Author: Mark Thomas McGee
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786411146
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
William Castle, for instance, was a master promoter. In one scheme involving The Tingler, Vincent Price warns in the movie that "the only way to stop the monster is to scream. That's the signal to the projectionist to throw the switch. Under ten or twelve seats were some electric motors, war surplus things that Castle got a bargain on. The motors vibrated the seat, in the hope of scaring a scream out of someone. Just in case it didn't Castle planted someone in the audience to get the screams rolling." This book is about flamboyant promotion, the con artist side of the movie world--everything the ballyhoo boys did to separate the customer from the price of a movie ticket--Emergo, HypnoVista, 3-D, Wide Screen, Cinemagic, Duo-Vision, Dynamation, Smell-O-Vision, plenty more. Supporting the text are 107 photos and illustrations, some never-before-published, and a filmography.
Beyond Ballyhoo
Author: Mark Thomas McGee
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786411146
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
William Castle, for instance, was a master promoter. In one scheme involving The Tingler, Vincent Price warns in the movie that "the only way to stop the monster is to scream. That's the signal to the projectionist to throw the switch. Under ten or twelve seats were some electric motors, war surplus things that Castle got a bargain on. The motors vibrated the seat, in the hope of scaring a scream out of someone. Just in case it didn't Castle planted someone in the audience to get the screams rolling." This book is about flamboyant promotion, the con artist side of the movie world--everything the ballyhoo boys did to separate the customer from the price of a movie ticket--Emergo, HypnoVista, 3-D, Wide Screen, Cinemagic, Duo-Vision, Dynamation, Smell-O-Vision, plenty more. Supporting the text are 107 photos and illustrations, some never-before-published, and a filmography.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786411146
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
William Castle, for instance, was a master promoter. In one scheme involving The Tingler, Vincent Price warns in the movie that "the only way to stop the monster is to scream. That's the signal to the projectionist to throw the switch. Under ten or twelve seats were some electric motors, war surplus things that Castle got a bargain on. The motors vibrated the seat, in the hope of scaring a scream out of someone. Just in case it didn't Castle planted someone in the audience to get the screams rolling." This book is about flamboyant promotion, the con artist side of the movie world--everything the ballyhoo boys did to separate the customer from the price of a movie ticket--Emergo, HypnoVista, 3-D, Wide Screen, Cinemagic, Duo-Vision, Dynamation, Smell-O-Vision, plenty more. Supporting the text are 107 photos and illustrations, some never-before-published, and a filmography.
Beyond the Screen
Author: Sarah Atkinson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1623568234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Runner-up for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Best Book Prize 2015 Beyond the Screen presents an expanded conceptualization of cinema which encompasses the myriad ways film can be experienced in a digitally networked society where the auditorium is now just one location amongst many in which audiences can encounter and engage with films. The book includes considerations of mobile, web, social media and live cinema through numerous examples and case studies of recent and near-future developments. Through analyses of narrative, text, process, apparatus and audience this book traces the metamorphosis of an emerging cinema and maps the new spaces of spectatorship which are currently challenging what it means to be cinematic in a digitally networked era.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1623568234
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 313
Book Description
Runner-up for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Best Book Prize 2015 Beyond the Screen presents an expanded conceptualization of cinema which encompasses the myriad ways film can be experienced in a digitally networked society where the auditorium is now just one location amongst many in which audiences can encounter and engage with films. The book includes considerations of mobile, web, social media and live cinema through numerous examples and case studies of recent and near-future developments. Through analyses of narrative, text, process, apparatus and audience this book traces the metamorphosis of an emerging cinema and maps the new spaces of spectatorship which are currently challenging what it means to be cinematic in a digitally networked era.
Beyond 3D TV
Author: Tony Sperry
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557393442
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0557393442
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188
Book Description
The Battle for the Bs
Author: Blair Davis
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813553245
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
The emergence of the double-bill in the 1930s created a divide between A-pictures and B-pictures as theaters typically screened packages featuring one of each. With the former considered more prestigious because of their larger budgets and more popular actors, the lower-budgeted Bs served largely as a support mechanism to A-films of the major studios—most of which also owned the theater chains in which movies were shown. When a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling severed ownership of theaters from the studios, the B-movie soon became a different entity in the wake of profound changes to the corporate organization and production methods of the major Hollywood studios. In The Battle for the Bs, Blair Davis analyzes how B-films were produced, distributed, and exhibited in the 1950s and demonstrates the possibilities that existed for low-budget filmmaking at a time when many in Hollywood had abandoned the Bs. Made by newly formed independent companies, 1950s B-movies took advantage of changing demographic patterns to fashion innovative marketing approaches. They established such genre cycles as science fiction and teen-oriented films (think Destination Moon and I Was a Teenage Werewolf) well before the major studios and also contributed to the emergence of the movement now known as underground cinema. Although frequently proving to be multimillion-dollar box-office draws by the end of the decade, the Bs existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s and created a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers in the decades to come.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813553245
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
The emergence of the double-bill in the 1930s created a divide between A-pictures and B-pictures as theaters typically screened packages featuring one of each. With the former considered more prestigious because of their larger budgets and more popular actors, the lower-budgeted Bs served largely as a support mechanism to A-films of the major studios—most of which also owned the theater chains in which movies were shown. When a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling severed ownership of theaters from the studios, the B-movie soon became a different entity in the wake of profound changes to the corporate organization and production methods of the major Hollywood studios. In The Battle for the Bs, Blair Davis analyzes how B-films were produced, distributed, and exhibited in the 1950s and demonstrates the possibilities that existed for low-budget filmmaking at a time when many in Hollywood had abandoned the Bs. Made by newly formed independent companies, 1950s B-movies took advantage of changing demographic patterns to fashion innovative marketing approaches. They established such genre cycles as science fiction and teen-oriented films (think Destination Moon and I Was a Teenage Werewolf) well before the major studios and also contributed to the emergence of the movement now known as underground cinema. Although frequently proving to be multimillion-dollar box-office draws by the end of the decade, the Bs existed in opposition to the cinematic mainstream in the 1950s and created a legacy that was passed on to independent filmmakers in the decades to come.
The Suspense Thriller
Author: Charles Derry
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786462407
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
This book is a comprehensive study of one of the most popular genres in the cinema. From a perspective sympathetic to popular culture, this study analyzes a large number of primarily American and European films by a variety of distinguished directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol, John Frankenheimer, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Costa-Gavras. Indispensable to anyone interested in understanding how suspense thrillers work and what they mean, this book provides insightful analysis of hundreds of memorable films, while at the same time working as a virtual how-to manual for anyone trying to write a Hitchcock-like thriller. The first section of the book is primarily theoretical. It offers a bibliographical survey and then explains why we so profoundly enjoy these suspenseful films of murder and intrigue. A chapter on "Thrills: or, How Objects and Empty Spaces Compete to Threaten Us" explores the psychological concept of the thrill and relates it to the psyche of the spectator. To what extent does the suspense thriller represent a symbolic and vicarious experience of danger? A chapter on "Suspense That Makes the Spectator Take a Breath" explores the crucial narrative concept of suspense and relates it to the psychological mechanisms of anxiety incited in the spectator. Why do we like to be scared? A final theoretical chapter offers a dynamic definition of the suspense thriller derived in part from Edgar Allan Poe and based primarily on content analysis. The second section of the book is more of an historical survey and devotes one chapter to each of the suspense thriller's primary sub-genres. These chapters provide close readings of more than 150 major films and detailed analysis of the suspense thriller's conventions, themes, and recurrent iconography. Sub-genres include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Body Heat, The Manchurian Candidate, The China Syndrome, Missing, The Passenger, Spellbound, Obsession, Marathon Man and Blue Velvet. A final chapter explores areas for further research and offers concluding insights.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 9780786462407
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Book Description
This book is a comprehensive study of one of the most popular genres in the cinema. From a perspective sympathetic to popular culture, this study analyzes a large number of primarily American and European films by a variety of distinguished directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol, John Frankenheimer, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Costa-Gavras. Indispensable to anyone interested in understanding how suspense thrillers work and what they mean, this book provides insightful analysis of hundreds of memorable films, while at the same time working as a virtual how-to manual for anyone trying to write a Hitchcock-like thriller. The first section of the book is primarily theoretical. It offers a bibliographical survey and then explains why we so profoundly enjoy these suspenseful films of murder and intrigue. A chapter on "Thrills: or, How Objects and Empty Spaces Compete to Threaten Us" explores the psychological concept of the thrill and relates it to the psyche of the spectator. To what extent does the suspense thriller represent a symbolic and vicarious experience of danger? A chapter on "Suspense That Makes the Spectator Take a Breath" explores the crucial narrative concept of suspense and relates it to the psychological mechanisms of anxiety incited in the spectator. Why do we like to be scared? A final theoretical chapter offers a dynamic definition of the suspense thriller derived in part from Edgar Allan Poe and based primarily on content analysis. The second section of the book is more of an historical survey and devotes one chapter to each of the suspense thriller's primary sub-genres. These chapters provide close readings of more than 150 major films and detailed analysis of the suspense thriller's conventions, themes, and recurrent iconography. Sub-genres include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Body Heat, The Manchurian Candidate, The China Syndrome, Missing, The Passenger, Spellbound, Obsession, Marathon Man and Blue Velvet. A final chapter explores areas for further research and offers concluding insights.
The Dinosaur Filmography
Author: Mark F. Berry
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476606749
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 510
Book Description
From classics like King Kong, to beloved B-movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, to blockbusters like Jurassic Park, it's easy to see that filmmakers and audiences alike love to see dinosaurs on the screen. This comprehensive filmography, arranged alphabetically by title, contains entries that include basic facts (year of release, country of origin, studio, and running time), followed by a concise plot summary, the author's critical commentary, information on the production and the people behind it, and secrets of the often-ingenious special effects. Three useful appendices feature films with minor dinosaur content, planned but unfinished dinosaur movies, and the quasi-dinosaurs of Toho Studios. To be included, a movie must depict one or more representations of a "prehistoric reptile." Inaccurate portrayals are included, as long as the intent is to represent a real or fictional dinosaur. Not eligible are films featuring prehistoric mammals, prehistoric humans or humanoids, and beasts of mythology--unless, of course, the movie also has a dinosaur.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476606749
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 510
Book Description
From classics like King Kong, to beloved B-movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, to blockbusters like Jurassic Park, it's easy to see that filmmakers and audiences alike love to see dinosaurs on the screen. This comprehensive filmography, arranged alphabetically by title, contains entries that include basic facts (year of release, country of origin, studio, and running time), followed by a concise plot summary, the author's critical commentary, information on the production and the people behind it, and secrets of the often-ingenious special effects. Three useful appendices feature films with minor dinosaur content, planned but unfinished dinosaur movies, and the quasi-dinosaurs of Toho Studios. To be included, a movie must depict one or more representations of a "prehistoric reptile." Inaccurate portrayals are included, as long as the intent is to represent a real or fictional dinosaur. Not eligible are films featuring prehistoric mammals, prehistoric humans or humanoids, and beasts of mythology--unless, of course, the movie also has a dinosaur.
The Politics of Ephemeral Digital Media
Author: Sara Pesce
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317512677
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
In the age of "complex Tv", of social networking and massive consumption of transmedia narratives, a myriad short-lived phenomena surround films and TV programs raising questions about the endurance of a fictional world and other mediatized discourse over a long arc of time. The life of media products can change direction depending on the variability of paratextual materials and activities such as online commentaries and forums, promos and trailers, disposable merchandise and gadgets, grassroots video production, archives, and gaming. This book examines the tension between permanence and obsolescence in the production and experience of media byproducts analysing the affections and meanings they convey and uncovering the machineries of their persistence or disposal. Paratexts, which have long been considered only ancillary to a central text, interfere instead with textual politics by influencing the viewers’ fidelity (or infidelity) to a product and affecting a fictional world’s "life expectancy". Scholars in the fields of film studies, media studies, memory and cultural studies are here called to observe these byproducts' temporalities (their short form and/or long temporal extention, their nostalgic politics or future projections) and assess their increasing influence on our use of the past and present, on our temporal experience, and, consequently, on our social and political self-positioning through the media.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317512677
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 279
Book Description
In the age of "complex Tv", of social networking and massive consumption of transmedia narratives, a myriad short-lived phenomena surround films and TV programs raising questions about the endurance of a fictional world and other mediatized discourse over a long arc of time. The life of media products can change direction depending on the variability of paratextual materials and activities such as online commentaries and forums, promos and trailers, disposable merchandise and gadgets, grassroots video production, archives, and gaming. This book examines the tension between permanence and obsolescence in the production and experience of media byproducts analysing the affections and meanings they convey and uncovering the machineries of their persistence or disposal. Paratexts, which have long been considered only ancillary to a central text, interfere instead with textual politics by influencing the viewers’ fidelity (or infidelity) to a product and affecting a fictional world’s "life expectancy". Scholars in the fields of film studies, media studies, memory and cultural studies are here called to observe these byproducts' temporalities (their short form and/or long temporal extention, their nostalgic politics or future projections) and assess their increasing influence on our use of the past and present, on our temporal experience, and, consequently, on our social and political self-positioning through the media.
Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood
Author: Simon Hewitt
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000917614
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood provides a unique insight into the potential for online communication to enable audiences to exert a greater impact on film industrial practices than ever before. In an overarching analysis of contemporary Hollywood film financing, marketing, distribution, and exhibition practices, Simon Hewitt recontextualises word-of-mouth in light of social media and examines the growing impact of audience participation. Using a ‘Bourdieuconomic’ approach, he applies qualitative research methods to better understand the contemporary Hollywood film audience, the contemporary Hollywood film industry, and the mechanisms that connect the two. The book explores new film financing mechanisms that incorporate fans into the packages used to secure production funds. It assesses the role of ‘Grassroots Intermediaries’ in contemporary film marketing campaigns. It critiques ‘democratic’ crowdsourced methods of film distribution, and finally, it considers the possible future of Hollywood film exhibition. By helping to bridge the gap between the gift economy and commodity culture, this book will appeal to students and scholars of media industry studies, media finance and economics, fan and audience studies, film studies, film history, and media marketing.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000917614
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Word-of-Mouth in Contemporary Hollywood provides a unique insight into the potential for online communication to enable audiences to exert a greater impact on film industrial practices than ever before. In an overarching analysis of contemporary Hollywood film financing, marketing, distribution, and exhibition practices, Simon Hewitt recontextualises word-of-mouth in light of social media and examines the growing impact of audience participation. Using a ‘Bourdieuconomic’ approach, he applies qualitative research methods to better understand the contemporary Hollywood film audience, the contemporary Hollywood film industry, and the mechanisms that connect the two. The book explores new film financing mechanisms that incorporate fans into the packages used to secure production funds. It assesses the role of ‘Grassroots Intermediaries’ in contemporary film marketing campaigns. It critiques ‘democratic’ crowdsourced methods of film distribution, and finally, it considers the possible future of Hollywood film exhibition. By helping to bridge the gap between the gift economy and commodity culture, this book will appeal to students and scholars of media industry studies, media finance and economics, fan and audience studies, film studies, film history, and media marketing.
Chronicle of a Camera
Author: Norris Pope
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617037427
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
This volume provides a history of the most consequential 35mm motion picture camera introduced in North America in the quarter century following the Second World War: the Arriflex 35. It traces the North American history of this camera from 1945 through 1972—when the first lightweight, self-blimped 35mm cameras became available. Chronicle of a Camera emphasizes theatrical film production, documenting the Arriflex's increasingly important role in expanding the range of production choices, styles, and even content of American motion pictures in this period. The book's exploration culminates most strikingly in examples found in feature films dating from the 1960s and early 1970s, including a number of films associated with what came to be known as the “Hollywood New Wave.” The author shows that the Arriflex prompted important innovation in three key areas: it greatly facilitated and encouraged location shooting; it gave cinematographers new options for intensifying visual style and content; and it stimulated low-budget and independent production. Films in which the Arriflex played an absolutely central role include Bullitt, The French Connection, and, most significantly, Easy Rider. Using an Arriflex for car-mounted shots, hand-held shots, and zoom-lens shots led to greater cinematic realism and personal expression.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1617037427
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 203
Book Description
This volume provides a history of the most consequential 35mm motion picture camera introduced in North America in the quarter century following the Second World War: the Arriflex 35. It traces the North American history of this camera from 1945 through 1972—when the first lightweight, self-blimped 35mm cameras became available. Chronicle of a Camera emphasizes theatrical film production, documenting the Arriflex's increasingly important role in expanding the range of production choices, styles, and even content of American motion pictures in this period. The book's exploration culminates most strikingly in examples found in feature films dating from the 1960s and early 1970s, including a number of films associated with what came to be known as the “Hollywood New Wave.” The author shows that the Arriflex prompted important innovation in three key areas: it greatly facilitated and encouraged location shooting; it gave cinematographers new options for intensifying visual style and content; and it stimulated low-budget and independent production. Films in which the Arriflex played an absolutely central role include Bullitt, The French Connection, and, most significantly, Easy Rider. Using an Arriflex for car-mounted shots, hand-held shots, and zoom-lens shots led to greater cinematic realism and personal expression.
Pigeon Guided Missiles
Author: James Moore
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752466763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
During the Second World War, an American behavioural psychologist working with pigeons discovered that the birds could be trained to recognise an object and to peck at an image of it; when loaded into the nose-cone of a missile, these pecks could be translated into adjustments to the guidance fins, steering the projectile to its target. Pigeon-Guided Missiles reveals this and other fascinating tales of daring plans from history destined to change the world we live in, yet which ended in failure, or even disaster. Some became the victims of the eccentric figures behind them, others succumbed to financial and political misfortune, and a few were just too far ahead of their time. Discover why the great groundnut scheme cost British taxpayers £49 million, why the bid to build Minerva, a whole new country in the Pacific Ocean, sank, and why the first Channel Tunnel (started in 1881, over a century before the one we know today) hit a dead end.
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752466763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
During the Second World War, an American behavioural psychologist working with pigeons discovered that the birds could be trained to recognise an object and to peck at an image of it; when loaded into the nose-cone of a missile, these pecks could be translated into adjustments to the guidance fins, steering the projectile to its target. Pigeon-Guided Missiles reveals this and other fascinating tales of daring plans from history destined to change the world we live in, yet which ended in failure, or even disaster. Some became the victims of the eccentric figures behind them, others succumbed to financial and political misfortune, and a few were just too far ahead of their time. Discover why the great groundnut scheme cost British taxpayers £49 million, why the bid to build Minerva, a whole new country in the Pacific Ocean, sank, and why the first Channel Tunnel (started in 1881, over a century before the one we know today) hit a dead end.