyses the ways in which the Hollywood and Italian film industries have resurrected ancient Rome to address present concerns. Through the case studies of Spartacus, Cleopatra, Nero and Pompeii, the book explores cinema's use of the past to excavate present issues of nationhood, colonialism, gender and cinema itself.

From the beginning of the sound era until the end of the 1930s, independent movie-making thrived. Many of the independent studios were headquartered in a section of Hollywood called "Poverty Row." Here the independents made movies on the cheap, usually at rented facilities where shooting was limited to only a few days. From Allied Pictures Corporation to Willis Kent Production, 55 Poverty Row Studios are given histories in this book. Some of the studios, such as Diversion Pictures and Cresent Pictures, came into existence for the sole purpose of releasing movies by established stars. Others, for example J.D. Kendis, were early exploitation filmmakers under the guise of sex education. The histories include critical commentary on the studio's output and a filmography of all titles released from 1929 through 1940.

From the American underground film to the blockbuster superhero, this authoritative collection of introductory and specialized readings explores the core issues and developments in American cinematic history during the second half of the twentieth-century through the present day. * Considers essential subjects that have shaped the American film industry from the impact of television and CGI to the rise of independent and underground film; from the impact of the civil rights, feminist and LGBT movements to that of 9/11. * Features a student-friendly structure dividing coverage into the periods 1960-1975, 1976-1990, and 1991 to the present day, each of which opens with an historical overview * Brings together a rich and varied selection of contributions by established film scholars, combining broad historical, social, and political contexts with detailed analysis of individual films, including Midnight Cowboy, Nashville, Cat Ballou, Chicago, Back to the Future, Killer of Sheep, Daughters of the Dust, Nothing But a Man, Ali, Easy Rider, The Conversation, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Longtime Companion, The Matrix, The War Tapes, the Batman films, and selected avant-garde and documentary films, among many others. * Additional online resources, such as sample syllabi, which include suggested readings and filmographies, for both general and specialized courses, will be available online. * May be used alongside American Film History: Selected Readings, Origins to 1960 to provide an authoritative study of American cinema from its earliest days through the new millennium

Money, power, and celebrity - the stuff of Hollywood is also substance of politics. While Hollywood celebrities such as Susan Sarandon, George Clooney, and Ed Begley Jr. currently attract attention from the media for their involvement in politics, Hollywood has been involved in politics since its earliest days. Hollywood and Politics: A Sourcebook documents the entertainment industry's participation in American politics on both the Left and the Right. From the 1920s through today, this volume provides scholars of history, politics, and film with the controversial history of Hollywood's involvement in American politics. Through twenty-four chapters that begin with Upton Sinclair and take us all the way to the satire of South Park, readers are guided through elections, trials, speeches, and memorandums, many of which have never before been published, providing rare insight into the history of Hollywood activism. From World War II to Iraq, and from Walt Disney to Charlton Heston, Hollywood and Politics lays a historical foundation for anyone interested in how celebrities helped shape our country's policies and culture.

This practical guide teaches readers the skills and business acumen required to build a career in the film industry from the ground up. While countless books and classes teach newcomers the creative aspects of the film industry, many fail to properly prepare readers for the reality of how to navigate a freelance film career today. From creating a business model, dealing with taxes and funding, finding and managing clients, networking, investing, cashflow, and planning for the long-term, Business and Entrepreneurship for Filmmakers provides real-world, pragmatic advice on navigating a freelance film career, whether you're a recent film school graduate looking to take the next step or a seasoned professional hoping to start a production company. Moreover, the skills taught here apply across the industry, from corporate media and commercials to music videos and feature films. Interviews with filmmakers, innovators, and business experts are included throughout the book to offer further expertise and examples.

Since the 1930s, the Walt Disney Company has produced characters, images, and stories that have captivated audiences around the world. How can we understand the appeal of Disney products? What is it about the Disney phenomenon that attracts so many children, as well as adults? In this updated second edition, with new examples provided throughout, Janet Wasko examines the processes by which the Disney company - one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world - continues to manufacture the fantasies that enthrall millions. She analyses the historical expansion of the Disney empire into the twenty-first century, examines the content of Disney's classic and more recent films, cartoons and TV programs and discusses how they are produced, considering how some of the same techniques have been applied to the Disney theme parks. She also discusses the reception (and sometimes, reinterpretation) of Disney products by different kinds of audiences. By looking at the Disney phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, she provides an updated and comprehensive overview of one of the most significant media and cultural institutions of our time. This important book by a leading scholar of the entertainment industries will be of great interest to students in media and cultural studies, as well as a broader readership of Disney fans.

This book sheds new light on the under-researched period of early British cinema through an in-depth history of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company - also known as 'B&C'- in the years 1908-1916, the period when it became one of Britain's leading film producers. It provides an account of its films and personalities, and explores its production methods, business practices and policy changes. Gerry Turvey examines the range of short film genres B&C manufactured, including newsworthy topicals and comics, and series dramas, and how they often drew on the resources of urban Britain's existing popular culture - from cheap reading matter to East End melodramas. He discusses B&C's first open-air studio in East Finchley, its extensive use of location filming, and its large, state-of-the-art studio at Walthamstow. He also investigates how the films were photographed and 'staged', their developing formal properties, and how the choice of genres shifted radically over time in an attempt to seek new audiences.

"Reel Racism: Confronting Hollywood's Construction of Afro-American Culture "goes beyond reflection theories of the media to examine cinema's active participation in the operations of racism --a complex process rooted in the dynamics of representation. Written for undergraduates and graduate students of film studies and philosophy, Reel Racism focuses on methods and frameworks that analyze films for their production of meaning and how those meanings participate in a broader process of justifying, naturalizing, or legitimizing difference, privilege, and violence based on race. In addition to analyzing how the process of racism is articulated in specific films, Reel Racism examines how specific meanings can resist their function of ideological containment, and instead, offer a perspective of a more collective, egalitarian social system-- one that transcends the discourse of race.

The story of Eastmancolor's arrival on the British filmmaking scene is one of intermittent trial and error, intense debate and speculation before gradual acceptance. This book traces the journey of its adoption in British Film and considers its lasting significance as one of the most important technical innovations in film history. Through original archival research and interviews with key figures within the industry, the authors examine the role of Eastmancolor in relation to key areas of British cinema since the 1950s; including its economic and structural histories, different studio and industrial strategies, and the wider aesthetic changes that took place with the mass adoption of colour. Their analysis of British cinema through the lens of colour produces new interpretations of key British film genres including social realism, historical and costume drama, science fiction, horror, crime, documentary and even sex films. They explore how colour communicated meaning in films ranging from the Carry On series to Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to A Passage to India (1984), and from Goldfinger (1964) to 1984 (1984), and in the work of key directors and cinematographers of both popular and art cinema including Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Ridley Scott, Peter Greenaway and Chris Menges.

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the business of entertainment and learn to successfully engage in all aspects of global production with the revised and updated 4th edition of The Producer's Business Handbook. Learn how to cultivate relationships with key industry players including domestic and foreign studios, agencies, attorneys, talent, completion guarantors, banks, and private investors. This edition has been updated to include the latest opportunities presented by changing technology and their impact on the producer's ability to brand, monetize, finance and globally release content. Also included is new information on audience, earning, distribution and funding opportunities created by the explosive growth of VR, AR, 360 and gaming, as well as the rapid conversion to OTT. Additional features include: Completely updated production financing worksheets - an essential tool for producers; Expanded information for low-budget independent producers, internationally-based producers, producers using government funding, and film school students alike; Coverage of China's changing entertainment landscape, including their entertainment consumption, their commitment to produce content for the big global territories, and more; New, full-color illustrations and graphics that provide a visual representation of complex topics.

The role of the film marketer is both vital and challenging. Promotion is one of the industry's biggest costs, with the campaign of a large film costing up to half its production budget. Box office results, however, are wildly unpredictable: relatively few films a year make a profit. These market conditions make this a unique industry and film marketing a specific and demanding skill set that requires attention early in the career of any marketing student looking to progress in the industry. This new edition of Film Marketing is a thorough update of the first textbook in film promotion. Like in the first edition, Kerrigan takes a socio-cultural, as well as a business view of film marketing and its impact, covering different approaches to promotion according to different aims and audiences internally and externally, and across the world. This book addresses all areas of film marketing from the rigorous perspective of someone with first-hand knowledge of the trade. This new edition also includes: Additional pedagogy and visual examples to reinforce key points A more international range of cases and coverage of non-Western markets to give a global overview of film marketing across the world New and expanded sections on social media, digital promotion, transmedia and crowdfunding This is the original film marketing text which no engaged film or marketing student should be without.

Where is the place of the voice in film? Where others have focused on Hollywood film, this volume aims to extend the field to other cinemas from around the world, encompassing Latin America, Asia and Africa amongst others. Traditional theoretical accounts, based on classical narrative cinema, examine the importance of the voice in terms of a desired perfect match between visuals and sonic effects. But, as the chapters of this volume illustrate, what is normative in one film industry may not apply in another. The widespread practices of dubbing, postsynch sound and "playback singing" in some countries, for instance, provide an alternative means of understanding the location of the voice in the soundtrack. Through seventeen original chapters, this volume situates the voice in film across a range of diverse national, transnational and cultural contexts, presenting readings which challenge traditional readings of the voice in film in exciting new ways. By taking a comparative view, this volume posits that the voice may be best understood as a mobile object, one whose trajectory follows a broader network of global flows. The various chapters explore the cultural transformations the voice undergoes as it moves from one industry to another. In doing so, the volume addresses sound practices which have been long been neglected, such as dubbing and non-synch sound, as well the ways in which sound technologies have shaped nationally specific styles of vocal performance. In addressing the place of the voice in film, the book intends to nuance existing theoretical writing on the voice while applying these critical insights in a global context.

Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood explores when, how, and why the industry accepted women as filmmakers in the 1910s and why, by the 1920s, those opportunities had disappeared. In looking at the issue in terms of workplace, Karen Ward Mahar not only unravels the mystery of the disappearing female filmmaker but uncovers the complicated relationships among gender, work culture, and business within modern industrial organizations.

"With meticulous scholarship and fluid writing, Mahar tells the story of this golden era of female filmmaking... Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood is not to be missed." -- Women's Review of Books

"A scrupulously researched and argued analysis of how and why women made great professional and artistic gains in the U.S. film industry from 1906 to the mid-1920s and why they lost most of that ground until the late twentieth century." -- Journal of American History

"Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood offers convincing evidence of how economic forces shaped women's access to film production and presents a complex and engaging story of the women who took advantage of those opportunities." -- Business History Review

"Mahar views the business of making movies from the inside out, focusing on questions about changing industrial models and work conventions. At her best, she shows how the industry's shifting business history impacted women's opportunities, recasting current understanding about the American film industry's development." -- Reviews in American History

Karen Ward Mahar is an associate professor of history at Siena College, New York.

Looking back on her career in 1977, Bette Davis remembered with pride, "Women owned Hollywood for twenty years." She had a point. Between 1930 and 1950, over 40% of film industry employees were women, 25% of all screenwriters were female, two women supervised all studio feature output and could order retakes on any director's work, one woman ran MGM behind the scenes, over a dozen women worked as producers, a woman headed the Screen Writers Guild three times, and press claimed Hollywood was a generation or two ahead of the rest of the country in terms of gender equality and employment. But historians, critics, and the public have largely forgotten this era and persist in seeing studio-era Hollywood as a place where the only career open to a woman was as a passive, pretty face on screen or an underpaid, anonymous secretary. J. E. Smyth tells another story of a "golden age" for women's employment in the film industry and of Hollywood's ranks of powerful organization women. The first comprehensive history of Hollywood's high-flying career women during the studio era (1924-1956), Nobody's Girl Friday covers the impact of the executives, producers, editors, writers, agents, designers, directors, and actresses who shaped Hollywood film production and style, led their unions, climbed to the top during the war, and fought the blacklist. It focuses on women who called the shots at various levels of film production and articulated shifting attitudes toward gender, work, power, and politics, including executive Anita Colby, chief story editor Eve Ettinger, story editor and agent Kay Brown, secretary Ida Koverman, editor Barbara McLean, producers Harriet Parsons, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Van Upp, screenwriter and Screen Writers Guild President Mary C. McCall Jr., columnists Hedda Hopper, designer Dorothy Jeakins, agent Mary Baker, and President of the Hollywood Canteen and actor, Bette Davis. Many of the women featured in this book were influential during their lifetimes, politically active, heading committees in their professional guilds, and giving numerous PR interviews to syndicated journalists, and publicly supporting other women regardless of political affiliation. However, they were subsequently cut from mainstream academic and popular histories of the industry, or, as in Hopper's case, labeled as career-destroying, anti-communist viragos. Based on a decade of archival research, Smyth uncovers a formidable generation working within the American film industry and brings their voices back into the history of Hollywood. Their achievements, struggles, and perspectives fundamentally challenge popular ideas about director-based auteurism, male dominance, and female disempowerment in the years between First and Second Wave Feminism. Nobody's Girl Friday is a revisionist history, but it's also a deeply personal, collective account of hundreds of working women, the studios they worked for, and the films they helped to make. For many years, historians and critics have insisted that both American feminism and the power of women in Hollywood declined and virtually disappeared from the 1920s through the 1960s. But Smyth vindicates Bette Davis's claim. The story of the women who called the shots in studio-era Hollywood has never fully been told-until now.

This book offers an industrial, economic and aesthetic history of the early years of the British film industry from 1899-1911, through a case study of one of the most celebrated pioneer film makers, Cecil Hepworth. Presenting a picture of daily life in his film studio, an analysis of Hepworth's films is offered including the development of their content, production methods and marketing in this formative period. The early twentieth century saw British film production develop from a cottage industry of artisans to a multi-modal complex economic system with a global reach. Changes in the nature of exhibition and distribution caused a major crisis in the years 1908-1911, whereby Britain lost its status as a world leader in film making. Existing histories of this period lay this crisis at the feet of pioneers like Hepworth, whose perceived inability to improve the quality of film production led to stagnation. Brown attempts to challenge this assumption by analysing Hepworth's development of production methods as well as his strategies towards sales in the market to demonstrate the impact on the modernisation of the film industry.

An indispensable lexicon for film theory, defining over 500 critical terms. It contains references to the work of key figures such as Peirce, Doane, Genette and Derrida and examples drawn from the films of directors like Welles and Hitchcock.

Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Andrew Shail traces the emergence of film stardom in Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Modifying and supplementing Richard deCordova's account of the birth of the US star system, Shail describes the complex set of economic circumstances that led film studios and actors to consent to the adoption of a star system. He then explores the film industry's turn, from 1908, to making character-based series films. He details how these characters both prefigured and precipitated the star system, demonstrating that series characters and the 'firmament' of film stars are functionally equivalent, and shows how openly fictional characters still provide the model for 'real' film stars.

Shorlisted for the BAFTSS 2020 Award for Best Monograph Starting out as an independent filmmaker, and despite his films being subjected to censorship in his native China, Jia Zhangke has become the country’s leading film director internationally. Seen as one of world cinema’s foremost auteurs, he has played a crucial role in documenting and reflecting upon China’s era of intense transformations since the 1990s.. Cecília Mello provides in-depth analysis of Jia’s unique body of work, from his early films Xiao Wu and Platform, to experimental quasi-documentary 24 City and the audacious Mountains May Depart. Mello suggests that Jia’s particular expression of the realist mode is shaped by the aesthetics of other Chinese artistic traditions, allowing Jia to unearth memories both personal and collective, still lingering within the ever-changing landscapes of contemporary China. Mello’s groundbreaking study opens a door into Chinese cinema and culture, addressing the nature of the so-called ‘impure’ cinematographic art and the complex representation of China through the ages. Foreword by Walter Salles and with a new preface by the author.

Film archives have long been dedicated to preserving movies, and they've been nimble in recent years in adapting to the changing formats and technologies through which cinema is now created and presented. This collection makes the case for a further step: the need to see media technologies themselves as objects of conservation, restoration, presentation, and research, in both film archives and film studies. Contributors with a wide range of expertise in the film and media world consider the practical and theoretical challenges posed by such conservation efforts and consider their potential to generate productive new possibilities in research and education in the field.

This book examines the economic circumstances in which films were produced, distributed, exhibited, and consumed during the spoken era of film production until 1970. The periodisation covers the years between the onset of sound and the demise of the phased distribution of films. Films are generally appreciated for their aesthetic qualities. But they are also commodities. This work of economic history presents a new approach, considering consumption behaviour as significant as supply-side decision-making. Audiences' tastes are considered central, with box-office an indicator of what they liked. The POPSTAT Index of Film Popularity is used as a proxy where box office knowledge is missing. Comparative analysis is conducted through the tool RelPOP. The book comprises original case studies covering film consumption in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States during the 1930s; Australia and occupied Belgium during the Second World War; and Italy, the United States, Poland and Czechoslovakia during the Post-war. An overriding theme is how the classical American business model, which emerged during the 1910s linking production to distribution and exhibition, adapted to local circumstances, including the two countries behind the Iron Curtain during the years of 'High Stalinism'.

The story of Eastmancolor's arrival on the British filmmaking scene is one of intermittent trial and error, intense debate and speculation before gradual acceptance. This book traces the journey of its adoption in British Film and considers its lasting significance as one of the most important technical innovations in film history. Through original archival research and interviews with key figures within the industry, the authors examine the role of Eastmancolor in relation to key areas of British cinema since the 1950s; including its economic and structural histories, different studio and industrial strategies, and the wider aesthetic changes that took place with the mass adoption of colour. Their analysis of British cinema through the lens of colour produces new interpretations of key British film genres including social realism, historical and costume drama, science fiction, horror, crime, documentary and even sex films. They explore how colour communicated meaning in films ranging from the Carry On series to Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to A Passage to India (1984), and from Goldfinger (1964) to 1984 (1984), and in the work of key directors and cinematographers of both popular and art cinema including Nicolas Roeg, Ken Russell, Ridley Scott, Peter Greenaway and Chris Menges.

Audiences love the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but beyond the red carpet and behind the velvet curtain exists a legion of individuals who make showbiz work: agents. Whether literary, talent, or indie film, agents are behind the scenes brokering power, handling mediation, and doing the deal-making that keeps Hollywood spinning. In Representing Talent, Violaine Roussel explores the little-known but decisive work of agents, turning the spotlight on how they help produce popular culture. The book takes readers behind the scenes to observe the day-to-day activities of agents, revealing their influence on artistic careers and the prospects of Hollywood's forthcoming projects. Agents are crucial to understanding how creative and economic power are intertwined in Hollywood today. They play a key role in the process by which artistic worth and economic value are evaluated and attributed to people and projects. Roussel's fieldwork examines what "having relationships" really means for agents, and how they perform the relationship work that's at the heart of their professional existence and success. Representing Talent helps us to understand the players behind the definition of entertainment itself, as well as behind its current transformations.

If in doubt fall on your arse. That was the mantra of Fred Karno: acrobat, comedian, writer, music hall impresario, film producer and the undisputed king of slapstick. From his famous nursery of nonsense, the 'Fun Factory', the Guv'nor conquered the world, built an empire, made millions and lost the lot. In the process he discovered and trained the early twentieth century's greatest comedians: Will Hay, Robb Wilton, Sandy Powell, Syd Walker, Frank Randle, Max Miller, Billy Bennett, the Crazy Gang, and most significantly of all Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin. He pioneer physical sketch comedy and developed the raw material that Hollywood later fashioned into the finest comics of silent film. The phrase 'It's like Fred Karno's Army' entered the lexicon to describe any chaotic situation, but his extraordinary legacy is largely forgotten, lost in the mists of time and sullied by a tarnished personal reputation. This book tells the remarkable story of the man behind the myth and reveals Karno's huge contribution to comedy and popular culture - an impact which still resonates today.

Paolo Cherchi Usai provides a comprehensive introduction to the study, research and preservation of silent cinema from its heyday in the early 20th century to its present day flourishing. He traces the history of the moving image in its formative years, from Edison's and Lumiere's first experiments to the dawn of 'talkies'; provides a clear guide to the basics of silent film technology; introduces the technical and creative roles involved in its production, and presents silent cinema as a performance event, rather than a passive viewing experience. This new, greatly expanded edition takes the reader on a new journey, exploring silent cinema in the broader context of technology, culture, and society, from the invention of celluloid film and its related machinery to film studios, laboratories, theatres and audiences. Among the people involved in the creation of a new art form were filmmakers, actors and writers, but also engineers, entrepreneurs, and projectionists. Their collective efforts, and the struggle to preserve their creative work by archives and museums, are interwoven in a compelling story covering three centuries of media history, from the magic lantern to the reinvention of silent cinema in digital form. The new edition also includes comprehensive resource information for the study, research, preservation and exhibition of silent cinema.

Producing for the Screen is a collection of essays written by and interviews with working producers, directors, writers, and professors, exploring the business side of producing for film and television. In this book, over 30 industry professionals dispel myths about the industry and provide practical advice on topics such as how to break into the field; how to develop, nurture, and navigate business relationships; and how to do creative work under pressure. Readers will also learn about the entrepreneurial expectations in relation to marketing, strategies for contending with the emotional highs and lows of producing, and money management while pursuing producing as a profession. Written for undergraduates and graduates studying filmmaking, aspiring producers, and working producers looking to reinvent themselves, Producing for the Screen provides readers with a wealth of first-hand information that will help them create their own opportunities and pursue a career in film and television.