How the Famous Players Company became Paramount Pictures (08/19/2010)
(...) Of course, nothing succeeds like success, and Famous Players had competition from companies such as Popular Plays and Players, Paralta Plays, and Jesse L. Lasky's Feature Play Company. Lasky was strong enough competition to force a merger with Famous Players in 1916, with the company renamed Famous Players–Lasky. (...)

What is a black movie or a black comedy (08/19/2010)
(...) As deeply pessimistic as the 1940s films noir were, they had nothing on the violence and gloom and doom of their early 1950s counterparts. For instance, The Enforcer (1951) presented a society in which it seemed as if criminals ruled everywhere except inside police headquarters. In The Big Heat (1953) Lee Marvin, the villain, displayed unprecedented sadism by scarring Gloria Grahame's face with scalding coffee. (...)

Gone with the wind remains one of the best movies ever made (08/19/2010)
(...) Beyond marketability, the movie was troubled from the start by production problems. For instance, Clark Gable didn't want to play Rhett Butler despite the fact that he was the overwhelming choice for the role among movie fans. Only after strong studio pressure did he agree to accept the part. (...)

What is the establishing shot and what does an executive producer do (08/12/2010)
(...) WARNER at Warner Bros., and HARRY COHN at Columbia were the ultimate executives in charge of production. By the 1940s, however, there began to be exceptions, and producers with clout sometimes received recognition by being given executive producer status on certain pictures. (...)

Costume designers and costumers work with celebrities every day (08/10/2010)
(...) When costumes for the extras are needed, they are often rented by the costume designer rather than made. If there is a contemporary crowd scene, it is up to the costume designer to instruct the extras in advance as to how they must dress from their own wardrobe. While famous couturiers have often designed the clothing of individual stars in films (e. (...)

What are cult movies and why are they initially ignored (08/10/2010)
(...) Low-budget movies are the ones most likely to be rediscovered as they are released with the least fanfare. For example, a stylish little film called Gun Crazy (1949) by JOSEPH H. LEWIS was resurrected by film critics and scholars, as was the brilliant SAM FULLER film Shock Corridor (1963). (...)

What are custard pies and cutaways (08/10/2010)
(...) For example, filmmakers have cut away to dogs covering their eyes with their paws when two lovers kiss, flowers wilting when a pompous person begins to speak, a volcano erupting when someone loses his or her temper, and so on. Cutting on action Splicing together a shot of a character in motion taken at one angle and a second shot of that same character while still in motion from a different angle. The purpose of this technique, used by directors and editors, is to make scenes more lively and less visually static. (...)

A few facts about movie directors and disaster films (08/10/2010)
(...) DEMILLE. Directors also occasionally star in their own films, but in these cases, they generally tend to act as the producer, as well. Some of the best-known examples of these multitalented individuals are CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CLINT EASTWOOD, and WARREN BEATTY. (...)

What exactly is movie distribution and how is it done (08/10/2010)
(...) The exchanges proliferated, becoming the device through which films were routinely distributed. Producers sold their product to the middlemen at the exchange, who, in turn, rented the films to theaters. As the studio system solidified in the 1930s, the major film companies had little trouble with distribution because they also owned their own theater chains. (...)

Broadway and Hollywood have very much in common (04/18/2010)
(...) Their lower admission price was a considerable advantage. Theater road shows were severely affected by the new competition as large, new movie theaters (as opposed to nickelodeons) and ornate movie palaces were built across the country. Robert McLaughlin reports in his book Broadway and Hollywood that in 1912 there were 205 road-show companies on tour in the United States. (...)

The invention to which Hollywood owes its existence is the camera (04/18/2010)
(...) The year was 1895, the year in which the movies were born. From 1895 until the late 1910s, various early movie cameras were beset by mechanical problems. For the most part, they were crudely made wooden boxes that often caused a jarring jerkiness and flickering in the images they recorded. (...)

What are character actors and who are the most famous ones (04/18/2010)
(...) One of the premier actors in this type of role was certainly Edward Arnold, who was always well cast as a corrupt businessman or government official. He was director FRANK CAPRA’s favorite villain in films such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Meet John Doe (1941). (...)

Child stars who they are and what brought them to fame (04/18/2010)
(...) Coogan’s phenomenal success led HAL ROACH to put together an endearing crew of child actors who became the comedy group OUR GANG. Among the silent stars of the Our Gang shorts were Joe Cobb and Mickey Daniels. Later, during the 1930s and early 1940s, the group was blessed by having among its members, Spanky Macfarland, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Darla Hood, and Buckwheat Thomas. (...)

Hollywood B movies and the famous making of techniques (04/10/2010)
(...) Lewis’s Gun Crazy (1949), Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor (1963), and all of Budd Boetticher’s RANDOLPH SCOTT westerns of the 1950s. Back lighting A lighting technique that softens the contours of an object while making it seem more three dimensional. When lit from behind, a glow of light surrounds the edges of the filmed object, causing it to stand out from a dark background. (...)

What means biopics in the slang of Hollywood (04/10/2010)
(...) MGM jumped into the category in a big way in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with SPENCER TRACY playing the real-life Father Flanagan of Boys Town (1938) and the famous reporter Stanley in Stanley and Livingstone (1939). Then MGM made two film biographies of Thomas Alva Edison in the same year, Young Tom Edison (1940), with Mickey Rooney as the inventor, and Edison the Man (1940), once again starring Spencer Tracy in the title role. Biopics have been used by filmmakers as a means of using historical figures to make contemporary political and/or social statements. (...)

When did the Academy Awards become the Oscars (04/06/2010)
(...) The award was given only that year. Academy awards The award - which consists of a rather stiff-looking fellow grasping a sword while standing upon a reel of film - was designed by the famous art director Cedric Gibbons and sculpted by George Stanley. The gold-plated bronze figure stands 131⁄2 inches tall and weighs slightly more than eight pounds. (...)

Famous actor directors and great movie adaptations (04/06/2010)
(...) , such legends as CHARLIE CHAPLIN and BUSTER KEATON), comic films during the '30s and '40s were not directed by their stars. W. C. (...)

Star agents and the evolution of the movie industry (04/06/2010)
(...) Myron Selznick, for instance, DAVID O. SELZNICK's brother, became an enormously powerful agent who could turn ruthless when he negotiated with the studio bigwigs, many of whom he blamed for his father Lewis J. Selznick's downfall during the silent era. (...)

American Graffiti and foundation of American International Pictures (04/06/2010)
(...) Forty-one rock 'n' roll hits of the past were crammed into it, evoking a veritable flood of memories. The songs were such an integral part of the script that Lucas spent $80,000 (more than 10 percent of his total budget) to acquire the music rights. On the basis of its $750,000 production cost, American Graffiti became the best movie investment of its decade, grossing roughly $50,000,000. (...)

Animals in film from Lassie to Black Beauty (04/06/2010)
(...) Not only was “Rinty” a star, he was Warner Bros.' greatest asset during the silent era, keeping the studio financially afloat until it introduced talkies in 1927. Rin Tin Tin (Rinty II, actually) was still making movies when MGM made the words collie and Lassie almost synonymous. (...)

The art of Disney and Pixar animation movies (04/06/2010)
(...) Gertie the Dinosaur The first major American cartoon character to emerge out of the primitive beginnings of animation was, appropriately, a dinosaur. Winsor McCay created Gertie the Dinosaur in 1909 and went on to make the realistic and moving imagery of 1918's The Sinking of the Lusitania. The 1920s was a popular era for animated short subjects. (...)

Billy Wilder and Ace In The Hole (12/28/2009)
(...) Newman pitched the director a treatment called The Human Interest Story based on the 1925 case of spelunker Floyd Collins, the self-proclaimed greatest cave explorer ever known. Collins had been investigating a Kentucky cave in hopes of turning it into a profitable tourist attraction when a 27-pound rock collapsed on his foot, trapping him in a narrow, wet hole. He remained wedged in the space for 17 days, before he succumbed to starvation and exposure. (...)

Amphibian Man was a pop culture phenomenon (12/28/2009)
(...) When Pedro forcibly tries to kiss the girl she dives into the water to get away from his unwanted embrace. As she hurriedly swims away Don Pedro sees a shark making a beeline for her. As he leaps into a row boat to come to her rescue he is unaware that someone - or something - else is coming to her aid. (...)

Kate Barker is Bloody Mama (12/28/2009)
(...) You are investigating it, and on a commercial level, you are generally picking a subject that is of some excitement or of interest. For instance, it might be a horror film, it might be science-fiction film, it might be a murdermystery, it could be a comedy, it could be amusical . . (...)