Communications

Front 1

How has the role of the director changed since the Hollywood studio system days (1920s-1950s)?

Back 1

Films used to have small casts and crews and then, director wasn’t the star all of the sudden the director becomes functionary when the studios ruled the roost. They were hired by the studio. Everything was planned out for them. But as the studio system went away and directors had more power. The director is the only one in contact with every aspect of the film and you can only have one vision.

Front 2

What was the first film that “Alan Smithee” directed? Explain what happened on that film.

Back 2

Death of a gunfighter. Starred Richard Totten who fumed at the betrayal and Segal didn’t think that he deserved that he had enough time on the film. They went to directors guild of America to deal with the credits whom wanted to find the solution for the publicity of a movie, the money spent from a studio and the directors.

Front 3

Who determines whether a film gets an “Alan Smithee” credit?

Back 3

Directors guild of America.

Front 4

What does a director need to prove in order to get an “Alan Smithee” credit?

Back 4

The film has to have been changed enough to the point that it’s really become not the directors vision

Front 5

Why was the secrecy of Alan Smithee so important?

Back 5

Because if people find out it’s just a joke then they won’t take the film seriously. It won’t get publicity.

Front 6

Explain the conflict between the director, John Singleton, and his producer in the remake of Shaft.

Back 6

wasn’t about to make an “uncool movie.” The producer wanted to tone down the action in the remake

Front 7

What happened on National Lampoon’s “Joy of Sex” that would have made an Alan Smithee credit appropriate?

Back 7

In post they made her put certain girls in the picture. Struggling between story and exploitation. She delivered her cut, they excluded her and brought in another editor.
Studios often hire directors for their name but not the artistic vision

Front 8

What trend does Michael Moore’s “Canadian Bacon” and Robert Altman’s “Gingerbread Man” illustrate?

Back 8

Studios want these actors to create a vision completely different from what they represent in their directing

Front 9

What do the first and second “Mission Impossible” films tell us about Hollywood today?

Back 9

Whenever you have differences you put on a happy face so that you can work in Hollywood even if things blow up in the background of a movie.

Front 10

Explain the role that Tony Kaye has in the “Alan Smithee” saga….

Back 10

He had an extreme reaction to the problems on his film. Rejected ed Norton for the American history x. normally the studio or the producer has final cut. It’s a badge, you earn it. Edward was cut out a little more by the director and he told the studio and then he went in to the editing booth which is really disrespectful. Tony shared this with Hollywood and tried to get sympathy. His agent told him to locke the film. He wanted the smithee credit but it was rejected because he had publicized it before. When he joked to put humpty dumpty on the film then they definitely did not want to take his name off the film

Front 11

The movie Evolution will do “fine” at the box office as long as it can stay in theaters for how long?

Back 11

2 weeks

Front 12

2. What company bought Columbia Pictures in the 1980s?

Back 12

Sony bought Columbia and paid Guber a lot of money

Front 13

According to the film, what impact has conglomerate ownership had on who runs the movie studios in Hollywood?

Back 13

Aol/ time warner/ vivendi are all nation states basically. You used to all know the people you worked with. People will all interdependent. The head studios are divisional management, they are not in the same business.

Front 14

What “Monster” drew these huge conglomerates to buy film studios in the first place?

Back 14

JAWS. It was distributed and marketed differently

Front 15

What strategy did JAWS introduce to movie distribution?

Back 15

Bob Levin, it was sold WIDE. 1,000 screen release. Advertising, momentum.

Front 16

Two years later, what profit-making strategy did Star Wars introduce to the movie business?

Back 16

Ansillary profits, toys and games. Then there was a siquel

Front 17

What do Yoda and Rocky having in common?

Back 17

They both have sequels

Front 18

Why did Blockbuster video make film studios look like even better acquisitions to large conglomerates?

Back 18

VCRS, movies could go home now. Libraries for videos were
Resell every movie that could ever be made

Front 19

How did conglomerates start organizing movies like other businesses?

Back 19

They organized their movie business to look like all their other businesses. Cut out as many of the middle men as possible. Vertical integration. Paramount can play on any one of its windows on a Viacom property. Rides, games; franchising. Investing in movies is like investing in broadway plays; you never know when you’re gonna invest in the next big thing

Front 20

The dual edge of this profitability-sword, however, is that a movie MUST do well at the box office (on opening weekend) or it will suffer in the rest of those markets. And to get big box office, a studio MUST DO WHAT 2 THINGS?

Back 20

Marketing and wide distribution
You have to make sure you open very big. You have to fill those theaters.

Marketing: creating not word of mouth but BUZZ. Each week they get reports about their movie and the other movies, their competition. “maybe we gotta spend more if we’re falling behind.”

Make sure that its opening in a lot of different theaters just opening weekend.
15 percent profit increase every year is what the corps are looking for.
Studios want less risk so that its easy.

Front 21

Today, movies are so expensive to make and market, that they often don’t even break even at the box office. So movie studios try to avoid financial risk in several ways. Explain how they do this next to each of the following terms

Back 21

the following:

Front 22

GREEN-LIGHT MEETING

Back 22

Approving a movie project. When they meet, 3-4 people, 2-3 read the script (used to be) Now 30-40 people to discuss advertising, merchandising, co-financiers. Business aspect, its not really about the script and the cast.

Front 23

SOUND & SPECTACLE

Back 23

Digital effects, computer graphics.. to embrace a bigger audience. There are a lot of risks

Front 24

FOREIGN MARKETS

Back 24

Movies need to be a success in the us so that they are successful in other countries too but the theaters are shrinking. Armageddon can do 2x as much overseas than in the US. Requires more action because less people can read. 3 million in the US, 5 billion internationally.

Front 25

STAR POWER

Back 25

The material is basically nothing now. What really drives the business is attachment, star power. In order to convince people in other countries to invest in a movie they went to depend on a star. You want to anchor an event around a large personality. 5-10 stars who were very big back in the day and even today there aren’t that many.

Front 26

TARGET AUDIENCE

Back 26

Throwing out the adult audience. Ebert’s thumb is the most important piece of anatomy in the industry as a critic. Used to be 12-24 now its 12-19. They call it night of the living dumb. They’re basing it on a the lowest possible audience. They want the money. The shareholders want to know what the profits are.

Front 27

In 1967, how did “Bonnie & Clyde” find its audience? Why is this notable today?

Back 27

Warren bailey, kept putting out news ads and pushing to have bonnie and clyde shown here and there. After 6 months of play time it was ready for an Oscar.

It doesn’t happen anymore. If a movie is not a big hit the first weekend then its normally a flop.

Front 28

NC 17 can be considered a form of ...

Back 28

censorship

Front 29

universal cut scenes from bruno to get a __ _____

Back 29

R rating

Front 30

MPAAs decision on blue valentine unmasks a _____ in our culture that....

Back 30

taboo

an honest portrayal of a relationship is more threatening than a sensationalized one.

Front 31

G, PG, PG 13, R, NC 17

Back 31

nc 17, children are not admitted and general is for everyone, pg/ 13 similar, R most guidance

Front 32

3 stages of making a movie

Back 32

exhibition, distribution, production

Front 33

Miller v. California

Back 33

SCOTUS handed down a definitive for how to define obscenity.

Front 34

to be obscene the work as a whole must have:

Back 34

appeals to the prurient interest (thinks it would turn people on in a sick way)
is patently offensive (depicts sex in a offensive manner)
fails the SLAP test (no scientific, literary, artistic of political merit)

Front 35

patently offensive must be defined by ____ and be more than ___

Back 35

law, nudity

Front 36

SCOTUS applied the miller test to ____ _____ first

Back 36

carnal knowledge

Front 37

6 studios

Back 37

paramount- viacom
warner bros- time warner
universal- nbc universal
20th century fox- newscorp
disney- disney
sony (columbia)- sony

Front 38

the golden age of hollywood

Back 38

AKA the studio system. before you used to get contracts with studios, now its all freelance

Front 39

studio system ended because of 2 things

Back 39

oligopoly: handful of industries that dominated
vertical integration

Front 40

paramount decision

Back 40

ban on studios owning theater but they took over production and distribution

Front 41

DIY is possible because of ____

Back 41

digital distribution. allows a movie to find its audience

Front 42

studios have the money to _____. indie films send their stuff to ____ ______

Back 42

distribute
film festivals

Front 43

___ ___ for a film, shop it around until the studio wants to ____ ____ it. people ___ ___ certain old movies comparing your movie. ________ is a film outline (characters, plot twists, turns)

Back 43

pitch idea, green light, name drop, treatment

Front 44

producer

Back 44

anyone who has a role in getting a movie made

Front 45

executive producer

Back 45

financing for movie but for tv its more like the author of the show

Front 46

director can be a ____. hes also the ____ ____

Back 46

author
creative work

Front 47

line producer

Back 47

stage manager

Front 48

3 parts to making a movie

Back 48

pre production
production shooting
post production

Front 49

above the line

Back 49

stars, producer, director, script

Front 50

below the line

Back 50

equipment, catoring, costumes, makeup

Front 51

directors always part of

Back 51

directors guild of america which says that director makes creative decisions. if the director shoots more than 90 PERCENT than he can't be cut out of post-production

Front 52

its only the superstar directors that get _____ ____

Back 52

final cut

Front 53

deal memo

Back 53

who designates final cut

Front 54

eat in clause

Back 54

if a director goes over budget past schedule production under contract it comes out of the directors pocket. "eat in to your money"

Front 55

PAY or PLAY

Back 55

all about ATTACHMENTS to the special director/star. once i sign onto this movie, if it doesnt get made, i still get paid. but everyone needs to be INSURABLE (no duis, death, etc.)

Front 56

actors belong to ___ or ____ but they have to have something on resume to be sag

Back 56

SAG or AFTRA

Front 57

writers are part of

Back 57

writers guild of america

Front 58

WGA suggests the following

Back 58

optioning scripts, step deal, backend points

Front 59

optioning scripts

Back 59

reserving script. you'e paid to hold on to the script. if you sell for directing later they can cut out 50 percent and its not yours anymore

Front 60

step deal

Back 60

they hire you as work for hire and they can drop you at any step below
1. treatment
2. 1-50 drafts
3. polish

Front 61

work for hire

Back 61

you are given a salary but all rights are to the studio

Front 62

___ in ___ movies actually make money

Back 62

1 in 4

Front 63

backend points

Back 63

you get paid once the movie makes money but never rely on this.. you want to get paid in ADVANCE

Front 64

you have to get registered with the ____________ so that you can have a ________. dont only trust _______

Back 64

us copyright office
attorney
WGA

Front 65

greenlight meeting

Back 65

franchise, merch, copyright the character?, christmas week

Front 66

feb is for

Back 66

romance, cute indie

Front 67

dec is for

Back 67

serious drama

Front 68

wide release makes a movie look good even if

Back 68

its crap. international theasters will show it

Front 69

vast majority of money comes from

Back 69

DVD, netflix. (home viewing market)

Front 70

most people in the world are not huge on ____. they are more about _____

Back 70

dialogue, action

Front 71

in a studio stay away from the word _____

Back 71

RISK. they want you to do what they're used to.

Front 72

a good way to pitch
a good way to offset production costs

Back 72

movie trailers
product placement

Front 73

patently offensive

Back 73

lude exhibition of genitalia, sex acts, masterbation

Front 74

lenny roose

Back 74

comedian thrown in jail for just mentioning obscene, visual acts

Front 75

movies success factors

Back 75

creative sphere
schedule and release pattern
marketing

Front 76

today we spend 80 percent of the time ____ ____ and 20 percent ___ ____

Back 76

making deals
making pictures

Front 77

TV distributino

Back 77

pay per view
premium cable
cable and broadcast networks