How Does Context (time/place/studio/company etc)
Affect the Production of a Film?

Originally starting out as just a carnival novelty, film has progressed phenomenally over the past century and has become a well established large-scale industry within the entertainment sector. In the present day, it causes a substantial impact on the arts, technology, politics, and society in general; as well as being one of the biggest mediums of communication due to it's continuous need of having to develop in order to meet (and furtherly expand upon) the audience's ever-changing current expectations.

What we now classify as cinema originally developed through the concept of photography throughout the 19th century. Devices such as the Zoetrope in Britain (created by William Horner) and the Stroboscope by Simon von Stampfer in Austria, allowed still images to be displayed as continuous "moving" picture sequences on a revolving disk or drum. Then in 1877, Eadweard Muybridge successfully created the first experimental film in America by photographing a horse in fast motion using 24 cameras, to determain whether a running horse ever had all four legs lifted off of the ground at once.

Inspired by these early mechanisms and the moving picture sequences that had been produced, Thomas Edison went on to create the Kinetiscope; a motion picture exhibition device that allowed one person to view a very short (and silent) film. Peep-show parlours featuring Edison's Kinetiscope soon spread across Europe after catching the public's attention, but were not considered to be anything more than a passing trend due to them only being accessable by a single person at a time. Seeing this, the Lumière brothers Auguste and Louis, developed and perfected the Cinématographe; an apparatus that not only captured and printed film footage, but could also project it afterwards. And after a well-recieved first projection in 1895 to a small audience in France, the brother's went on tour with it to some of the biggest cities in the world; Bombay, London, New York and Buenos Aires. Following the success of the Lumières device, various other inventors went on to develop their own form of projector, one of which being the Edison company. A range of film widths and projection speeds were produced, but after a few years the 35-mm wide Edison film, and the 16-frames-per-second projection speed of the Lumière Cinématographe became the standard, and soon enough, cinema had spread globally. Warner Bro's Jack, Harry, Sam & Albert were amongst the first people to set up Nickelodeons along the high streets of New York, which were relatively cheap to get into; attracting the working class who were often immigrants.

At this point the films themselves were extremely basic; consisting of single scene every day events (such as a steam train pulling up at a station) and were only around a minute long. But despite this, audiences were astounded and demanding for more to be made, so film producers started to send cameramen around the world to capture new footage to meet the audience's needs. They also noticed that certain film genres and actors such as Mary Pickford were more popular than others, thus creating the film star. Furthermore, film language was developing, offering more complex viewings rather than just the normal novelty that audience's were used to. Different camera angles such as the close-up were being added, as well as transitions between shots. For instance, Edwin S. Porter's The Life of an American Fireman in 1903 was one of the first films that cross-cut shots to create drama and tension.

With the film industry rapidly increasing in success, a group of producers including Thomas Edison, formed The Motion Picture Patents Company, with the intent of trying to seize control of the industry by patening their technologies and charging film makers to use their projectors, cameras and various other pieces of equipment. It was eventually outlawed in 1915, but by this time many film makers and distributors that were trying to evade the MPCC had moved on to the west coast of the USA, forming Hollywood. Carl Lamele was one of these film makers, and he went on to be the founder of Universal Pictures. Initially, he got into the business through owning Nickleodeon's in Chicago as well as opening The Universal Film Manufacturing Company, a film distribution business, in defiance of the MPCC. He then went on to sell his theatres in order to buy a 230 acre ranch north of Hollywood to focus on film production and distribution; Universal Pictures. William Fox (founder of Fox), Marcus Loew (founder of MGM), and the Warner Bros all followed similar paths, and became some of the early big Hollywood studios.

The studios continued to pioneer film making techniques which lead to developments such as multi-roll full length films, improvements of film technology, lens lighting, cranes, and also, the 1920s saw the introduction of new technology that allowed film-makers to enhance motion-picture films with sound (distinguished as "talkies"). This was achieved by attaching a soundtrack made up of speech, music, and various other sound effects to the sequence, which was then synchronised with the visuals that appeared on screen. Furthermore, due to the outbreak of World War 1, the rise of European cinema was interrupted; allowing Hollywood to gain world film dominance and to flourish even more so.

Many consider the years between 1930 - 1949 to be the Golden Age of Hollywood, whereby during this time, the film industry was lead by major companies MGM, RKO, Warner Bros, Paramount and Fox (also known as "The Big Five") and the smaller Universal, Columbia and United Artists ("The Little Three"). Each of these companies shared the same structure of film production, which would later be classified as The Studio System. This consisted of unit-based production (films being made and distributed on the particular company's land) as well as there being a division of labour amongst crew members, whereby each individual had one skilled, or two semi-skilled jobs; similiar to how factories of commercial produce, such as cars, also worked at the time. The Big Five also used the Run Zone Clearance System; which separated the US into zones, giving them control over which areas were viewing their films at any one time.

One prominent negative aspect of the Studio System was the treatment of actors and actresses, as they faced tough regulations and limitations on their talents throughout this time period. This was mostly due to the fact that when signing a contract with a production company, it meant that they could only star in films made by that specific one for the amount of time they signed for, and if they ever refused a role, the lost time would be added on to their contract; extending the amount of time they had to stay with that company. This was very frustrating for the stars as a lot of the time it meant they were repetitively given the same type of role over and over again, as the studios tended to only produce one genre of film because it was seen to be more cost effective. Which for the actors, meant that ultimately, they could not display their diversity. Moreover, to keep up with the frantic pace of film production, the young performers that were starring in films were continually being given amphetamines and barbiturates to give them the energy needed to be able to constantly deliver song and dance routines on set. Noteably, for Wizard of Oz star Judy Garland, this triggered a life-long problem with both drugs and alcohol that eventually lead to her to an untimely demise at only 47 years old in 1969.

The typical system began to change however, thanks to actress Olivia de Havilland. In 1945, she successfully mounted a law suit against the studios supported by the Screen Actors Guild, meaning that the power studios held over performers was reduced, and that actors had far greater creative freedom. The De Havilland Law stated that no contract could exceed 7 years unless the employee agreed to an extension beyond that term, and is still in use today.

Despite the evident issues faced within this era, many films were produced that are now considered to be amongt the greatest of all time. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941), for instance, was a landmark in cinema history. The film's protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, was based on publisher William Randolph Hearst - so much so that Hearst tried to have the film suppressed. Every aspect of the production marked an advance in film language: the deep focus and deeply shadowed cinematography, the discontinuous narrative which consisted heavily of flashbacks and newsreel footage, and the innovative use of sound and score. Although Welles never had the oppurtunity to direct a film quite like it again, it has inspired many film makers since.

With the decline of the Hollywood System thanks to the introduction of television, the decades that followed saw dramatic changes in the way that films were produced, as well as the general stylistics of them. What with the number of cinema attendees rapidly decreasing, Hollywood tried to win back it's audience with big movie epics and elaborate musicals such as Singin' In The Rain, and although initially successful, the appeal did not last for long due to the French New Wave growing in popularity.

However, during the 1960s, a new bunch of young American filmmakers (such as Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Brian De Palma) emerged fresh from film school with the desire to begin to create films that expressed their own personal vision and creative insights; rather than being dictated by the typical studio structure. This development of the auteur style of filmmaking helped to give directors far greater control over their projects, as opposed to what would have been allowed during earlier eras. This outlook on film production also reflected the way in which society was at the time, what with the rise in 'hippy' culture captivating the youth of the time, these films featuring emphasis on realism, and somewhat anti-establishment political themes, were able to connect with its audience; causing Hollywood to make a substantial comeback.

One of the first films made within this New Hollywood generation, and perhaps the most significant, Bonnie & Clyde (1967) set the trend for realistic action being depicted on screen, which astounded audiences with its mix of graphic violence, sex, humour and theme of glamorous disaffected youth. Easy Rider (1969) also connected with the audience, as it displayed scenearios featuring drugs and violence that were similar to their own lifestyles, opposing to the happy endings and unrealistic themes featured in previous popular films. Scorcese's Taxi Driver, Polanski's Chinatown and Coppola's The Godfather to name but a few, then went on to receive enormous critical and commercial success.

However, the financial disaster of Michael Cimino's costly Western epic Heaven's Gate in 1980 (amongst other failures) were to be triggers of the end of this New Hollywood era, as they, along with the combined enormous financial successes of Spielberg's Jaws and Lucas' Star Wars, gave producers insight as to where the market was leading: mass-audience, wide-release, high-concept films. Therefore, the expensive and risky strategy of giving prodominent control of a production to the director ended.

Inspired by the special effects used in Lucas' Star Wars, the past few decades within the film industry have been dominated by introductions of various ways of viewing cinema. Animation and 3D technology have substantially developed; creating realistic and entertaining environments for audiences. Toy Story (1995) was the first feature film to be made entirely of CGI, and received praise for it's innovative animation and sophisticated screenplay. Although it was a huge box office success, the film is currently Pixar's (the company that produced it) lowest grossing film while the film's second sequel Toy Story 3 (2010) is their highest grossing film earning over $1 billion worldwide.

Independant production companies have also been able to release highly successful films thanks to film festivals and various other outlets, such as the Internet, making it easier to get films shown to audiences. The Blair Witch Project (1999) was produced with a budget of only $20,000, but managed to gross almost $249 million. It even went on to spawn books, a trilogy of video games, and a sequel.

Due to the increase of methods enabling audiences to watch films in the comfort of their homes (legally, via renting DVDs or using services such as Virgin Media on television sets, or illegally, by downloading from the internet) cinemas have introduced a range of ways to intice customers to keep going to cinemas to see the latest releases. For instance, Cineworld, one of the leading cinema chains in the UK, have an "Unlimited Card" system, where for a fixed monthly/yearly fee, members can see as many films as often as they wish. Another way, is by placing vouchers within newspapers, magazines and even through mobile phone companies, that offer 2 for 1 tickets to a certain film. Although, we must consider the fact that even during the peak of the economic recession, cinemas did not recieve a substantial loss with their income. 2009's Avatar for instance earned £8.5 million in the UK in it's opening weekend alone, which helps to suggest that audiences still enjoy the atmosphere of watching a film in the environment of a cinema screen and see it as a form of escapism from everyday life; similar to that of war-time cinema patrons.

However, in my opinion, the film industry needs to be cautious surrounding the fact that they do not lose connection with their audience again, like Hollywood did during the 1950-60s. I feel this because lately, films that are being released seem to either consist of re-makes of old classics, or regurgitated story lines that have been told hundreds of times before e.g. a group of teenagers somehow become abandoned in a desolate environment, and they get murdered one by one.