Film is dead! Three little words that have been heard around the world many times over the life of the cinema. Yet, some 120 years on, the old dog's ability to come up with new tricks and live another day remains as surprising and effective as ever. This book is an exploration of film's ability to escape its own 'The End' title card. It charts the history of cinema's development through a series of crises that could, should, ought to have 'ended' it. From its origins to Covid - via a series of unlikely friendships with sound, television and the internet - the book provides industry professionals, scholars and lovers of cinema with an informing and intriguing journey into the afterlife of cinema and back to the land of the living. It is also a rare collaboration between an Oscar-winning filmmaker and a film scholar, a chronicle of their attempt to bridge two worlds that have often looked at each other with as much curiosity as doubt, but that are bound by the deep love of cinema that they both share.

Since the 1970s Hollywood cinema has been the site of remarkable developments in film sound. New revolutionary sound technologies have been developed, a new generation of filmmakers have learned to use them as powerful storytelling tools, and audiences have enjoyed a different way of experiencing films, both theatrically and at home. For the first time, through historical analysis and interviews with key players, such as Ray Dolby (founder and creator of Dolby Laboratories), Ioan Allen (the initiator of the Dolby Stereo programme), sound designer Gary Rydstrom (Titanic, Terminator 2, Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Finding Nemo), and supervising sound editor Bruce Stambler (The Fugitive, Batman Forever, Clear and Present Danger, The Fast and the Furious, XXX) this book aims at providing a substantial account of sound in contemporary Hollywood cinema since the early 1970s. Film enthusiasts and students alike will find this book provides an alternative take on Hollywood cinema to the traditional image-biased approach. -- .

Traditionally, film critics have concentrated on the director, seeing feature filmmaking as a form of individual expression. The authors challenge this view, arguing that filmmaking is a form of collection expression. They examine the idea that many individuals, including editors, cinematographers and sound designers, contribute to the making of a film, and argue that it is misleading to classify them as technicians. The authors consider is how money and power determines the structure within which all those involved with filmmaking work. And, in challenging the accepted view of the dynamics of filmmaking, the book raises questions about the nature of the feature film. Is it essentially a visual form? What place does it have? How important is the script?
Making Films in Contemporary Hollywood contains analysis, interviews and case studies of Chinatown, Jurassic Park, and When Harry Met Sally, bringing a fresh perspective to the study of filmmaking that will be both informative and provocative for Media and Film Studies students at all levels.