Chapter 8: Movies: Mass Producing Entertainment
Summary and Learning Objectives
Ways of recording motion on film were first developed by photographers É tienne-Jules Marey and
Eadweard Muybridge in the 1880s. Inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison applied their ideas
in building the first practical motion picture display system, the kinetoscope. In France, the Lumiè re
brothers invented the first portable movie camera and the first projector that could be used to
display movies to a crowd.
Early directors such as Edwin S. Porter developed movie storytelling techniques that were
expanded eventually into the feature-length film by D. W. Griffith. Griffith demonstrated that the
public was interested in and willing to pay for larger-than-life films with longer running times.
Griffith was also one of the first directors to seek outside financing for his movies.
From the 1920s through the 1940s, the studio system dominated moviemaking in the United States.
Under the studio system, all the talent—from writers to directors to actors—were under contract to
the studios. The major studios, such as Paramount and Warner Bros., ran the movie industry like a
factory assembly line, controlling which movies were made and how they were distributed. The
studio system ended when the U.S. Supreme Court broke up the studios’ monopoly in 1948.
A troubled time followed for the movie industry. The 1950s brought new competition from
television and a controversial blacklist of writers, directors, and actors who were suspected of
being communists. Hollywood responded by producing bigger, more spectacular movies; making
almost all movies in color; and breaking up giant theaters into smaller, multitheater complexes
known as multiplexes.
The movie industry is currently dominated by high-budget blockbuster movies with a large,
predefined audience and marketing tie-ins. Although the initial domestic box office receipts are still
important, movies often make more income from ancillary, or secondary, markets, such as foreign
rights, video rights, and cable television rights. Blockbuster movies are now seen as a brand of
interrelated products rather than just a movie. Yet smaller, low-budget movies often carry less risk
of failure because they don’t have to make nearly as much money to be profitable. Movies targeted
at niche audiences can also be profitable if they have a controlled budget.
Moviemakers are increasingly relying on digital technology to make and promote movies. In
addition to being used for special effects, digital technology makes it possible to shoot and edit low-
budget movies using digital video rather than more expensive film. Directors can even shoot the
movie on a blank soundstage and insert the sets and backgrounds digitally. Digital technology in the
form of the Internet is also being used to promote movies directly to consumers.
Since the 1920s, there have been concerns about the effects that movies may have on young
viewers. Hollywood has attempted to protect itself from criticism, initially by limiting the content of
movies through its Production Code and more recently with age-based ratings.
Theatrical movies are facing increased competition from home video. While the total box office has
risen in recent years, the number of people attending the movies has declined. Moviemakers are
responding with innovative new ways of promotion and by finding audiences for movies of more
limited interest.
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Explain what the studio system was like and why it ended.
2. Discuss how the growth of television and home video transformed the movie industry.
3. Explain what is meant by the “blockbuster era” in the movie industry and how movies have
become brands.
4. Explain how digital production and projection have changed filmmaking.
5. Discuss the evolution of the ratings system using examples of different movies.
6. Explain how the Internet and other long-tail tools have changed the movie promotion and
distribution process.
Review Questions
1. Does the success of the movie Black Panther mean that Hollywood no longer needs to worry
about diversity? Why or why not?
2. What is the difference in the “realism” of practical and CGI effects?
3. How did the coming of television change the nature of the movies? How has the rise of
online media transformed this process?
4. Explain how blockbuster movies become more than just movies for the companies releasing
them. What products are developed to go with them?
5. What are the consequences of having a movie industry that is mostly controlled by White
men? How would the movie industry be different if the people running the industry looked
more like the people in the audience?
6. How does having access to a wide range of both popular and obscure movies change our
movie-viewing habits? Is this level of choice a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
Media Literacy Exercises
The Production Code
Interview someone who attended movies while the Production Code was still in effect (before
1966). How did movies of that era differ from those released today under the ratings system?
Were they better or worse? Why?
Notes: You can give students a good look at the Production Code through the following two
websites:
• Hollywood Censored: The Production Code:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/cultureshock/beyond/hollywood.html
This page, a part of a PBS site dealing with culture shock, gives additional information about the
Production Code.
• Text of the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930: https://www.asu.edu/courses/fms200s/total-
readings/MotionPictureProductionCode.pdf
In addition to having students learn more about the Production Code, this is also a good oral history
project. For example, I have had African American students come back with stories about their
grandparents having to watch movies from the balcony because Jim Crow laws wouldn’t let them sit
on the main floor.
This can be a difficult assignment for some students because it requires that they locate and talk to
someone in their 70s or 80s. For this reason, you may want to propose a series of choices for this
assignment.
The Bechdel Test
Note: I have made a wide range of posts about the Bechdel Test on my blog. You can see them all
here:
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/tag/bechdel-test/
I have also updated the Bechdel Test assignment to include discussion of the weaknesses of the test.
There are lots of movies with great relationships between men. There are a number of movies with
interesting roles for women. But how many movies out there feature multiple major female
characters who interact with each other? That’s the question the Bechdel Test for Women in Film
tries to answer. (https://www.mediaite.com/online/the-bechdel-test-for-movies-and-media/) I
stumbled across this amazingly simple tool for analyzing films in one of those “You might also like”
boxes at the bottom of the Mediaite page.
Here’s the scoop, quoted from Rachel Sklar’s Mediaite article (which references a post from Boing,
Boing https://boingboing.net/2010/07/22/the-bechdel-test-for.html):
The Bechdel Test—named for the cartoonist Alison Bechdel who wrote a long-running comic strip
called Dykes To Watch Out For and the critically acclaimed graphic novel Fun Home—is a test to
assess whether women have a meaningful presence in a movie. It consists of three questions.
1. Are there two or more women in it that have names?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?
Once you start thinking about it, you’ll be surprised by how many films don’t pass this test. In fact,
there are entire genres (e.g., action-adventure) that seem to fail the Bechdel Test, by and large.
Not surprisingly, male-centric movies such as Fight Club, or Lawrence of Arabia, or Das Boot don’t
pass the test. But as Rachel Sklar points out, other notable nonpassing movies include:
• Shrek
• Clerks
• Big Lebowski
• Home Alone
• Slumdog Millionaire
• The Truman Show
• Lord of the Rings
• Tomb Raider
• and even The Princess Bride
This test doesn’t judge the quality of the movie or whether it is misogynistic, only that it doesn’t
portray the interaction of two women with names dealing with something other than a man.
But there have also been some interesting things written about the weaknesses of the Bechdel Test.
Here are two of my recent blog posts on the subject. They aren’t so much about what’s wrong with
the test but rather what it can miss. (https://www.ralphehanson.com/tag/bechdel-test/)
Read the above material (including the links) on the Bechdel Test for the significance of women in
the movies. Then view this video.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLF6sAAMb4s&feature=player_embedded
You are then to perform the Bechdel Test for a movie that has been released this year or the
previous year. You need to view the movie with the Bechdel questions in hand. (And while you are
not required to go to a theater to see this movie—Why don’t you? It’s much more fun that way!)
They are:
1. Are there two or more women in the movie who have names?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?
(NOTE: This means you need to watch a current movie this unit as part of this assignment—not look
back at a movie you watched earlier this year.)
After you have done so, you are to write a 500-word (minimum) essay that does the following:
• Briefly discusses what the Bechdel Test is for and what it tells us about a movie.
• Give the name of the movie you are analyzing and when (specifically) you watched it.
• Give detailed answers to the questions. (Who are the women characters? What do they talk
about? How is the presence of women in the film different from that of men?) Make sure
you are clear on whether the movie passed the test.
• Explain at least one weaknesses of the Bechdel Test?
• Were you surprised by what you learned completing this assignment? Why or why not?
Let me reiterate—the Bechdel Test doesn’t say whether a movie is good or bad, or whether it has
positive portrayals of women (Read the full week of the comic Dumbing of Age for a great
discussion of this! http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/04-the-bechdel-
test/movies/). It only tells us how central the interactions of women with other women are to the
plot of the movie.
Grading Rubric
Criteria
Ratings
Pts
Writing
5.0 pts
Superior
Assignment is a
fully developed
essay that goes
beyond basic
assignment.
Includes
reference links
to multiple
source
materials.
2.5 pts
Less than
assigned
Assignment is
under assigned
length.
0.0 pts
Deficient
Assignment is
significantly
under length
or writing
does not deal
with
assignment.
5.0
Basic
Elements
5.0 pts
Superior
Assignment
contains all
required
materials;
elaborates on
details.
4.25 pts
As Assigned
Assignment includes
name of the movie
and when it was
watched. The movie
was released in 2017
or 2018. Assignment
explains core
concepts of Bechdel
Test. Movie satisfies
requirements of
assignment.
2.5 pts
Less than
assigned
Movie was
older than
assigned, does
not properly
describe
Bechdel Test,
or lacks other
detail. Movie
does not satisfy
requirements
of assignment.
0.0 pts
Deficient
Assignment
omits
multiple
required
details.
5.0
Explains
Results
of
Bechdel
Test
7.5 pts
Superior
Discussion of
answers to
Bechdel test go
beyond basic
elements,
explains
significance of
it. Clearly
explains a
weakness with
referenced
source
material.
6.38 pts
As Assigned
Assignment gives
detailed, specific
answers to test
questions. States
whether movie
passes. Explains a
weakness.
3.75 pts
Less Than
Assigned
Assignment is
vague or
incomplete in
one or more of
the required
details.
0.0 pts
Deficient
Assignment
omits
multiple
significant
details.
7.5
Self
Analysis
2.5 pts
Superior
Assignment has
added depth to
reaction to
what the test
tells the viewer.
2.13 pts
As Assigned
Assignment has a
clear reaction to
what was learned
from conducting the
analysis.
1.25 pts
Less Than
Assigned
Assignment has
simple or
unclear reaction
to results.
0.0 pts
Deficient
Assignment
omits
significant
details.
2.5
Total Points: 20.0
Suggested Readings
• Mast, G. (Ed.). (1982). The movies in our midst: Documents in the cultural history of film in
America. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. This anthology tells the history of the
movies through documents published from the cinema’s earliest days.
• Kael, P. (1996). For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies. New York: Plume Penguin. Reviews from
the New Yorker’s long-time film critic.
• All of the Chapter 8 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog at
http://www.ralphehanson.com/category/chapter-8/
Lecture Builders
Video Hints: This chapter gives you wonderful opportunities to bring video into the classroom.
Here are links to a number of the films listed below, along with some that aren’t. Virtually every
example I use in my lecture is contained in this link:
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2014/03/07/everyones-gone-to-the-movies/
Among the possibilities are the following:
• There are several examples of the early silent films from the collection The Great Train
Robbery and Other Primary Works (Kino International, 2002). From this collection, I use
three Edison kinetoscopes: The Kiss; Serpentine Dances (which is hand-tinted); and Sandow
the Strongman, which is generally students’ favorite. I then use one example of the Lumière
Brothers: Childish Quarrel. Be sure to point out how the Lumière brothers moved to filming
out of doors instead of in the black box room of the early Edison films.
• I finish up the silents by showing the complete Edwin S. Porter film The Great Train Robbery.
It runs about 12 min, and may include hand-tinted scenes. Be sure to point out how it tells a
complete story, is made up of multiple scenes, and tells parallel narratives. It also is the
basic model for the modern action film. You might also point out the controversy this film
engendered because it showed exactly how to carry out a train robbery.
• For the section on the transition from silents to talking films, I show the “Oh, Pierre, you
shouldn’t have come” sequence from Singing in the Rain. Despite being fictional, the scene
accurately portrays the problems that studios had in adapting to the new technology. Be
sure to point out the problems of nontheatrically trained actors having to talk, noisy
cameras, and noisy studios.
• To illustrate the restrictions of the Production (or Hays) Code era, you can use clips from
Gone with the Wind as an example. I like to use the battle between Rhett and Scarlett where
they drink and then he carries her up the stairs, apparently to assault her. It illustrates how
fairly explicit ideas could be portrayed in a restrained way. (This is located about 1 hr, 15
min into the second videotape on the print I work from.)
• A good explanation of how the studio system worked can be provided using the first 10 min
or so of the The Studio System episode of the American Cinema series. You have several
writers, directors, editors, and actors discussing what it was like to work under the studio
system. This discussion is accompanied by clips from several movies from the era.
• The section of the movie ET where Elliot leads ET up to his room by leaving piles of Reece’s
Pieces candy behind does a nice job of illustrating one of the most successful examples of
product placement in a movie. This is a nice example because the candy is central to the plot
of the movie rather than just a commercial placement. M&Ms had the first shot at being in
the movie, but the company reportedly turned down the opportunity because it was unsure
of how the public would react to the little alien.
• There is an excellent documentary—This Film Is Not Yet Rated—on the problems with the
ratings system. But be forewarned, the documentary was not rated, and had it been, it
would have likely drawn an NC-17 rating. You may be able to find an excerpt from the film
to use in class.
Diversity in Storytelling
In the fall of 2018, I saw and loved the popular movie Crazy Rich Asians. Not usually much of a rom-
com kinda guy, but this film was clever and smart. One of the things I liked best about it was that
none of the main characters acted stupid. (Something I really hate about comedies.) Surrounded by
far-fetched circumstances? Certainly. But really good story. Highly recommend.
It also brings to mind what I thought after seeing Black Panther—that we need to see and hear more
stories being told by people other than White men.
It’s not that White men don’t have good stories to tell. They have many great ones. But they don’t
have the exclusive patent on stories. It is so refreshing to see stories, characters, and families who
are both the same and different from people from a range of backgrounds.
You can read more of this blog post and see the examples that go with it here:
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2018/09/18/everyones-gone-to-the-movies-diversity-in–
storytelling-edition/
Media Activities
Classroom Discussion: Taking a second look at the Bechdel Test
The Bechdel Test is justifiably famous as a simple and effective way of considering the importance
of the role of women in a movie, and I generally use the assignment listed earlier in this chapter
with my students. But that doesn’t mean that the test is able to take a wider look at the presence of
women in a movie. (Nor is it really intended to.) Here are a couple of blog posts that take an
expanded look at the Bechdel Test in terms of what it tells us, and what it doesn’t.
Women and the Movies 2013—Bechdel Test Movies:
As study in 2013 showed that the movies that passed the Bechdel Test did better as a whole than
did movies that failed it.
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2014/01/03/2685/
Question: Why do you think that movies that passed the Bechdel Test tend to do better than those
that didn’t? Is it coincidence, or is there something different about the movies?
The Mako Mori Test—An alternative to the Bechdel Test:
The movie Pacific Rim, about giant fighting robots, does not pass the Bechdel Test, but it did have a
major role for a woman with her own storyline.
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2013/08/21/the-mako-mori-test-an-alternative-to-the-
bechdel-test/
Question: Should there be a way of analyzing films for whether they have a strong respect for their
female lead as someone who is more than just window dressing?
Notes: You find all my posts on the Bechdel Test here:
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/tag/bechdel-test/
Listening to Movie Music
Years ago, back when My Dear Wife and I lived in Arizona, we saw film composer Jerry Goldsmith
conduct an evening of his music with the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. Now, more than 25 years
later, I still think about what an incredible evening it was hearing his music and the stories behind
it.
Great scores by composers like Goldsmith, James Horner, Michael Giacchino, and—of course—John
Williams are such a key part of so many movies that I love. Lately at the gym I’ve been watching
movies with isolated scores—that is, with no dialog or sound effects, just the music. And in many
cases this is with a more complete score by the composer, much of which didn’t make it into the
finished film.
I got interested in looking for these when it was announced that Star Wars: The Last Jedi would
have an isolated soundtrack as an online bonus feature where there would be no sound effects, no
dialog (and no subtitles), just the soaring John Williams score.
You can read more about the impact that scores can have on us here:
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2018/08/21/listening-to-movie-music/
And you can listen to some excerpts from some great movie scores.
Images of the Twin Towers in Cinema
Before 9/11, the silhouette of the twin towers of the World Trade Center were one of the quickest
ways movie makers had of establishing that we were looking at the NYC skyline. Here’s a beautiful
collection of WTC skylines edited by Dan Meth from more than 30 years of the movies that I found
on Mediaite.
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2017/09/11/images-of–the-twin-towers–in-cinema/
The Original Cat Video
You all no doubt think you are of the “cat video” generation. You think your generation invented the
short video of cute cats doing cute things. But you are wrong!
Thomas Edison’s studios shot the first cat video back in 1894! I present to you . . . Boxing Cats!
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2016/03/04/the-original-cat-video-from-1894/
Ralph Hanson’s Dumb Movie Theories
Over the years, I’ve come up with a couple of really stupid movie theories. (Or at least that’s what
people tell me. You can decide for yourself.)
The first is: Are Contact and Prometheus essentially the same movie?
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2017/03/29/are-contact-and-prometheus-essentially–
the-same-movie/
The second is: Is Star Wars: Attack of the Clones really an extended tribute to the films of Ridley
Scott? (I actually think there really is something to this one . . . )
• https://www.ralphehanson.com/2012/03/09/star-wars-episode-ii-attack-of-the-
clones-as-a-tribute-to-the-films-of-ridley-scott/
Classroom Debate on Movie Effects
Young people spend a lot of time at the movies. What sort of effects do you see these movies
have on audience members? Do they illustrate behavior to copy? Styles to imitate? Catch phrases
that become part of the common language? Look back at Chapter 2 in your text on the
approaches to looking at media effects. What sort of approach do you see yourself and critics
using when looking at media effects?
Notes: As mentioned in Chapter 1, people with lower levels of media literacy typically view
media content as having much more effect on other people and less effect on themselves. In
Chapter 2, we discussed theories for media effects. This is a good opportunity for students to
examine how they view media effects. While your students are likely to talk about big effects
like violence, you may want to question them about smaller, and more likely effects such as
fashion and ways of talking. I strongly believe that one of the most valuable ways to talk with
students about media effects is to cover them early in the semester and then keep coming back to
them again and again with each media chapter.
Classroom Debate on Adult ratings
Are movies hurt by directors cutting scenes in order to get an “R” rating? Should there be an “A”
rating that indicates that a movie is for adults only, but is milder than a NC-17?
Notes: This is a good opportunity for students to consider why movies are rated: Is it to provide
consumers with guidance about the appropriateness of movie content or to protect the economic
interests of movie producers? Would the movie industry want there to be a nonstigmatized adult
rating? What would be the downside to the movie industry with such a rating? It may be helpful to
send students to the http://mpaa.org/ website for examples and explanations of how movies are
rated.