Download or read book Vitaphone Films written by Roy Liebman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The headline of the Variety extra on October 27, 1926, proclaimed "Vitaphone1 Thrills L.A.!" Vitaphone, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. formed in association with Western Electric, was one of the major producers of talkies, even though its sound-on-disc technology barely lasted four years. The Vitaphone features and shorts that have survived intact, or that have been so carefully restored, preserve much of the show business history that might otherwise have been lost with the industry's fast-paced advances in movie making. This book is a catalogue of Vitaphone features and shorts. The first section lists the features and shorts by release number. The New York productions (1926-1940) are listed first, followed by the West Coast productions (1927-1970). For shorts, the following particulars, if known and if applicable, are given: title, alternate title(s), instrumental and vocal selections performed on screen, composer(s) and performers of instrumental and vocal selections, release date and synopsis of the film, names of major cast members and directors, set information if two or fewer sets were used, and the amount paid to early performers. For features, entries list release dates, genre, and major cast members. The section on performers includes only those who appeared in shorts, listing dates and places of birth when known.

Download or read book Entertainment Industry written by Michael J. Haupert and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-08-17 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book serves as a one-stop source for comprehensive information on the entertainment industry, providing a historical overview of the economics of the field, a series of short biographies of the impact makers, and an extensive annotated bibliography of more sources for in-depth research. Entertainment Industry: A Reference Handbook casts the spotlight on the evolution of the entertainment industry over the entire span of the 20th century, covering everything from vaudeville to radio and from sports to television and movies. It explores how the entertainment industry stands apart from other high-dollar, big-business enterprises with regard to how its economy is sustained, and it serves as a handy source for more in-depth information that general readers will find fascinating. An extensive annotated bibliography guides reader through their research, while a historical overview of the economics of the industry, a series of short biographies of the impact makers in the industry, and sources of more current information makes this work essential reading for anyone seeking comprehensive and specific information about the entertainment industry.

Download or read book The Crisis written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crisis, founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the NAACP, is a journal of civil rights, history, politics, and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color. For nearly 100 years, The Crisis has been the magazine of opinion and thought leaders, decision makers, peacemakers and justice seekers. It has chronicled, informed, educated, entertained and, in many instances, set the economic, political and social agenda for our nation and its multi-ethnic citizens.

Download or read book Remaking Horror written by James Francis, Jr. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-01-25 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book chronicles the American horror film genre in its development of remakes from the 1930s into the 21st century. Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is investigated as the watershed moment when the genre opened its doors to the possibility that any horror movie--classic, modern, B-movie, and more--might be remade for contemporary audiences. Staple horror franchises--Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)--are highlighted along with their remake counterparts in order to illustrate how the genre has embraced a phenomenon of remake productions and what the future of horror holds for American cinema. More than 25 original films, their remakes, and the movies they influenced are presented in detailed discussions throughout the text.

Download or read book The Crisis written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Crisis, founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the NAACP, is a journal of civil rights, history, politics, and culture and seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issues that continue to plague African Americans and other communities of color. For nearly 100 years, The Crisis has been the magazine of opinion and thought leaders, decision makers, peacemakers and justice seekers. It has chronicled, informed, educated, entertained and, in many instances, set the economic, political and social agenda for our nation and its multi-ethnic citizens.

Download or read book Cinematic Overtures written by Annette Insdorf and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A great movie’s first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. Like the opening paragraphs of a novel, they draw the viewer in, setting up the thematic concerns and stylistic approach that will be developed over the course of the narrative. A strong opening sequence leads the viewer to trust the filmmakers. Other times, opening shots are intentionally misleading as they invite alert, active participation with the film. In Cinematic Overtures, Annette Insdorf discusses the opening sequence so that viewers turn first impressions into deeper understanding of cinematic technique. From Joe Gillis’s voice-over in Sunset Boulevard as he lies dead in a swimming pool to the hallucinatory opening of Apocalypse Now, from the stream-of-consciousness montage as found in Hiroshima, mon amour to the slowly unfolding beginning of Schindler’s List, Cinematic Overtures analyzes opening shots from a range of Hollywood as well as international films. Insdorf pays close attention to how the viewer makes sense of these scenes and the cinematic world they are about to enter. Including dozens of frame enlargements that illustrate the strategies of opening scenes, Insdorf also examines how films explore and sometimes critique the power of the camera’s gaze. Along with analyses of opening scenes, the book offers a series of revelatory and surprising readings of individual films by some of the leading directors of the past seventy-five years. Erudite but accessible, Cinematic Overtures will lead film scholars and ardent movie fans alike to greater attentiveness to those fleeting opening moments.

Download or read book Military Comedy Films written by Hal Erickson and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-08-02 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with Charlie Chaplin's Shoulder Arms, released in America near the end of World War I, the military comedy film has been one of Hollywood's most durable genres. This generously illustrated history examines over 225 Army, Navy and Marine-related comedies produced between 1918 and 2009, including the abundance of laughspinners released during World War II in the wake of Abbott and Costello's phenomenally successful Buck Privates (1941), and the many lighthearted service films of the immediate postwar era, among them Mister Roberts (1955) and No Time for Sergeants (1958). Also included are discussions of such subgenres as silent films (The General), military-academy farces (Brother Rat), women in uniform (Private Benjamin), misfits making good (Stripes), anti-war comedies (MASH), and fact-based films (The Men Who Stare at Goats). A closing filmography is included in this richly detailed volume.

Download or read book Produce Your Own Damn Movie written by Lloyd Kaufman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2012-09-10 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Often low-budget filmmakers get thrown into the position of being not only the director, but their own producer. Using tips from the finest washed-up has-been producers in the business, this book will give the low-budget filmmaker practical tools for getting a movie shoot started, and keeping it going until it is supposed to end. From budgeting concerns to production-damaging acts of God, all will be discussed.

Download or read book Critical Readings on Hammer Horror Films written by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection offers close readings on Hammer’s cycle of horror films, analysing key films and placing particular emphasis on the narratives and themes present in the works discussed. Ranging from the studio’s first horror outing, The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935) to Hammer’s last contemporary film, Doctor Jekyll (2023), the collection celebrates cult-favourites such as The Quatermass Experiment, the films of Terence Fisher, to overlooked classics such as Captain Clegg or The Mummy franchise. This volume also delves into Hammer’s psychological thrillers, the studio’s venture into TV with Hammer’s House of Horrors, with theoretical frameworks varying from queer studies to postcolonial readings. This volume will appeal to scholars and students of film studies, international cinema, film history and horror studies.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of Hammer Films written by Chris Fellner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dracula and Frankenstein. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. These are just a few of the icons of Hammer Films. To horror fans, the name “Hammer” conjures visions of hissing vampires and buxom beauties in low-cut negligees. But Britain’s Hammer Film Productions, Ltd., was much more than just a fright factory. For more than thirty years, the company turned out neatly crafted entries in a variety of genres, ranging from comedies to pirate yarns, murder mysteries to war pictures. At the heart of Hammer’s remarkable success was its access to American financing and American theaters. But more than that, the individuals behind the scenes knew how to make good films on tight budgets. These pictures have withstood the test of time and continue to be enjoyed all over the world. The Encyclopedia of Hammer Films details the surprising story of Britain’s most successfulindependent film company and includes Entries on all of Hammer’s feature films, featurettes, and television episodes, including staff, production details, US and UK release data, cast, synopses, reviews, behind-the-scenes quotes, and US financial participation Capsule biographies of directors, producers, technicians, and actors––including the lovely ladies of Hammer glamour Special entries on Hammer-related topics, including “tax shelter” companies, Hammerscope, the British Board of Film Censors, and the recent Hammer reboot An annotated appendix of more than 150 unrealized Hammer projects A chronological, annotated listing of every production and coproduction from the company’s inception in 1934 An invaluable resource, this volume includes snapshots of the men and women who made the studio a success—including Peter Cushing, Terence Fisher, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt, and Jimmy Sangster—as well as such iconic films as The Curse of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and Vampire Circus. With more than six hundred entries, The Encyclopedia of Hammer Films is a must-have for every fan of this unique studio.

Download or read book Focus On 100 Most Popular Gangster Films written by Wikipedia contributors and published by e-artnow sro. This book was released on with total page 805 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Book of Iowa Films written by Marty Knepper and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-08-04 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive history of films made in or about Iowa. It reflects some twenty years of collecting, lecturing, and talking with some of Iowa's current generation of independent filmmakers. It covers the span from 1918 to 2013 and gives important background information on dozens of high profile films such as the STATE FAIR films of 1933 and 1945, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, FIELD OF DREAMS, and many others. It is designed as a companion for the State Historical Society's blockbuster "Hollywood in the Heartland" exhibition in Des Moines that is scheduled to run at least through 2016. The book has an interpretive essay covering the entire history as well as paragraph length descriptions of each film. A user-friendly feature is the Index of Films, which makes it easy to locate discussions of individual films. Marty Knepper is a featured commentator on video screens in the "Hollywood in the Heartland" exhibition.

Download or read book Air Travel Fiction and Film written by Erica Durante and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-03 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Air Travel Fiction and Film: Cloud People explores how, over the past four decades, fiction and film have transformed our perceptions and representations of contemporary air travel. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of a wide range of international cultural productions, and elucidates the paradigms and narratives that constitute our current imaginary of air mobility. Erica Durante advances the hypothesis that fiction and film have converted the Airworld—the world of airplanes and airport infrastructures—into a pivotal anthropological place that is endowed with social significance and identity, suggesting that the assimilation of the sky into our cultural imaginary and lifestyle has metamorphosed human society into “Cloud People.” In its examination of the representations of air travel as an epicenter of today’s world, the book not only illustrates a novel perspective on contemporary fiction, but fills an important gap in the study of globalization within literary and film studies.

Download or read book Arab Americans in Film written by Waleed F. Mahdi and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-21 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected for Arab America's Best Arab American Books of 2020 list. It comes as little surprise that Hollywood films have traditionally stereotyped Arab Americans, but how are Arab Americans portrayed in Arab films, and just as importantly, how are they portrayed in the works of Arab American filmmakers themselves? In this innovative volume, Mahdi offers a comparative analysis of three cinemas, yielding rich insights on the layers of representation and the ways in which those representations are challenged and disrupted. Hollywood films have fostered reductive imagery of Arab Americans since the 1970s as either a national security threat or a foreign policy concern, while Egyptian filmmakers have used polarizing images of Arab Americans since the 1990s to convey their nationalist critiques of the United States. Both portrayals are rooted in anxieties around globalization, migration, and US-Arab geopolitics. In contrast, Arab American cinema provides a more complex, realistic, and fluid representation of Arab American citizenship and the nuances of a transnational identity. Exploring a wide variety of films from each cinematic site, Mahdi traces the competing narratives of Arab American belonging—how and why they vary, and what’s at stake in their circulation.

Download or read book Shaping the Future of African American Film written by Monica White Ndounou and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Hollywood, we hear, it’s all about the money. It’s a ready explanation for why so few black films get made—no crossover appeal, no promise of a big payoff. But what if the money itself is color-coded? What if the economics that governs film production is so skewed that no film by, about, or for people of color will ever look like a worthy investment unless it follows specific racial or gender patterns? This, Monica Ndounou shows us, is precisely the case. In a work as revealing about the culture of filmmaking as it is about the distorted economics of African American film, Ndounou clearly traces the insidious connections between history, content, and cash in black films. How does history come into it? Hollywood’s reliance on past performance as a measure of potential success virtually guarantees that historically underrepresented, underfunded, and undersold African American films devalue the future prospects of black films. So the cycle continues as it has for nearly a century. Behind the scenes, the numbers are far from neutral. Analyzing the onscreen narratives and off-screen circumstances behind nearly two thousand films featuring African Americans in leading and supporting roles, including such recent productions as Bamboozled, Beloved, and Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Ndounou exposes the cultural and racial constraints that limit not just the production but also the expression and creative freedom of black films. Her wide-ranging analysis reaches into questions of literature, language, speech and dialect, film images and narrative, acting, theater and film business practices, production history and financing, and organizational history. By uncovering the ideology behind profit-driven industry practices that reshape narratives by, about, and for people of color, this provocative work brings to light existing limitations—and possibilities for reworking stories and business practices in theater, literature, and film.

Download or read book The Business of Entertainment written by Robert C. Sickels and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-11-30 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We love to be entertained. And today's technology makes that easier than ever. Listen to tunes while working out? No problem. Watch a movie on your cell phone? Can do. Get 450 channels of digital entertainment bounced off a satellite and into your vehicle—even while traveling through empty wastelands? Simple. But behind these experiences is a complex industry, dominated by a handful of global media conglomerates whose executives exert considerable influence over the artists and projects they bankroll, the processes by which products are developed, and the methods they use to promote and distribute entertainment. As this set shows, the industries in which commerce, art, and technology intersect are among the most fascinating in all of business. Entertainment is a high-stakes industry where stars are born and flame out in the blink of an eye, where multimillion dollar deals are made on a daily basis, and where cultural mores, for better or worse, are shaped and reinforced. The Business of Entertainment lifts the curtain to show the machinery (and sleight of hand) behind the films, TV shows, music, and radio programs we can't live without. The Business of Entertainment comprises three volumes, covering movies popular music, and television. But it's not all about stars and glitter—it's as much about the nuts and bolts of daily life in the industry, including the challenges of digitizing content, globalization, promoting stars and shows, protecting intellectual property, developing talent, employing the latest technology, and getting projects done on time and within budget. Challenges don't end there. There's also advertising and product placement, the power of reviews and reviewers, the cancerous spread of piracy, the battles between cable and satellite operators (and the threat to both from telephone companies), the backlash to promoting gangsta lifestyles, and more. Each chapter is written by an authority in the field, from noted scholars to entertainment industry professionals to critics to screenwriters to lawyers. The result is a fascinating mosaic, with each chapter a gem that provides insight into the industry that—hands down—generates more conversations on a daily basis than any other.

Download or read book Music in American Combat Films written by Wesley J. O’Brien and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book explores ways in which combat film scores interact collaboratively with other film elements (for instance, image and dialogue) to guide audience understanding of theme and character. Examined are classical and current models of film scoring practice and the ways they work to represent changes in film narratives taking place over time or from film to film. Differing approaches to scoring practice are considered as possible reflections of prevailing cultural attitudes toward war and warriors during the time of a film's creation, the war it represents, or both. Observations of cinematic representations of masculinity, heroism and war raise questions regarding whether (and if so, to what extent) we have lost some measure of faith in our country's motives for waging war and in the traditional models of what we think it means to be a hero.