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CHAPTER 1 FILM AS ART: CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS
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CHAPTER 1
FILM AS ART: CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS
Chapter Outline
Art vs. Entertainment? Art vs. Business?
Creative Decisions in Filmmaking
Mechanics of the Movies
Illusion Machines
Making Films with Photographic Film
Filmmaking with Digital Media
Making the Movie: Film Production
The Scriptwriting and Funding Phase
The Preparation Phase
The Shooting Phase
The Assembly Phase
Artistic Implications of the Production Process
A Closer Look: Some Terms and Roles in Film Production
Modes of Production
Large-Scale Production
Exploitation, Independent Production, and DIY
Small-Scale Production
Artistic Implications of Different Modes of Production
Bringing the Film to the Audience: Distribution and Exhibition
Distribution: The Center of Power
Exhibition: Theatrical and Nontheatrical
Ancillary Markets: Taking Movies beyond the Theater
Artistic Implications of Distribution and Exhibition
Screens and Sounds: Stylistic Opportunities and Challenges
Summary
Teaching “Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business”
The Purpose of the Chapter
CHAPTER 1 FILM AS ART: CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS
Most people have some passing awareness of film production. In recent years, short
documentaries on the making of various movies have been increasingly used for
advertising purposes, and the spread of “infotainment” programs on cable television has
meant that behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with filmmakers are increasingly
used to publicize new releases. With the spread of DVD (Digital Video Disc) technology,
supplements are often included with a disc discussing some aspects of production.
Hundreds of Internet sites provide similar information, and any important release will
have its own website. Today’s young viewers are probably more aware of the
production process than at any other time in film history. Despite all these sources,
however, most viewers probably tend to forget such information when they are actually
caught up in the viewing experience.
CHAPTER 1 FILM AS ART: CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS
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All students are familiar with the experience of seeing films in theaters, yet they may
have little knowledge of how such businesses operate. (The crucial role of the
concession stand, for example, almost always comes as an intriguing surprise to the
average moviegoer.) Chapter 1 aims to make your students more aware of how the
industry as a whole operates.
communities and can often be very cooperative.
One useful way to teach Chapter 1 is to undertake a case study. That is, you can show
a film and lecture and/or assign a reading on the making of that film. An increasing
number of books and articles detail the production phases of major films, focusing in
part on the work of the film professionals as described in the chapter.
For example, Rudy Behlmer’s America’s Favorite Movies: Behind the Scenes (New
York: Frederick Ungar, 1982) contains a series of studies of the production processes
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Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
for several American classics. Each is concise enough to assign as a reading. The films
included are Frankenstein (1931), Lost Horizon (1937), Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Gunga Din, Stagecoach (1939), Casablanca,
Laura, All About Eve, A Streetcar Named Desire, The African Queen, Singin’ in the
Rain, and High Noon. Other brief studies of the production backgrounds of classic films
can be found in the series, “Rutgers Films in Print,” currently appearing from Rutgers
University Press. As of this writing there are more than twenty of these volumes,
covering such films as Bringing Up Baby, Breathless, and The Maltese Falcon. Each
contains a brief production history and a shot-by-shot breakdown of the entire film, as
well as a collection of reprinted essays and interviews relating to the film.
One possibility is to begin your semester with a case study of the making of The Wizard
of Oz (using the Harmetz book), since this film is also used as a major example of film
form in Chapter 2. Another is to begin with Citizen Kane (using the Carringer book),
since this film is the central example in Chapter 3 on narrative form, and is further
discussed in Chapter 8 on film style. You could then show Kane again the week you
teach Chapter 3; students can benefit from two viewings of such a complex film.
With the explosion of “Making of” documentaries, books, and Internet sites you could
choose not to do a case study in class. Instead you could give your students a choice of
recent films to study on their own.
Assigning a Paper on Film as Art: Creativity, Technology, and Business
You may wish to assign students to choose a recent film and write a research paper on
its production (ideally from preproduction to distribution). Periodicals that regularly cover
various aspects of film production include: Variety (business), American
Cinematographer (case studies of cinematography), Cinefex (detailed case studies of
special effects in film). Online sites that also cover film production include: Variety;
Hollywood Reporter; ScreenDaily; and Deadline Hollywood. Certain films obviously
receive more extensive coverage than others. For example, the first animated feature
created entirely through computer imaging, Toy Story, was widely discussed in both the
specialist and the popular press.
CHAPTER 1 FILM AS ART: CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS
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Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Another possible assignment would be for a student to keep a journal on the national
and perhaps international distribution and exhibition of a single film for most of a
semester. The student could trace box-office results, number of theaters the film plays
in week by week, and the coverage of the film in the popular and specialist press.
(Variety deals with this kind of information in a detailed but accessible way, and even
Entertainment Weekly is often a surprisingly good source for material on the film
industry.)
Finally, you might consider assigning your students to compare the theatrical version of
a film with the same film as shown on broadcast television. Focusing on differences of
format, sound track, and even content of individual shots draws students into a closer
concentration of film technique, even if they have not yet read chapters 4 through 7.
Obviously it would be best to choose a film in which significant differences are likely to
occur, owing to violent or controversial content. We mention The Silence of the Lambs
as one such film, but others are easy to find.
