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Category Archives: Lectures
Class 10: 1967 and the Youth Audience
In today’s class, we discuss how the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony signaled a seismic shift for filmmaking in the United States. No longer were the studios and their big-budget, something-for-everyone the focus of the industry and the audience. Instead, many … Continue reading
Posted in Lectures
Tagged Academy Awards, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, Jack Valenti, Motion Picture Association of America, New Hollywood, Production Code
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Influence of New Waves
As we transition from the classical model of Hollywood filmmaking, we should start to notice how filmmaking in the 1960s begins to change from the stylistic conventions of the Classical Hollywood Cinema. One of the great influences was the European New Waves, especially the French New Wave. One technique that we begin to see in […] Continue reading
Posted in Film History, Film Industry, Lectures
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Hollywood vs. Television in “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”
One of the reasons I like the film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is the self-referential nature of the film. Here, the film literally stops the story and breaks into a “commercial break” so that the television viewers won’t be too alienated. Clearly, this was added to the film version that was not in the […] Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Industry, Lectures
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Air Talk Surveys the Economics of the Film Industry
As I drove on my recent trip to LA, I heard a segment on the uncertain financial future of the film industry, on KPCC‘s Air Talk. The segment was a very timely assessment of how the Internet and the changing tastes of moviegoers have put film industry in a bit of a crisis mode. For […] Continue reading
Posted in Film Industry, Lectures
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Class 9: Hollywood and Television
In today’s class, we examined some of the ways that Hollywood tried to recuperate the audience it lost throughout the 1950s due to declining attendance and the rise of television. As we will see, some of these gimmicks were short-lived … Continue reading
Posted in Lectures
Tagged adult content, color, Hollywood, stereo, television, widescreen
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Class 7: The Fall of the Studio System
In today’s class, we covered the factors behind the fall of the American studio system. The chief reasons were the HUAC investigations and its concentration on Hollywood, the anti-trust actions against the Big Five Hollywood Studios, and the changes in … Continue reading
Posted in Lectures
Tagged HUAC, midterm exam, Paramount Decree, postwar America, studio system, television
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Class 5: The Power of the Studio System
In today’s class, we surveyed some of the ways in which the Hollywood Studio System operated as an oligopoly. Some of the ways in which these eight studios held tight control over the American Film Industry was through vertical integration, … Continue reading
Class 4: The Coming of Sound
In today’s class, we surveyed the challenges faced by early film pioneers in making true sound motion pictures, namely synchronization and amplification. We covered the solutions proposed by two inventors, Case and DeForest, and by two companies, namely Western Electric … Continue reading
Class 3: The Independents
In today’s class, we covered the fall of the Trust due to the court ruling that led the MPPC to lose the Latham Loop patent and another ruling that dissolved the cartel on grounds of antitrust. But more devastating was … Continue reading
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Class 2, Continued: More to Do Before Class 3
There are a few action items that you should do before our next meeting, preferably as soon as possible. Join the course website, by… Signing up for a QWriting.org account, if you don’t already have one. Logging in to your … Continue reading
Posted in Announcements, Assignments, Lectures
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