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Present Day Film Industry

 

 

When people think of U.S. film and television production, they tend to think of "Hollywood," New York and other leading American filmmaking communities. But today, film and television production is a nationwide economic engine that is bringing new jobs and economic opportunities to communities across the country

 

The film industry supports a national community of 2.1 million workers — costume designers to make-up artists, stuntmen to set builders, writers to actors, accountants to dry cleaners. It is a powerful engine of economic growth that contributes more than $175 billion annually to the U.S. economy and the professional community contributes more than $15 billion annually to federal and state tax coffers.

 

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 Distribution Of Films

 

 

Digital Distribution

 

Digital distribution (also called content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution (ESD), among others) describes the delivery of media content such as audio, video, software and video games, without the use of physical media usually over online delivery mediums, such as the Internet. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution methods, such as paper or DVDs. With the advancement of network bandwidth capabilities, online distribution became prominent in the 2000s. One of the most common ways of digital distribution is via streaming.

 

 

Streaming

 

Streaming is one of the most popular ways of viewing films today, and they include streaming sites like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Crackle just to name a few. Streaming provides an easy alternative for viewers to watch their favorite films at any location and at any time. Though some streaming sites like YouTube might be free to view content, other sites like Netflix requires a monthly membership fee.

 

 

 

 

Netflix, Inc. is an American provider of on-demand Internet streaming media available to viewers in North and South America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), and of flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States, where mailed DVDs are sent via Permit Reply Mail. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. It started its subscription-based digital distribution service in 1999, and by 2009 it was offering a collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 million subscribers. It is considered one of the most successful start-up companies of all time by market capitalization, revenue, growth, and cultural impact. (To read more follow the link) http://planetivy.co.uk/filmandtv/58003/why-netflix-is-good-for-the-film-industry/

 

 

 

 

 

 

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos.  The company is based in San Bruno, California, and contains a wide variety of user-generated video content, including video clips, TV clips, and music videos, and amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via YouTube, as part of the YouTube partnership program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Entertainment

 

Home Entertainment or Home Video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired (Redbox) for home cinema entertainment. It is the physical copy of distributed media . The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotape, but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc.  

 

DVD 

 

DVD (sometimes explained as "digital video disc" or "digital versatile disc") is a digital optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Due to better video quality of DVDs it became widely accepted and eventually replaced  VHS (Video Home Systems).                                               

 

 

Blu-ray Disc

 

Blu-ray Disc (BD)is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. The name Blu-ray Disc refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs. The major application of Blu-ray Discs is as a medium for video material such as feature films. Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray Disc prototypes in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. Afterwards, it continued to be developed until its official release in June 2006. During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008, releasing its own Blu-ray Disc player in late 2009. Although HD DVDs are still around they like VHS are predicted to be replaced in the near future.

 

 

Redbox

 

 

Redbox Automated Retail, LLC is a subsidiary of Outerwall, Inc. that specializes in the rental of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and video games via automated retail kiosks. As of the end of November 2012, Redbox had over 42,000 kiosks at more than 34,000 locations. 

Kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at grocery stores, pharmacies, mass retailers, convenience stores, and fast food restaurants. The company announced in February 2012 its deployment of a few hundred kiosks in Canada in the subsequent months to test the Canadian market. Redbox had 47.8% market share of the physical rental market, as of Q1 2013, as stated by the NPD Group.

 

 

 

Theatrically

 

Like in the past, films are still being distributed through the means of the Theater. A movie theater or movie theatre (also called a cinema,movie house, film house, film theater or picture house) is a venue, usually a building, for viewing movies (films). Most but not all movie theaters are commercial operations catering to the general public, who attend by purchasing a ticket. The movie is projected with a movie projector onto a large projection screen at the front of the auditorium. Most movie theaters are now equipped for digital cinema projection, removing the need to create and transport a physical film print.

 

Although theaters were around many decades ago it has grown in many ways, they have been reconditioned into megaplexes and multiplexes and provide a more comfortable environment for their audiences. As technology enhanced so did the theater which now accommodate 3D and IMAX for a better viewing experience.

 

 

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What Is Affecting The Film Industry?

 

   

Piracy

  

Piracy is most commonly known as copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright without permission, infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. The copyright holder is typically the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assigned.

 

Issue

 

Among those related industries, total losses from piracy within the retail economy last year were $1.92 billion, including direct losses to DVD retailers and pay-per-view and video-on-demand providers of $874 million as well as wages lost and lost economic activity among industries that directly support video retailing.(2008)

 

Motion picture piracy costs U.S. workers $5.5 billion annually in lost earnings. Of this amount, $1.9 billion would have been earned by workers in the motion picture industries while $3.6 billion would have been earned by workers in other U.S. industries. Motion picture piracy costs jobs. Absent piracy, 141,030 new jobs would have been added to the U.S. economy. Of this total, 46,597 jobs would have been created in the motion picture industries while 94,433 jobs would have been added in other industries.(2008)

 

The movie industry is not without clout however and it is responding to this threat with both with hard legal measures and also by raising awareness of the consequences of piracy.  Piracy, in particular, internet piracy can be assumed to be growing. Even if it is not, it is a significantly large enough problem at the moment for something to need to be done about it. Piracy needs to stop, or at least be controlled  to prevent it from completely undermining the film industry.

 

 

Why Has Internet Film Piracy Become So Popular?

 

The prospect of getting a product for free is plenty enough enticement for some. Others see it as the beginning of the end of capitalist materialism and a shining new future for the arts. These reasons do not account, I think, for the huge numbers of otherwise ‘respectable’ people who engage in this practice. The anonymity of sitting behind a computer and large number of other people doing it are certainly factors that encourage piracy. More significantly I think is the increase in technology that has allowed it to become so simple.  Fewer people need to leave their computer to be entertained or to do the shopping or pay bills, why should they leave their computer to see a new film? Disgruntlement with Hollywood; poor films and the ever-increasing cost of seeing them, both at the cinema and on DVD may also encourage people to illegally download films.

 

One final major factor that encourages piracy everywhere except in America is the delayed release dates that the rest of the world experience both in cinemas and for DVDs. Films are often available online before they are released in America but once they show in a cinema they are definitely online. A lot of internet buzz surrounding a film released in the US that will not reach Britain for another two months will encourage people to download it and be able to take part in that discussion

 

Many different people have as many different ideas about it’s future. The basic split between them is whether you try and provide movies for free or not. Some promote the Spotify model of where you can stream but not download songs for free and accept adverts every five songs or so. Quite how this would translate into films is not yet known. 

 

 

 Changing Economy

 

Issue

 

Hollywood’s movie studios are confronting three long-term problems: less lucrative home-entertainment divisions, the rising cost of making films and the terms they get in fast-growing new markets.  

 

Rental kiosks, like Redbox, which offer cheap disc rentals, and video-streaming services, like Netflix, have exploded in popularity, but are not as lucrative as outright sales. “People are still watching the same amount of movies that they did a few years ago,” says Todd Juenger of Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm. “They’re just spending $6 billion less a year to do it.” Meanwhile, costs are rising. Everyone had expected technology to make it cheaper to produce films, but the opposite has happened, says Michael Lynton, the boss of Sony Pictures. A move from analogue to digital film enabled perfectionist directors to shoot more takes and touch them up afterward, using up expensive production and editing time.  These typically rely on expensive special effects, rather than compelling scripts, to attract a global audience. They often cost $200m to make and another $50m-100m to market.When costly movies flop, the losses are scary. Disney took a $160m write-off after the failure of a single one, “John Carter”, a confusing space adventure. Studios used to be able to sell tickets and DVDs even for duds. Now social networks and fan sites ensure that bad reviews spread quickly, sinking a film’s reputation. 

 

 

Between 2006 and 2012, the six big studios also cut the number of films they made by 14-54%, according to Nomura. And they started to pay actors and directors far less. Several years ago a big-name actor might receive $20m for a film, and be offered three every 18 months. Today he or she might receive $10m, and get cast in only one every 18 months. Some studios have also started to use first-time directors, because they cost less and it is easier to control their expenses.

 

The economics of the film industry are changing. Profits are down, even though Hollywood is making splashier films for new, fast-growing markets.  In 2011 American cinemas sold 1.28 billion tickets, the smallest number since 1995. Last year, ticket sales rose back to 1.36 billion and box-office revenues to a record $10.8 billion, thanks to blockbusters like “The Avengers”. But film-going in America is not a growth business, especially now that people have so many media to distract them at home. The share of Americans who attend a cinema at least once a month declined from 30% in 2000 to 10% in 2011. Analysts expect revenue from American cinemas to be flat for the foreseeable future. Even people in Hollywood admit that America is a “mature” film market. That is no compliment in a town where ageing puts you out of work.

 

Hollywood executives have long been paranoid and insecure. Now they have cause to be. “The business model within film is broken,” says Amir Malin of Qualia Capital, a private-equity firm. Between 2007 and 2011, pre-tax profits of the five studios controlled by large media conglomerates (Disney, Universal, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros) fell by around 40%, says Benjamin Swinburne of Morgan Stanley. He reckons the studios account for less than 10% of their parent companies’ profits today, and by 2020 their share will decline to only around 5%. 

 

 

Problem Solving 

 

Netflix and other firms are changing the home-entertainment business profoundly—and studios are scrambling to keep up. Last year was the first in years that home-entertainment revenues did not decline (they were about flat, see chart). Now studios want to increase them. Their best bet is to beef up digital sales, which offer fat margins. Several are experimenting with “windowing” (making films available for a certain time in each format), and are releasing digital downloads weeks before films are available on DVD. 

 

Some want studios to go further and get rid of the theatrical window (when films are exclusively in cinemas) altogether. The idea is to let consumers watch movies at home for a higher price rather than trek to the cinema. Predictably, cinemas are not enthusiastic. Nor are most studios. “Movies are just too expensive for us to collapse the windows and effectively eliminate a separate source of revenue,” says Alan Horn, the head of Disney’s studio.

But some are flirting with it. Last year Lionsgate, an independent studio and distribution company, made “Arbitrage”, a thriller about a fiendish financier, available in theatres and on “video-on-demand” at the same time. Michael Burns, Lionsgate’s chairman, reckons it earned three times as much as it would have done otherwise, because it “found two different audiences”. But if one big studio did this, cinemas could fight back and refuse to show that studio’s movies. Few want to risk it.

 

 

Cinematic Problems

 

Modern day cinema is beset with its own peculiar problems. Digital technology may make film making more accessible to ordinary people, but it still has its downside. Multiplexes may make queuing up for endless hours to watch the latest blockbuster less common than before, but they’re not always a good thing, either. Here, we provide a run-down of the biggest problems with cinema in the 21st century.

 

  

Inaudible Dialogue 

 

The fact that the plague of inaudible dialogue is refusing to go away. Too often, thanks to the loudness of explosions all around, bad sound mixing, or a refusal to re-record dialogue in the case of certain directors, it’s impossible to hear what characters are saying on the screen.

  

 

Multiplex

 

The multiplex is reflective of the state of modern day television, in that there are hundreds of channels, that still offer surprisingly little to watch. The whole idea, in an ideal world, of one building having ten, twenty or even thirty screens devoted to film is that it can host a broad selection of programming. But that isn’t the case. Instead, cinema chains use this to ride on the back of Hollywood’s desire to get films making their money in a couple of weeks.The multiplex is a production line. It’s designed to get you in, sell stuff, get you to watch the film, and get you out again. It seems odd that a picture house could come across quite as coldly as many multiplexes do, but there’s very little feeling of love for movies that comes out of the places. In fact, going further, we might be at a point where – for an abundance of reasons – the multiplex has become the worst place on Earth to watch a new movie.

 

 

Digital Film Making

 

The barriers to entry for making a low budget film are fewer than ever before. Digital film making has made decent standard production quality available to many, and that has to be a good thing. The more people are willing to pick up a camera, try things, play with editing software and engage with the technicalities of film making, the better.  Digitally enhancing a film has dulled the movie making experience.  Take the original Superman movie. That was an ambitious production, that involved real ingenuity and thought to realise on the screen. The mix of effects work, model making and in-camera tricks clearly involved much forethought and planning, and as such, the end result clearly benefited. Were that film to be made now, there wouldn’t be anywhere near the level of innovation and skill required to do what they did.

 

 

Trailer Spoilers 

 

Trailers that reveal too much are becoming increasingly common - almost to the point where watching them makes us a little nervous.  With the information flowing as freely as it does around the Internet, it’s becoming more and more difficult to avoid having a film spoiled for us before we get a chance to see it.

 

 

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Technological Improvements

 

 

Digital Technology

 

When digital camera technology was first introduced on a small scale by Sony in the late 1980s, it's doubtful anyone had any idea what impact it would make, and how soon it would make it. Only a few years later, in 1995, the Fox broadcast network first used a digital camera for a mainstream television production, a pilot for a short lived show called "Pasadena." Major Hollywood films were a little slower to adopt the emerging technology, however. Digital cameras were clearly more efficient and easy to use, but until they could produce a product that looked as good as developed film, they wouldn't be adopted. Pioneering director George Lucas was the first to shoot a major motion picture with a digital camera -- 2002's "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones." Since then, cameras have gotten smaller and more compact. Today, consumers can shoot HD video on their cell phones, hand-held cameras and camcorders.

 

 

 

CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery)

 

CGI or Computer Generated Imagery has paved the way for a whole new visual experience as it pertains to the media arts. Filmmakers can now essentially create something out of nothing simply by drawing it up through the computer program. They simply put the actors in front of a green screen or have them interact with a stick that will eventually look like a giant Tiger in the middle of an ocean on a boat. This describes Life of Pi,one of the few movies that are mostly CGI. Although it can be very expensive we are seeing more movies becoming predominately CGI. The first film that really paved the way for this new kind of filmmaking was Avatar, directed by James Cameron. This particular film showcases some of the most cutting edge technology anyone has seen to date. It used what is called image-based facial performance capture which, like other types of motion capture, required the many sensors be attached to the actors; bodies and faces as they worked through the scenes of the film. This transformed the actors from regular humans to the life like aliens we see on screen. As you can see in this picture, the little dots on his face capture every movement and facial expression, then transfers them to the computer, which then applies it to the animations created by the computer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside the movie industry the gaming industry made many improvements too. Implementing motion capture techniques and other CGI techniques that were also used in movies. Maturing into a fully dynamic industry in the last twenty years, games as Grand Theft Auto and Crysis keep advancing the CGI standard over the last several years on gaming platforms. An interesting detail is that games and movies are starting to show more and more similarities. As games become more story driven games are becoming more like playable movies. Bioware and Lucas Arts upcoming story driven game Star Wars: The Old Republic is a good example of this merge between movies, animations and games.

 

 

IMAX

 

IMAX (an acronym for Image MAXimum) is a motion picture film format and a set of cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation and developed by Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, Robert Kerr, and William C. Shaw. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems.Since 2002, some feature films have been converted (or upgraded) into IMAX format for display in IMAX theaters and some have also been partially shot in IMAX. IMAX is the most widely used system for special-venue film presentations. As of 31 December 2013, there are 837 IMAX theaters in 57 countries.

 

 

Camera

 

IMAX increases the resolution of the image by using a much larger film frame: while a frame of 35mm film offers approximately six thousand lines (6K) of horizontal resolution, an IMAX negative can potentially display the equivalent of 18 thousand lines (18K) of horizontal resolution. To achieve this, 65 mm film stock passes horizontally through the camera, 15 perforations at a time resulting in a speed of 102.7 metres per minute. Traditional 65 mm cameras pass film vertically through the camera five perforations at a time resulting in a speed of 34 metres per minute. In comparison, 35 mm film runs vertically through the camera four perforations at a time, resulting in a speed of 27.4 meters per minute.

 

Soundtrack - Double-System

 

In order to use more of the image area, IMAX film does not include an embedded soundtrack. Instead, the IMAX system specifies a separate six-channel 35 mm (1.377 inch) magnetic film, recorded and played back on a film follower locked to picture, just as Vitaphone had been (utilizing 16-inch 33 1/3 RPM electrical transcription discs) in the early 20th century, and was the same technology used to provide the 7-channel soundtrack accompanying films photographed and exhibited in the Cinerama process in the mid-1950s.

By the early 1990s, a separate DTS-based 6-track digital sound system was used, similarly locked to the projector by a SMPTE time codesynchronization apparatus, the audio played off a series of proprietary encoded CD-ROM discs. In the late 1990s this system was upgraded to one using a hard drive which carries a single uncompressed audio file containing the 6 channels. These are then converted directly to analogue rather than using a decoding method such as DTS. Like conventional theaters, IMAX theaters place speakers both directly behind the acoustically transparent screen and around the theatre to create a "surround sound" effect. IMAX also provides a "top center" speaker in addition to the center speaker found in conventional theaters. This extra channel allows the sound mix engineers to take advantage of the screen's greater height.

 

 

3D Films

 

A 3D or 3-D (three-dimensional) film or S3D (stereoscopic 3D) film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception. Derived from stereoscopic photography, a regular motion picture camera system is used to record the images as seen from two perspectives (or computer-generated imagery generates the two perspectives in post-production), and special projection hardware and/or eyewear are used to provide the illusion of depth when viewing the film. 3D films are not limited to feature film theatrical releases; television broadcasts and direct-to-video films have also incorporated similar methods, especially since the advent of 3D television and Blu-ray 3D.

 

 

3D films have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion picture industry because of the costly hardware and processes required to produce and display a 3D film, and the lack of a standardized format for all segments of the entertainment business. Nonetheless, 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in American cinema, and later experienced a worldwide resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s driven by IMAX high-end theaters and Disney themed-venues. 3D films became more and more successful throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar in December 2009 and January 2010.

 

 

3D Digital Camera

 

In 2011, IMAX announced a 4K 3D digital camera with the similar wide resolution of regular IMAX film cameras. The camera was developed alongside Vision Research and AbelCine, integrating two Phantom 65 engines. A prototype camera was used for the documentary, Born to be Wild in which approximately 10% of the finished film was shot with the system.It's been said that the new digital camera has no intentions of replacing the higher resolution film cameras but can be used in scenes that require a lightweight or relatively small 3D camera in order to film it without issue. Currently while IMAX has completed the production camera and has been placed into service on several films, there are no plans to produce an IMAX film using solely the new digital system. The upcoming Transformers: Age of Extinctionwill be filmed partially with the Phantom 65 IMAX 3D camera.

 

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Hollywood's Top Six (6) Production Studios

 

 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with hyphen, from 1935 to 1985)—also known as 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Pictures, or simply Fox, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011^[update]. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.

The company was founded on May 31, 1935,  as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

 

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Night at the Museum, Fantastic Four, Alien and Predator. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, "Bones", Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Futurama, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

 

20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). 

 

The Walt Disney Company

 

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media corporation headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue.  Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and theme parks. The company also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing, and online media. In addition, Disney has created new corporate divisions in order to market more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands.

 

The company is best known for the products of its film studio, the Walt Disney Studios, which is today one of the largest and best-known studios in Hollywood. Disney also owns and operates the ABC broadcast television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, A+E Networks, and ABC Family; publishing, merchandising, and theater divisions; and owns and licenses 14 theme parks around the world. It also has a successful music division. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6, 1991. An early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, Mickey Mouse, is a primary symbol of The Walt Disney Company.

 

 

Paramount Pictures Corporation

 

Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount) is a film and television production/distribution studio, consistently ranked as one of the largest (top-grossing) film studios. It is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom, Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).  It has distributed various commercially successful film series, such as Shrek, Transformers, Mission: Impossible, Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008–11), Indiana Jones (1981–2008), The Godfather, Star Trek, Jack Ryan, Jackass, The Bad News Bears, Beverly Hills Cop, "Crocodile" Dundee, Paranormal Activity, Friday the 13th and G.I. Joe.

 

As of 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first big Hollywood studio to distribute all its films in digital-form only

 

 

Sony Corporation

 

Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī Kabushiki Gaisha^?), commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan Minato, Tokyo, Japan.  Its diversified business is primarily focused on the electronics, game, entertainment and financial services sectors. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony is ranked 87th on the 2012 list of Fortune Global 500.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its four operating segments – Electronics (including video games, network services and medical business), Motion pictures, Music and Financial Services. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), and Sony Financial. Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders and third-largest television manufacturer in the world, after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

 

The Sony Group (ソニー・グループ, Sonī Gurūpu^?) is a Japan-based corporate group primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products and components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding and electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment (games), Sony Pictures Entertainment (motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment (music), Sony/ATV Music Publishing (music publishing), Sony Financial Holdings (financial services) and others.

 

Its founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka derived the name from sonus, the Latin word for sound, and also from the English slang word "sonny", since they considered themselves to be "sonny boys", a loan word into Japanese which in the early 1950s connoted smart and presentable young men. The company's current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogan was make.believe (2009–2014) and like.no.other (2005–2009).

 

 

Warner Bros. Studios

 

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., formerly known as Warner Bros. Studios, commonly referred to as Warner Bros. (spelled Warner Brothers during the company's early years), or simply WB—is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment.

 

One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.

 

Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

 

 

Universal Studios Inc.

 

Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures), is an American motion picture studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal, and is one of the six major movie studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City.

 

Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour, it is the oldest movie studio in the United States of America. It is also the fourth oldest in the world that is still in continuous production; the first being Gaumont Pictures, the second oldest is Pathé, the third is Nordisk Film, and the fifth oldest is Paramount Pictures. On August 2, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBCUniversal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers' works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years.

 

Three of Universal Studios' films—Jaws (1975), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993), all of which were directed by Steven Spielberg—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film at the time.

 

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Five Steps In Which Films Are Made

 

 

Today there is actually no single way or set of ways to correctly go about making a film. First, there are more sectors in filmmaking than there once were. The most conspicuous sectors are Hollywood feature films, independent films, and foreign films. The latter two kinds of film have slowly garnered an increasingly significant audience interest since the 1950s, when the old studio system began crumbling. Further, the old studio model, though still present in a kind of ghostly way (MGM still exists, though it's more an oversight agency for various projects than a factory now). Studios can't exert the same kind of authority over stars and directors that they could in the "golden era." The talent now has free agency, and is now forming its own production companies.

 

 

1. Development. From idea to signing of contracts.
2. Preproduction. All the technical matters that can be settled before shooting.
3. Production. The actual shooting of a film.
4. Postproduction. The technical portion of filmmaking that turns raw film into finished product.
5. Marketing. The process of getting the finished product to its audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Statistics

 

 

 

Top-Grossing MPAA Ratings 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	PG-13	2,350	$78,914,531,223	$33,580,652	46.50%
2	R	4,047	$46,750,702,687	$11,551,940	27.55%
3	PG	1,106	$33,413,377,976	$30,211,011	19.69%
4	G	304	$8,990,865,314	$29,575,215	5.30%
5	Not Rated	2,736	$1,245,126,085	$455,090	0.73%
6	NC-17	24	$54,272,929	$2,261,372	0.03%
7	Open	5	$5,447,424	$1,089,485	0.00%

 

 

 

Top-Grossing Distributors 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Warner Bros.	586	$26,240,701,171	$44,779,354	15.66%
2	Walt Disney	488	$23,641,076,184	$48,444,828	14.11%
3	Sony Pictures	579	$22,024,737,817	$38,039,271	13.15%
4	Paramount Pictures	389	$19,662,714,721	$50,546,824	11.74%
5	20th Century Fox	404	$18,595,830,109	$46,029,282	11.10%
6	Universal	374	$17,827,318,700	$47,666,628	10.64%
7	Lionsgate	275	$5,925,362,316	$21,546,772	3.54%
8	New Line	196	$5,151,566,342	$26,283,502	3.07%
9	Dreamworks SKG	75	$4,083,551,613	$54,447,355	2.44%
10	Miramax	375	$3,785,188,412	$10,093,836	2.26%

 

 

 

Top-Grossing Genres 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Comedy	1,962	$37,764,558,033	$19,247,991	22.54%
2	Adventure	591	$36,345,031,395	$61,497,515	21.69%
3	Action	651	$28,307,914,626	$43,483,740	16.90%
4	Drama	3,590	$28,007,938,750	$7,801,654	16.72%
5	Thriller/Suspense	698	$14,328,728,094	$20,528,264	8.55%
6	Romantic Comedy	456	$8,976,932,240	$19,686,255	5.36%
7	Horror	387	$7,726,132,189	$19,964,166	4.61%
8	Documentary	1,394	$1,790,565,074	$1,284,480	1.07%
9	Musical	123	$1,686,638,121	$13,712,505	1.01%
10	Black Comedy	117	$1,105,600,660	$9,449,578	0.66%

 

 

 

Top-Grossing Sources 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Original Screenplay	5,092	$78,395,738,563	$15,395,864	46.79%
2	Based on Fiction Book/Short Story	1,513	$37,147,900,957	$24,552,479	22.17%
3	Based on Comic/Graphic Novel	136	$10,992,142,937	$80,824,580	6.56%
4	Remake	267	$9,663,739,878	$36,193,782	5.77%
5	Based on TV	186	$8,863,662,222	$47,654,098	5.29%
6	Based on Real Life Events	1,876	$8,186,490,450	$4,363,801	4.89%
7	Based on Factual Book/Article	95	$3,597,564,660	$37,869,102	2.15%
8	Based on Folk Tale/Legend/Fairytale	47	$2,007,967,222	$42,722,707	1.20%
9	Based on Play	206	$1,890,395,885	$9,176,679	1.13%
10	Based on Theme Park Ride	7	$1,372,018,326	$196,002,618	0.82%

 

 

 

Top-Grossing Production Methods 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Live Action	9,415	$134,520,493,167	$14,287,891	80.29%
2	Animation/Live Action	125	$15,018,489,046	$120,147,912	8.96%
3	Digital Animation	183	$14,180,758,714	$77,490,485	8.46%
4	Hand Animation	123	$2,894,059,663	$23,528,940	1.73%
5	Stop-Motion Animation	26	$494,495,108	$19,019,043	0.30%
6	Multiple Production Methods	17	$19,113,893	$1,124,347	0.01%
7	Rotoscoping	3	$8,393,627	$2,797,876	0.01%

 

 

 

Top-Grossing Creative Types 1995 to 2013

		Movies	Total Gross	Average Gross	Market Share
1	Contemporary Fiction	4,654	$73,526,365,057	$15,798,531	43.88%
2	Kids Fiction	379	$20,655,374,437	$54,499,669	12.33%
3	Fantasy	599	$20,089,978,822	$33,539,197	11.99%
4	Science Fiction	417	$17,564,802,056	$42,121,827	10.48%
5	Historical Fiction	950	$13,843,646,595	$14,572,260	8.26%
6	Dramatization	630	$9,107,552,670	$14,456,433	5.44%
7	Super Hero	65	$8,601,926,397	$132,337,329	5.13%
8	Factual	1,444	$2,447,932,874	$1,695,244	1.46%
9	Multiple Creative Types	20	$93,588,315	$4,679,416	0.06%

 

For other statistics about the movie industry you can visit the Motion Picture Association of America website at http://www.mpaa.org/

 

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Prosumerism

 

Prosumerism today has sent out a wave of new comers and independent films.  It has in a sense, changed the game in the film industry and now with the internet can be streamed to millions of consumers. 

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Good-Amateur-Movie

 

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What Will The Future Of Film Look Like?

 

 

The film industry will continue in the future, with all the newest technology constantly being created innovation will never stop. (Click on the Future link  for a sneak peak into the future of film)

 

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Film Homepage      Film Past      Film Present     Film Future      Film Big Board     Film Citations

 

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with hyphen, from 1935 to 1985)—also known as 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Pictures, or simply Fox, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011^[update]. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it is currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox.

The company was founded on May 31, 1935,^[1] as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Night at the Museum, Fantastic Four, Alien and Predator. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, "Bones", Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Futurama, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).^[2]