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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.

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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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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.

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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.