The document provides an overview of the American film industry in the post-WWII period from the 1950s. Key developments included the rise of television which forced Hollywood studios to diversify into television production. Technological innovations like Cinerama, 3D films, and CinemaScope aimed to lure audiences back to theaters. Epics and musicals became popular genres during this time. The studio system also started declining due to antitrust actions leading to an era of independent production.

1. America Cinema Post-WWII

2. 1950s America…
• Post-war affluence
• Increased choice in
leisure time activities
• The Korean War
• Middle class values
• Rise of fast food
• Drive-ins
• Jazz music
• White racism in the
South
McDonalds had their first
• Advent of television…
franchise in 1955

3. Television
• By the start of the 1950s, television was becoming popular
and more readily available
• In 1951, NBC became America’s first nationwide TV network
• A few years later, 50% of American households had a TV
• In 1953, the Academy Awards were broadcast for the first
time, receiving the networks largest audience in TV history
• By 1954, NBC's Tonight Show was becoming one of the
most popular late-night TV shows

4. The Studios
• Decline in theatre admissions forced Hollywood’s studios to
rethink
• They jumped from making feature films to TV prgrammes
and films
• Feature film budgets drop to an average of $1million
• By the mid-1950s, the big studios started selling the rights
of their old films to networks
• The Wizard of OZ (1939) was the first feature film to be
shown on television, in 1956

5. The Studios
• In 1955, the ABC TV show Warner Brothers Presents was
the first television program produced by Warner Brothers
Pictures, and marked the introduction of the major
Hollywood studios into television production
• In the same year, Twentieth Century-Fox Hour played on
CBS and MGM Parade on ABC
• Warner Bros made the most of the television boom,
producing more TV shows, such as: their first hit series
Cheyenne (1955-1963 with Clint Walker), Maverick (1957-
1962, first with James Garner) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958-
1964)

6. The Studios
• One positive aspect of television was that it was giving
many directors a platform to show off their talents
• Because of the emergence of television as a major
entertainment medium, many studios converted their sound
stages for use in television production.
• Because labor was cheaper abroad, many producers were
taking their film production overseas

7. The War Against Television
• The width-to-height aspect ratio of most Hollywood films
before the 50s was 4:3
• This is same as early television sets
• So in its war against television, the film industry had three
major campaigns involving technical advances with wide-
screen experiences, color, and scope:
• Cinerama
• 3-D and Smell-O-Vision
• CinemaScope
• Other Widescreen Formats and Processes

8. • Paramount's wrap-around, big-screen Cinerama debuted in
1952, a break-through technique that required three
cameras, three projectors, interlocking, semi-curved (at 146
degrees) screens, and four-track stereo sound. It made
audiences feel that they were at the center of the action
• The first film using the three-strip cinerama process was
This is Cinerama (1952), a travelogue of the world's
vacation spots, with a thrilling roller-coaster ride
• Popular for about a decade but was costly and the novelty
wore off

9. 3D Movies
• In the same year as the debut of
Cinerama (1952), showmanship and
gimmicks like 3-D were used to bring
audiences back
• Special polarized, 'stereoscopic'
goggles or cardboard glasses worn by
viewers made the action jump off the
screen
• In reality, the glasses were unpopular,
clunky and the viewing was blurry,
although it was difficult (and
expensive) for theatre owners to get
cinema-goers to give them back. The
3-D effect was unable to compensate
for the inferior level of most of the
films

10. 3D Movies
• The first full-length 3-D feature sound
film was UA's cheaply-made jungle
adventure Bwana Devil (1952)) by
writer/director Arch Oboler, and
starring Robert Stack - its taglines
advertised: "A Lion in Your Lap" and
"A Lover In Your Arms.”
• in horror films (Warners' and B-film
maker Andre de Toth's House of Wax
(1953) with horror master Vincent
Price, a remake of Warners' The
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)) -
the first 3-D horror film to be in the
top ten box office hits in its year of
release

11. Aroma-rama and Smell-O-vision
• Other short-lived film fads in this decade and afterwards,
that were designed to tear viewers away from their TVs,
included Charles Weiss' 1959 system of pumping "Oriental"
scents into the theatre through the air-conditioning system -
it was dubbed Aroma-Rama
• Smell-O-Vision was a similar process that came slightly later
in 1960, developed by the Swiss-born Hans Laube, in which
30 different smells were injected into a movie theatre's
seats when triggered by various points in the film's
soundtrack
• Only one film was made with this gimmicky process -
Michael Todd Jr.'s' Scent of Mystery (1960)

12. CinemaScope
• When Cinerama and stereoscopic 3-D
died almost as soon as they were
initiated, 20th Century Fox's
CinemaScope became cheaper and
more convenient because it used a
simple anamorphic lens to create a
widescreen effect
• The aspect ratio (width to height) of
CinemaScope was 2.35:1
• The first film released commercially in
CinemaScope was 20th Century Fox's
and director Henry Koster's Biblical
sword-and-sandal epic The Robe
(1953)

13. EPICS!
• The 1950s saw several ‘epics’ created
• These had huge sets, large budgets,
popular stars and were often
extremely long
• Why do you think creating an ‘epic’
film was a high risk strategy at the
time?
• Cinema in decline
• Novelties (3D, Aromarama…
• High cost
• No guarantee of a solid financial
return
The Egyptian (1954)

14. Cold War Movies
• Despite the Korean War being
over, fears about communism
lingered
• This was promoted by anti-
communist rhetoric used by the
US Government and more
importantly, several films made in
Hollywood at the time

15. Musicals
• Musicals also became extremely
popular during the 1950s
• It is often referred to as the
‘Golden Age’ of musicals
• This decade also witnessed the
prodigious rise of colorful,
escapist, lavish, classic musicals
(mostly from MGM and its
production genius Arthur Freed,
and from directors Stanley Donen
and Vincente Minnelli) that
benefited from wide-screen
exposure

16. Censorship
• Since the mid 1930s, films
exhibited a seal and number,
showing that they were in
compliance with the Motion
Picture Production Code
Administration
• The Hays Production Code was
amended in 1951, its first major
revision since 1934
• The first studio-produced film
from Hollywood that was released
without the seal, deliberately,
was producer/director Otto
Preminger's daring The Moon is
Blue (1953)

17. The End Of The Studio System
• In 1938, The U.S. Supreme Court decided that the major
film studios represented a monopoly, and in United States
vs. Paramount Pictures, a major antitrust action was
initiated
• Two years later, the studios agreed to stop buying theaters,
eliminate blind booking (requiring theaters to rent films
without seeing them first) and limit block booking to five
films
• But, that didn't fix things, and four years later the major
studios still held major control over the motion picture
industry — especially when it came to the first-run
exhibition of films in major cities

18. The End Of The Studio System
• Antitrust action was again launched, and this time the five
major studios — MGM-Loew's, RKO, Warner Brothers,
Paramount, and 20th Century Fox — responded by
divesting themselves of all theaters
• But, that resulted in another problem. Without the previous
level of control and profit guarantees, the big banks were
now reluctant to finance films
• The antitrust action spelled the end of the studio system
and the beginning of an era in which production companies
primarily made films on a project-by-project basis

19. Blaxploitation
• Until the 1970s, African Americans had always been either absent,
played by Caucasian actors or played in demeaning and negative
roles
• Similarly, there was very little room for black directors to ply their
trade
• However, by the 1970s, the racial divide had reduced (slightly) and
African America business men and women, directors and producers
could create products, mainly for a black audience
• However, institutionalised racism was still rife in Hollywood and as
such, seldom did the major studios back, fund, produce, distribute
or exhibit Blaxploitation films
• Blaxploitation films were very low budget and (as their name
suggests) were made for the purpose of exhibiting African
Americans in leading roles and were aimed at a black audience

20. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss
Song (1971)
• Director: Melvin Van Peebles
• Producer: Melvin Van Peebles
• Writer: Melvin Van Peebles
• Music: Melvin Van Peebles
• Distributor: Cinemation
Industries
• Budget: $150,000 ($50,000
forwarded by Bill Cosby)
• Box Office: $15,200,000
• Initially, only two theatres
would show the film

21. The Rise Of Indies
• Originally, independent producers and production companies were
out-of-the-mainstream operations that resisted—some might even
say rebelled against—the perceived content and business-minded
limitations of mainstream production companies
• What might these limitations have been?
• This independent film production, especially as it was originally
forged, was important to filmmaking because:
• It provided a training ground for new talent
• These films introduced and explored topics that were seen as too
avant-garde or politically risky for mainstream producers
• They introduced new techniques that were later adopted by
mainstream producers
• Because they typically made films at a fraction of the cost of those
made by the major studios, they could tailor content to small, select
audiences

22. The Rise Of Indies
• Until recently, so-called "independent films" were typically
low budget films that screened at special interest theaters
and cable and satellite channels and didn't make it as
mainstream releases
• However, by 2007, the majority of the films that won Oscars
were technicality "independent," in that they did not
originate with major studios. It was only later that they
were picked up for major studio distribution
• TASK: Find examples of an ‘indie’ film that has done
extremely well at the box office and at awards ceremonies

23. The Industry Today
• Since the 1950s, the number of movie screens has dropped
dramatically mainly because of TV
• However, after this major slump and after some target audience
and content adjustments by Hollywood the number of screens
started to steadily increase
• In 1970, the number was about 10,000; in 2001 it was about
25,000
• The American Film Industry continues to fight against new
technology, increasing competition from international film industries
and economic instability

24. Tax – Section 181
• This year, President Obama made filmmaking in America much
more desirable by enacting ‘Section 181 Tax Deduction
• Here are some of the main points:
-100% of the motion picture costs are deductible in the same year of
investment. - 75% of the motion picture must be shot in the US to
qualify for Section 181. - There is a 15 to 20 million dollar budget
cap. - There is no minimum film production budget cost. - TV pilots,
TV episodes (up to 44), short films, music videos and feature films all
qualify for Section 181. - Section 181 can be applied to active income
or passive income. - Investors can be either individuals or
businesses. - Section 181 is retroactive. - There is no expectation for
film distribution or film completion.
• Why might this have been enacted?

25. Brief Time!
• Over the past few weeks, we have looked at Hollywood and
British production contexts
• You are now going to undertake some research to further
your understanding of production contexts by completing an
WELL RESEARCHED article which looks at two films; an early
film and its remake.
• Read over the brief very carefully!