Lights Out! A Closer Look At The Film Industry
Table of Contents Letter From the Editors............................3
Set Design Setting the Scene................................................5 Sets Around the World...................................9
Covid-19 Lights! Camera! Covid?...................................11 Covid & Streaming...........................................15
Streaming Services From the Theater to Your Couch................17 Timeline of Video Streaming.......................23
The Production Code Before R - What Was Hollywood’s Production Code?.............................................25 Does Your Favorite Movie Pass the Production Code?.............................................29
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Letter From The Editors
Isabel Sosa Hello, my name is Isabel Sosa and I am a freshman at Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) in Austin, Texas. My main hobbies are soccer and policy debate which I do competitively. But, in my free time away from those I like to play video games, specifically Valorant right now, watch anime or other shows, and skateboard. I decided on doing my feature story on set design because it’s something I always notice whenever I’m watching something and I don’t think it really gets talked about enough.
Pedro Couto When he’s not trying to figure out what to write in a bio or trying to figure out why they are all written in third person even though everyone knows who wrote them, he’s probably doing an assignment for a different class. Failing that, he could be doing a number of things including playing a video game, watching a movie, reading a book, attempting to write a program, or interacting with another human (perhaps through a computer!). The questioning of everyday common things (or generally the questioning of things that are not usually questioned) and an interest in movies has led him to scrutinize what happened to make streaming services popular.
Nadia Lott Salutations and regards, I am (surprise, surprise) also a freshman at LASA. I possess a wide range of interests from mathematics to the fine arts to psychology. When not expounding upon my greatest qualities in a direct challenge to Icarus’s status as the icon of hubris, passive-aggressively staring down a loading symbol, or walking up and down the same stretch of hallway, repeatedly, for half an hour everyday, I can be found doing various unspecified activities. A curiosity in the entertainment industry and a passion for history combined to make me write my article on Hollywood’s Production Code.
Noah Wood What’s up guys, I’m Noah Wood and I’m a freshman at LASA High School. I live in Austin, Texas. When I’m not doing homework, I like to practice my guitar or play video games, such as Halo or Minecraft. Tennis is my sport, and I practice it whenever I can. I love reading books as well and my favorite subject is math. Covid-19 had changed his life a lot, and I wanted to know how it affected other people’s world. Out of all of the possible options I chose to learn about the film industry. So, I decided to write a feature story about how Covid-19 affected the film industry. So mask up, and join me on this adventure through the film industry.
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A big stage door leading into a film set.
setting the stage Set Design Can Make or Break a Movie, Yet It Goes Largely Unnoticed
By: Isabel Sosa
Rain hits the roof like popcorn. The hall is dark and drab, lit only by the glow emanating from behind the large door labeled “Stage 1”. Inside the door it’s an entirely different world. Bright lights are everywhere, vivid yellow and red wallpaper cover everything, and ornate furniture fills the room. People scurry around like ants. It’s like walking through a portal to a place miles, years away from the blank corridor. That change doesn’t come from a wave of a wand. Scene designers around the world spend weeks, months designing, building, and constructing sets. Their job is crucial to the success of film; a good enough set can mean an Emmy. Despite their importance, when people think about jobs in the movie industry they’ll think of actors, directors, and producers. Not the location managers and set designers that are tasked with producing the entire world characters inhabit. “It’s the sense of reality,” says John Rakich, president of Locations Manager Guild International. “The visuals are critical to the sort of storytelling that we’re doing both on stage and in film,” emphasized Gallo. Visuals are an integral part of viewing any form of entertainment. It can make or break your film. Without even noticing it, people’s Lights Out! - Setting the Stage - pg 6
opinions on a film can be heavily influenced by the set. Set design is a huge part in creating the overall atmosphere of a film. It sets the tone and style of the film and helps the audience know where and when something is happening. The set design can also convery meaning or parts of the plot to the audience through themes and symbols. Lastly, it supports the style of the film. With such a hefty weight on their shoulders, one wonders how they do it. “My architecture foundation taught me everything,” said Yvonne Bourdreaux, a local production designer, “We’re always faking it and you want to fake it correctly.” She has a BA in architecture at Louisiana State University. She later taught and studied set design for several years at the University of Texas. Though something most people relate with building houses or offices, architecture is critical in all kinds of manual work, including set
design. This kind of knowledge is essential for set design. Measuring, assembling, and even having a vision for a set all require a certain knowledge of architecture. Without that base level of understanding there would be no set design at all.
outdoor set (above) - tk
stage door(first page) - tk
“Everything is a creative collaboration, so even my job is a part of that” - John Rakich
Free creativity for building a set can only come from not being held back by limited architectural and building experience. So a degree in architecture is really
useful. As one could imagine, it requires a lot of research as well. “Ok it takes place in Austin, Texas, but they want to film it where I am. You know, we try to look at….. what do Austin, Texas, houses look like? There’s some legwork. And then you start going through existing databases of local film commissions of people who are interested in filming. Otherwise, just get in the car and literally go door-knocking and try to find things. It’s that the fundamentals of the job haven’t changed how we do,” explained Rakich. To make a set of a place the set designs look at pictures to study the overall look. Details are also very important so pictures and contacts are used. In the past it used to be on film but now there are photos that can be taken and sent on an iphone. Sources like google street view can also help the set designer get a feel for the place. But even though many parts of set design have been
mordenized because of new technology or methods, the core of it is still the same. Teamwork is also extremely important, as there are many different roles and parts to get done. “Everything is a creative collaboration, so even my job is a part of that,” said Rakich. Productions, big and small almost always have many different people that all have a unique part to play. Sets are no different. To create a set, there are often crews or teams of people working together, that means that teamwork and collaboration are essential. From the producer to the location partner, everyone has to get their work in on time, and operations have to run smoothly between multiple people. “You can’t just all go through a clearance process, it’s a little machine that everybody has to time. That’s how we get it done.” Boudreaux explained. If anyone falls behind or doesn’t get everything done, it bogs down the entire team. Forcing another team member to do that work in addition to their own work they have to do. If a crew isn’t working well, it means making the set will take much longer, and it may be less high quality. For many, building an entire world isn’t a burden at all. In fact many set designers truely love their job. “That was a remarkable experience for me to find that world that I felt that I fit in in a world that I felt that I could create,” described David Gallo, famous New Yorkbased set designer. It’s become a very niche profession and most people doing it are very passionate about their job.
“The general public really doesn’t know what we do, which is one of the cool parts is when you get to tell people and they realize that there’s actually a job like that,” Rakich explained. It’s one of those jobs that people know must exist but still don’t know much about the job or the people doing it. Especially compared to the stardom of the actors that are front and center in the production, or even the producers and directors. Its hidden nature creates proud moments of recognition and achievement when people finally realize who’s responsible for the set designs of the films they like. Especially since it’s so important to the film’s success. So even though the job of set design is not as famous in the traditional way, many set designers still feel recognized in other ways. “The beautiful thing about what I do is it’s no longer nearly as specialized and that people, people that have an interest in art and are interested in design and interest in storytelling don’t have to take any formal path anymore,” said Gallo. Many people who end up being set designers didn’t always plan to have that job. Although it’s something some people start in school theater, with some starting as young as middle school. It’s something other people just stumble into and fall in love with. Most people have theater or film hobbies but anyone interested in architecture, movies, and potentially traveling might like set design.
“The visuals are critical to the sort of storytelling that we’re doing both on stage and in film” - David Gallo
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movie sets around the world by: Isabel Sosa
USA This location is called the Vasquez Rocks where several Star Trek episodes were filmed. This is because the rocks are very large making them fitting for a sci-fi series.
Top cities to film in BRAZIL
1. Los angeles, ca 2. new york city, ny 3. london, uk 4. toronto, ont
The Iguazu Falls at the Argentina-Brazil border is considered one of the most beautiful waterfalls of the world. Several famous movies have filmed there including Indiana Jones and Black Panther.
FUN FACTS: SCOTLAND
1. Nearly 200 movies have shot scenes in Washington, D.C. 2. on average there are 146 days of pre-production for a movie
The train to Hogwarts in the popular movie series Harry Potter was filmed on this track in the mountains of Scotland.
AUSTRALIA
The movie “The Great Gatsby” was filmed in Sydney at the old site of the White Bay Power Station.
Most expensive movie sets:
1. lord of the rings: 281m 2. titanic: 200m 3. intolerance: 45m 4. ben-hur: 15m
Top Cities - huffpost.com Set Cost - successstory.com Fun Facts - blog.ihg.com : musicgateway.com Vasquez Rocks - jim.choate59 Harry Potter - TimoOK Iquanzu Falls - Arian Zwegers Great Gatsby - Eva Rinaldi
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Lights! Camera! Covid? Noah Wood
How has the Film Industry been affected by COVID-19
OVID-19 hit America’s shores on January 20, 2020. Since then, it has taken over our stores, our economy, and our entire lifestyle. One of the many things the pandemic took over was the film industry. As the dark curtain of COVID-19 fell over the film industry, it’s very survival became at stake. Fortunately, the film industry has found ways to adapt to COVID-19. When COVID-19 hit the scene in March 2020, theaters were closed and production was stopped in its tracks. The film industry found itself facing many problems and barriers caused by the pandemic, such as keeping everyone safe, restarting filming, and creating guidelines to follow. Movie theaters began to reopen, but film production remained and still remains hard as ever. However, most people had decided that streaming services were the better choice by then. To even get films restarted again was a big challenge.
Six months after COVID-19 hit, very few things were occurring in the film industry. But things began to pick up once vaccines were released. Filming resumed, and everyone thought it was going to be okay. “It started slowly, but surely people were making things, but it really wasn’t until this spring when the vaccines came out that things started to really start booming again,”George Sledge says, who has worked as both a producer and director for thirty years. Still, there are lots of work“Filmmakers in COVID times. tend to obstacles that are involved when “It’s the COVID-19 be adaptable people who Return producing a film in COVID-19 To Work Agreement with all the times. It’s crucial that everyone are always looking for a main filmmaking unions which is is vaccinated and getting tested way to adapt to adverse the DGA, which is directors. The every day. The entire staff has to circumstances,” Bujalski says. Oxy is the technical union. SAGwear masks and face shields. Even with all these precautions, the biggest challenge posed by COVID is keeping everyone, but especially the actors, safe. “Filmmakers tend “The challenge is that to be adaptable there’s a little bit of a gap, whereas someone might get people who are it before it shows up? There’s always looking always a margin of error,” for a way to Sledge says, “The testing every day, it’s going to sometimes adapt to adverse pinpoint someone who’s circumstances,” managed to get it because you can’t control a person’s life. All you can do is ask people to try to remain in the bubble as much as possible, but then take a lot AFTRA is the actor’s union.” of precautions in case something Sledge says, “The Teamsters are slips through,”. the drivers. All of these people There is also something got together and they created else going on in the studio while this outline which was how producing a film. Because of to move forward in the era of COVID-19, many filmmaking Covid.” unions got together to create an Members of the Screen outline for how the film industry Actors Guild, or SAG, will was going to move forward and
sometimes be on sets where films are being shot and watch like a hawk to make sure that everyone is following the rules and being safe from COVID-19, when actors who are part of the organization are working on the film. “And when, when we use an actor in the SAG” Sledge says, “ we have to abide by those rules. They’re watching us there and they will enforce the rules.” Another big problem that the film industry is facing nowadays is having to manage everyone; actors, producers, staff, etc.. And it’s not just inside the studio that gets you, it’s also outside. People are always making sure that the rules are being followed. Andrew Bujalski, one independent filmmaker, has realized these problems. “Because when you make a movie the old fashioned way, it’s a lot of people in a lot of enclosed spaces,” Bujalski says. “Breathing each other’s air and that became very dangerous
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very quickly.” Bujalski, however, has found a solution to that problem. He has just finished shooting a film entirely over zoom. What he did was send individual actors “a little rig with few enough things for the shot, and then myself, my cinematographer, some of the producers, a sound supervisor, we’re all on zoom.” Filmmakers are finding creative and innovative new ways to adapt to COVID-19. The way films are being produced are changing, and we will likely see this a lot more in the near future. “Filmmakers tend to be adaptable people who are always looking for a way to adapt to adverse
circumstances,” Bujalski says.
“Because when you make a movie the old fashioned way, it’s a lot of people in a lot of enclosed spaces. Breathing each other’s air and that became very dangerous very quickly.”
While all of this is amazing, it’s not only the way films are produced that is changing. It is also how we watch these films. When COVID-19 shut down all of the movie theaters, people didn’t have anywhere to go to see their favorite movie. Hence the rise of streaming services’ popularity. “I’ve got a huge TV in my living room, a big screen, and surround sound systems. You know, technology has allowed me in a way to mimic the theater experience. I can control it in a way that, you know, if I have to go to the bathroom, I pause and I don’t have to miss anything? And the big question now is are people going to come back to the
theaters,” Stuart Kelban says, a UT professor at Moody College and part of the Department of Radio-Television-Film and an avid movie watcher. People are continuing to develop less of a need to go to the movie theaters and are beginning to realize that they have everything they need right at home. Still, movie theaters will never completely go away. They will always stay around, but will likely be less popular. Because many people did not go to movie theaters for a time, they became less attached to them. This hurt movie theaters, and they were forced to change some things. “I went [to the movie theater] and they said do you want to see [Shang Chi] in 4X? I don’t even know what that is,” Kelban says, “I said sure, let’s go see it. Well they had turned the theater into this kind of interactive experience where wind blows on you and water gets blown on you. The seats, it’s a rollercoaster. And I think they did that to try to lure people back into the theaters. That’s an experience you can’t have at home. Well, my wife and I walked out after a minute. That’s just not how I want to see a movie.” This is not the only reason people are deciding to stay home. Movie theaters are very expensive, and now so more than ever. The prices have risen significantly in an attempt to recover funds lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this makes sense, even just for families of four this can be really expensive. “That’s four tickets, plus some popcorn, some drinks.
That’s a hundred bucks easy. 100 bucks is a year of Netflix or some other service,” Kelban says. There is so much precaution for filming anything nowadays and even if massive amounts of caution is taken, there is still room for error. These problems are a big pain that filmmakers are facing and managing nowadays. Movie theaters are losing popularity, and people are staying home a lot more often. We have seen the film industry change and adapt to the tyrant that is COVID-19 Despite the many bad effects producers
are facing, it might have been good for the consumer. The film industry is now very different from the one of the past, and will continue to change even more as time goes on. All we can do is watch and see what happens.
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From the Theater to Your Couch
“~500 HD video streams” by ChrisDag
The Meteoric Rise of Streaming Services Title, December 2021, pg. 20
By: Pedro Renner Ely Couto
As you wait through the introduction sequence of the latest episode of The Mandalorian, you know that even though you might be sitting alone on your couch, the whole world is watching with you. Maybe right away as you hop online after the episode, or maybe the next day when you talk to your colleagues, you see everyone discussing the new episode and are happy to join in on the conversation. Perhaps before you had even been eager to catch the show as it came out, specifically so you could talk to people about it. While watching the most newly aired episode on cable certainly evoked this zeitgeist, streaming services have expanded it to more people than ever before.
other inventions attempted a similar feat, but none had the sheer convenience of streaming services, which didn’t even require a cable box. In the era before streaming services, there were cable television and DVD stores, And while DVD has faded out almost completely, cable is still around somewhat. While cable could provide you with movies and tv shows just fine, some customers were unhappy with the state of things. These consumers, deemed ‘cord
These consumers found a great option in streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. Not only did they allow for more customizability in terms of what exactly they would be paying for, but they also allowed for more ways to watch things other than lounging on your couch, waiting for a particular show to air. “So one of the things that I think streaming really, at least early on, promised people was this kind of customizability,” Scott says, “Not just in terms of paying a set amount of money to get access to certain types of content, but even when you see the ways in which Netflix started to develop their original programming, dropping a whole season at a time meant that it was an entirely different way of consuming something,”.
“Streaming services allow consumers to watch a diverse array of content at their own time and anywhere they go,” - Cibele Salomao
When Netflix first started out, it was a DVD rental business where customers would pay a subscription and receive the ability to have Dvds from a massive library mailed to their door, where they could watch the movie before returning it. Eventually, they progressed to sending the movies over the internet straight to people’s TVs. This is video streaming, and it carries many important benefits. Unlike cable or satellite companies, streaming services use the internet, which means that multiple signals can be sent at once, therefore multiple users can stream different things to their devices, rather than being forced to all watch the same thing at the same time. Many
cutters’, decided to unsubscribe from their cable companies, known as ‘cutting the cord’. “The reason you got a lot of people cutting the cord from their televisions was often about the fact that they were getting hundreds of cable channels they didn’t necessarily want, all bundled together, and they wanted to have a more customized experience,” says Suzanne Scott, a professor at Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas.
Television shows and movies on streaming services could be viewed anywhere, anytime, as long as you had an internet-capable device and an internet connection. Cibele Salomao, a consultant for ViacomCBS, a media production company, states, “Streaming services allow consumers to watch a diverse array of content at their own time and anywhere they go,” and later adds “Unlike VHS, DVD and blu ray disks, consumers can take the streaming apps everywhere with their phones or ipads,”.
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However, providing an easy way to access media could only get streaming services so far. To attract a wider audience, they would have to try something different, namely, producing their own content. Alisa Perren, who teaches a Media Industries course at Moody College of
distribution to film, “That shifted things and then suddenly it became that you didn’t need to have Netflix, so that you just had access to a library, you needed to have Netflix because everyone’s talking about Stranger Things and how great it is.”
sometimes tv shows, are so risky to produce, movie studios have to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, and since every movie has to make a profit individually, movie studios are left appealing to the same audience every time in order to make a profit.
Along with this, Perren explains that in order to make a movie, massive risks must be taken. The cost of production is extremely high and profits are not guaranteed.
As streaming services entered the media production game, a massive advantage arose from their business model. They get their money from subscriptions, not movie tickets or viewership, which changes two important things: One is that attracting the same audience over and over again becomes pointless, since those people would already be paying for the subscription anyway, and the other advantage is that they have a lot more security in terms of income since their profits don’t completely depend on whether one movie or show succeeds or fails.
“You’re not paying for a ticket. It’s a very different model. It’s not about making money off an individual movie,” - Alisa Perren
Communication at the University of Texas, Austin, explains what let them expand. “[Streaming services] were and are willing to pay a lot of money to get the rights to licensed content and grow their audience very expansively,” Perren says, “And they’re willing to spend money to acquire movies and to pay for stars in an industry that is struggling anyway, financially, in terms of making movies that are outside of the sort of big budget blockbuster mode of movie.” By producing their own content, streaming services gained access to a whole new audience. “So, initially it was more for people who wanted to cut the cord, or wanted access to particular libraries of things. Once a lot of streaming platforms got into the original content game, both for tv and for film.” says Scott, describing the transition from sole content
“So basically, the way the film industry has evolved over the last 30 ish years is that they, to really sort of make money that is robust enough to be worth it in terms of their business model, they have to spend $100 to $200 million, and then an extra $100 million oftentimes, on marketing,” She continues, explaining that “It’s a huge investment, and the film industry has increasingly prioritized the sort of big budget effects, spectacle oriented movies.”
“You’re not paying for a ticket. It’s a very different model. It’s not about making money off an individual movie,” Perren says, “it’s about having enough varied content to give a reason for every individual person to want to subscribe to the service,”.
“It’s about having enough varied content to give a reason for every individual person to want to subscribe to the service,” - Alisa Perren
Since movies, and
This means that
streaming services are able to both experiment with different types of content that would be too risky for movie studios. For example, while anyone can understand a superhero beating up a bad guy, a more complicated story might alienate younger viewers, which makes it a no-go for movie studios, but streaming services can afford to take that risk. “So when people complain about like, there’s only superhero movies, and where’s my $40 million smart drama? That doesn’t really exist anymore in the marketplace,” Scott says, “There is a space where streaming platforms could be the ones to bring those things back.” Perren agrees, saying “Most movies that aren’t sort of big budget blockbuster movies can find more opportunity on streaming services than they can in a theatrical release model.”
content has been able to reach consumers at a much faster rate than it did before, even in the US, making consumers more exposed to content from countries that they usually would never have access to,”
“Part of what the most valuable thing all of these streaming platforms have is data,” - Suzanne Scott Not only do the previously mentioned properties of streaming services allow them to host content from different genres or to subvert common tropes put in place to suit wider
audiences, but they also provide benefits to smaller filmmakers. “[Streaming Services] are very often an option for filmmakers that want to be able to make movies that otherwise would not be able to get funded,” Perren says. Just because streaming services have more freedom in what they show to their viewers doesn’t mean that they can put anything on their service and it’ll explode in popularity, streaming services still cost money to run. There is a way that many streaming services ensure that everything they put on their service will attract more customers, though: data. “Part of what the most valuable thing all of these streaming platforms have is data,” Scott says, adding that “They have an intense amount
As does Salomao, who says, “In general, I think streaming has been great for the film and TV industries as it has been a key driver in generating higher quality content with more diversity in general.” Salomao particularly emphasizes the importance of this for international content, saying, “International Lights Out! - From the Theater to Your Couch - Pg 20
of data on their users. So they know a lot about what people want, and they can use this to then create content.” Perren goes further, saying “Because they’re reaching directly to individual consumers, they know where you are, they probably have very granular
interfaces, what you see on the screen, will look very different depending on what they perceive to be attractive to you as a consumer.” Because of this massive amount of data they have, they can pull all sorts of tricks in order to further the reach of
“There has been a shift in strategy in the major media companies to monetize their brands/content by launching their own streaming services,” - Cibele Salomao data of everything about like, the second you started and stopped watching it, all of that sort of stuff, what you were drawn to in terms of the history, they can use that to create models of ‘this is what we want to have or need to have in this movie,’. And customize what they choose to produce or acquire in the first place with that data. Not to mention of course, that the
the content they put on their platforms. “There’s an interesting work on whether or not you had a kind of name that sort of aligned yourself fairly clearly with a particular gender, they would give you different images to mark the same movie.”Scott said, then listing an example, “So let’s say it’s a horror movie, I get the one romantic, you know, kiss moment in the movie, and my partner who’s a man gets zombies getting murdered,”. While this approach is effective, it can occasionally backfire. Certain markers that streaming services track are only correlated with the respective preferences of the customer. For example it may be determined that women are more likely to prefer the kiss scene while men prefer the
zombie murder scene, but as Scott goes on to mention, this is not an empirical truth, and in her case, for example, she would’ve been more enticed by the zombie scene. The strategy of collecting data and using markers can be very reductive, and loses important information on the way, as it reduces people from people to just a few characteristics: what they’ve watched, their gender, their approximate age, and just a few other factors. This can lead to two problems: a misunderstanding of the audience, which can cause them to dislike content marketed specifically to them, and placing them in a narrow box which they are prevented from getting out of, as once they’ve watched a few of a particular type of thing, they are recommended more and more of it and they’re prevented from finding anything new, which might cause them to become dissatisfied with the platform. Scott finds this lack of variety particularly frustrating as a Media Studies teacher, saying, “I teach Media Studies. Which means that I watch a lot of stuff for a lot of different reasons that maybe aren’t my personal taste reasons. But I have. So I find this very personally frustrating because I’ll watch something for a class that I’m pulling a clip for, and then my whole feed for days and days and weeks and weeks will just be giving me that same old thing, right?”. As it becomes more and more obvious that streaming
services are an important part of the future of the film industry, media companies are launching their own services to ensure themselves a place in the industry. “There has been a shift in strategy in the major media companies to monetize their brands/content by launching their own streaming services,” Salomao said. Perren says that many companies are still making the transition from cable to streaming. “About 80 million people in the US still subscribe to cable, so even though it doesn’t seem like something a lot of people are doing, it’s still generating a lot of money,” Perren said “And I think that they all recognize that it will go to streaming and they create apps and services that you can access, in addition to your cable subscription so that you continue to pay your cable subscription, or like HBO, right, moving from a cable channel to a streaming service as an example. So they’re all making that transition,”. This is a delicate balance, she goes on to say, “I mean, basically, the media industry has invested and prioritized at this point, their streaming services as the future, but the old Hollywood companies, Paramount and Disney and what have you, still make a lot of money from cable, and so they have to be sort of careful not to blow up the older largely older subscriber base that is paying a lot of money for that older model,”. Salomao doesn’t think this era of more and more streaming services will last, though, saying,
“I can’t imagine that consumers will continue paying for multiple streaming services,”. As more and more streaming services come out, audiences are becoming saturated with them, and soon this will have to stop. “There will be a point where people realize that the amount of money they’re saving from not having a cable package has all added up through all these streaming platforms,” Scott said, “And so they’re going to start having to make tough choices about which ones they keep and which ones they lose. And so the battle is going to be over retaining subscribers but also getting new subscribers to the platform.” Streaming services are already buying each other up as some falter to the competition. “What’s actually happening more is that right now we’re in a period where only so many streaming services are going to survive,” Perren said, describing this transitional moment. “And so companies are buying each other, so Disney merged with Fox or Amazon’s acquiring MGM or these sorts of things, so basically what it’s labeled as is we’re sort of in this period of consolidation, where fewer companies and fewer, you know, shows or movies are going to be viable as things progress,”. As we look into the future of the film industry, there are many considerations. Will ad supported models take over video streaming? Will we continue to see simultaneous releases
to theaters and streaming? If so, will that take the form of paying a fee to watch movies early? While these questions will mostly be answered by the actions of businesses, their effects will be widely seen by consumers.
Timeline Of Video Streaming by: Pedro Renner Ely Couto
Discover the history of how video streaming was first invented and the rise to prominence of streaming services through this timeline, from the invention of video compression to the videoon-demand heights of today.
1972: DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) is invented. DCT tries to store the information on a frame as efficiently as possible by discarding information that the human eyes also discard.
Paramount+ (3%) Youtube TV (1%)
May 22, 1993: “Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees” is the first ever movie to be streamed over the internet, streaming at 2 fps.
Sling TV (1%)
Starz (3%)
Market Share of Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) services
1988: ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is invented. ADSL makes streaming faster by reserving most of the bandwidth for download signals since most people download more than they upload. With both ADSL and DCT, one could theoretically stream a movie.
BritBox (1%)
ESPN+ (4%) Other (5%)
Netflix (20%)
Peacock (5%)
The chart to the right shows the market share (how much of the total market for a particular thing each provider takes up) Apple TV+ (5%) of various paid streaming services (SVODs). Disney+ (11%) HBO Max (12%)
Amazon prime Video(16%)
Hulu (13%)
Sources: Video on Demand. House of Commons Library Research Paper 94/68. William Lea; Sharon M. Oster, M. Keith Chen, and Jean W. Rosenthal, “Netflix and Qwikster,” Yale SOM Case 12-019, August 15, 2012; Outstanding Drama Series - 2017. Television Academy 69th Emmy
September 17th, 2017: Season 1 of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale is the first streaming-only show to win the Outstanding Drama Series award at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.
March 12, 2008: Hulu launches for public access. It is divided into a paid and free subscription.
September 7, 2006: Amazon announces Amazon Prime Video, one of the earliest movie streaming services, and still one of the largest.
Top 5 Most Demanded Online originals (U.S.) The Bar Graph to the right shows the average demand expressions for each of the 5 TV shows. A demand expression is a unit for measuring engagement with a particular piece of media, including viewing it and talking about it online, which shows how much people care about something and thus its demand.
2011: Netflix loses more than 2 million subscribers because of a price hike and the movement of the DVD service onto a different website called Qwikster.
Consumer Demand in Average Demand Expressions (millions)
Jan 15, 2007: Netflix announces its launch of a video streaming service on top of its pre-existing DVD mail rentals.
Feb 1, 2013: Netflix releases House of Cards, the first streaming service original. Netlix releases House of Cards one whole season at a time, instead of 1 episode per week.
Kobra Kai (62.6)
2020: The video streaming market was valued at more than 50 billion dollars and was expected to grow even more.
Nov, 12 2019: Disney+ launches, boasting an impressive library of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel Content, among other content.
WandaVision (61.2)
The Mandalorian (63.6)
80
Stranger Things (47.7)
70
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (35.2)
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
TV Show Title
Awards; Video Streaming Market Size & Share Report, 2021-2028. Grandview Research; 54 Compelling Cord-Cutting Statistics: 2021 Market Share Analysis & Data. Finances Online Lights Out! - Timeline of Video Streaming - Pg 24
Between 1930 and 1968, America’s Movies Were Censored By Hollywood’s Production Code By Nadia Lott
t’s March, 1938, and the red velvet seats in the theater are itchy. The feeling fades away as the lights dim and the large screen flickers to life to reveal a near-empty theatre. The camera pans to where a smiling blonde woman is singing into a microphone. A handful of musicians play behind her, a bouncing, jolly tune. As her song comes to a close, a grey-suited man begins reading something off a piece of paper held in his hand. So opens Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), released under Hollywood’s Production Code. Adopted in 1930 and enforced from 1934 to 1968, the Motion Picture Production Code, often called
the Production Code or the Hays Code, was a set of rules and regulations enforced by the Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America (MPPDA) to help keep films from lowering the moral standards of the viewer. It was a list of items describing what movies in America could not show or contain, often reflective of the social standards at the time. Before the Production Code existed, Hollywood was not completely uncensored. “State and local governments started censoring movies long before the movie industry started doing it themselves,” says Dr. Laura Wittern, a professor at the University at Albany who has authored both
a website and multiple books on censorship in film. In an effort to mollify censors with varying standards, Hollywood had various guidelines, such as “the Thirteen Points and the Don’ts and Be Careful.” However, these guidelines were not enforced and often went ignored. Then, when the Great Depression hit, it did not spare the box offices. “The studios were getting desperate,” explains Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin’s radio, television, and film department, and the author of numerous books on media and film. “And in desperate times, they go for things that might be shocking or prurious.”
Image taken by Nadia Lott
Before R - What was Hollywood’s Production Code?
And so, when the Great Depression killed the box offices, the “Dos and Don’ts” and “Be carefuls” went completely out the window as studies tried to “draw those big urban audiences to vivid horror films, spicy sex comedies and rough gangster dramas,” says Dr. David Lugowski, a professor at Manhattanville College and author of “Queering the (New) Deal,” among other essays. Many Americans were unhappy with Hollywood’s new attempts to increase viewership. Foremost among the disgusted were the Catholics of the Legion of Decency, “who had been lobbying against racy and violent film content for years,” according to Wittern. The Legion of Decency, aided by the majority of American audiences, convinced Holywood to adopt a set of rules dubbed the ‘Production Code.’ However, filmmakers still mostly ignored these new guidelines, much as they had the previous “Dos and Don’ts,” and once again the content of Hollywood’s movies drew the public’s ire. Finally, in 1934, Hollywood gave in “and set up the Production Code Administration (PCA)” says Lugowski. “The Code was seen as something ‘helpful’ and ‘practical,’” explains Lugowski. Not only did it please the American public at the time, it helped prevent other censors from ruining a film. “It was one
thing to have a gay-coded minor character or joke get cut out in some place, but what if that scene also included vital narrative information?” Under Will Hays and the PCA, the Production Code soon gained some teeth. Out went the sex and the gore. With Betty Boop’s skirts finally going past her knees, the nation breathed a sigh of relief.
some areas where the Code did not equivocate,” Lugowski continues, “For instance, one line said that ‘Sexual perversion or any inference to it is forbidden,’” which “was used to try to keep homosexuality out of Hollywood movies.” Of course, Lugowski adds, “It never fully worked. There remained the effeminate ‘pansy’ or ‘sissy’ comics and sometimes ‘mannish’ women who were read by some folks as being LGBTQ+ in some ways.” These stereotypes eventually turned into queer-coded villains (villains given traits that are associated with LGBTQ+ stereotypes, often to make them appear more dangerous or evil). The Code was also especially harsh on the representation of women and female sexuality. “The Code did sort of limit the kind of roles created for female characters,” Fuller-Seeley explains. “The rules said it would be much more difficult to make a film that showed a powerful woman dealing with adversity and solving problems and being in charge of herself.” However, there was a rule in the Code that said “you can’t insult anybody of any race or any nationality or any creed,” says Fuller-Seeley. Of course, such rules did not really work, and “African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinx peoples and more were often stereotyped in mainstream entertainment,” Lugowski states.
“State and local governments started censoring movies long before the movie industry started doing it themselves” The rules in the Code ranged from “no obscene language,” to “no interracial romances.” It specifically states “No picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it.” Under the Code, “You can’t show direct violence,” Fuller-Seeley says, and “good guys must always win and bad guys must always lose,” and, “that bad morals must be punished.” Of course, what counts as ‘bad morals’ is a debate that has been haunting philosophers and theologians for millenium. So the Code mostly just “enforced a rather white, Christian, heterosexual, middle class (or wealthy) vision of America,” explains Lugowski. However, “the Production Code mostly ‘suggested’ things or said that a given film ‘should try to do X’ or ‘should not suggest Y,’ but there are
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He also adds that “some would argue that limitations and types and typecasting still very much exist in our popular culture.” Still, stereotypes are not entirely the Production Code’s fault. “It’s far more systemic
audience. Besides the struggles with properly portraying various peoples, the Code also severely handicapped gritty realism in movies, a fact that helped bring about its downfall. “Critics said this made every Hollywood movie fairytales,” Fuller-Seeley explains, “So far from reality, you know it’s just sort of pap for babies, useless comedies.” It wasn’t all bad, though. She adds that “really smart screenwriters, directors, or performers could find a way to hide little jokes in their scripts and screenplays or in their performance that would say, ‘Hey, we’re being a little naughty.’” There were other ways that filmmakers got around the restrictions. “Sometimes writers would submit scripts that included tidbits that they KNEW would get cut. The content regulators would feel they had done a good day of work, but they sometimes missed some things,” Lugowski mentions. The Production Code did, of course, eventually come to an end in 1968. Though it was initially viewed positively by audiences, that view
“Hollywood seemed really out of touch by that point”
The European film, The Bicycle Thieves, dealt with complex social issues
began to sour. “The Code rules became progressively defanged in the later 50s and especially in the 1960s,” says Lugowski. The Code ended due to a multitude of factors, including a swing in American culture after World War II. “The culture changed a lot,” Fuller-Seely states, and “Hollywood seemed really out of touch by that point.” By the time the Paris Peace Treaties had been signed, “People were looking for less of the Rebecca of Sunny Brook Farm-style of movie and more of the gritty type of realism that we were seeing in European films,” explains Wittern. But though the culture had changed, it would still take a “long time before that change will have a real effect on American movie screens,” she adds. As the culture shifted, television stole Hollywood’s audience. “The vast majority of the audience had been reduced by over 80%,” Fuller-Seeley notes. “All of the audience had gone over to American television, which had just as many rules
Images of The Moon Is Blue and The Bicycle Thieves courtesy of imdb
and due to a larger number of cultural factors than just the Code,” Lugowski says. “Movies did not invent stereotypes about Jews, Blacks, Latinos, gays or others; these go much further back into literature, folk cultures, older forms of theater and the domains of religion and politics.” Movies simply reached a broader
The Moon Is Blue was released without the PCA’s approval, but still did very well at the box office
as the Production Code did.” This drop in profits alarmed Hollywood, and the Code was slowly repealed, as, once again, movies became more titillating in a bid to lure in audiences. Additionally, Americans were viewing European films that, without a Production Code hampering them, addressed real social issues. “As American audiences watched movies like Open City and The Bicycle Thieves, they realized that their American-made movie content was very wholesome,” Wittern explains, but “not necessarily reflective of the realities of American life.” Filmmakers began challenging censors as unconstitutional. Most challenges were against local, governmental censors, not the Code itself, since as “an industry self regulation, there is no opportunity to challenge on constitutional grounds,” Wittern explains. Of the legal challenges against movie censorship, “The most important was clearly the 1952 Miracle case” Wittern says. The Miracle case, or Burstyn v. Wilson, “was the challenge that forced the Supreme Court to say that movies deserve some sort of protection under the First Amendment.” Though in the end, the ruling was vague enough that movie censorship in America persisted long after it. Another nail in the Production Code’s coffin was The Moon is Blue. Released without the Code’s stamp of approval, it nevertheless “did very well at the box office,” Wittern says. Other filmmakers
began to do the same thing, forcing the Production Code Administration to let a little bit more realism into films. A shift in culture, a drop in audiences, European films, legal challenges, the rise of television, and the box office success of films without the approval of the Production Code all helped bring the Code to an end. But that didn’t mean it and movie censorship completely disappeared. The Production Code still lingers with us in the form of modern movie ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17. The ratings system, while certainly
carry a great deal of economic weight.” NC-17, formerly X, can be very harmful towards profits, “whereas an R rating is usually box-office gold.” Essentially, the ratings creates a system where the powerful movie companies are at a financial advantage, and the smaller companies at a disadvantage. Additionally, Wittern notes, the ratings board “is set up so that the people who make the decisions have no requirement for any expertise in movies or production or audience reception or psychology, any of the things that might make them reasonable critics and judges of movie content.” On a fresh note, Fuller-Seeley mentions that the standards for each rating have been changing. “We’ve seen in children’s media, more and more films go up to PG,” she says, and R films are essentially what NC-17 films were. It’s 2019. “PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned” and the accompanying warnings for “sci-fi violence and action, and some language” flashes across the screen. Soon enough, a red, blue, and white clad Captain America appears on the screen, ready to do battle with an army of high-res CGI monsters. As the blond paragon quips over his shoulder, an audience member shifts around in their seat, trying to get comfortable. The red velvet is just the tiniest bit itchy.
“Good guys must always win and bad guys must always lose” an improvement from the Production Code, is still a heavily flawed system. The modern ratings system’s largest flaw is that it is applied unevenly. “Big movie studios are capable of--and have often--negotiated with the ratings board in order to achieve whatever rating they want,” Wittern explains. For example, if “a movie company has made a very racy or violent film that would normally receive an NC– 17 rating, they might negotiate with the ratings board to take a few things out and get an R rating instead.” But a smaller company with less clout would be unable to make that sort of negotiation. And while “the MPAA insists that these ratings are only meant as guides for parents,” says Wittern, “but in reality they
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Information from text of the Production Code at usml.edu
DOES YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE PASS THE movie sets around PRODUCTION CODE? the (Probably Not) world Parasite Parasite
The Theentire entirepremise premiseof ofthe the moviemovie-the theprotagonists protagonists committing fraud to get hired committing fraud to get hired would wouldnot nothave havebeen been acceptable. acceptable.
by: Isabel Sosa If a movie contained any of the
criteria in the following boxes, it would fail. The bubbles show various movies released after the end of the Code that might not have passed the Code. The centerpiece shows the a modern a modern rating.
Shows how a crime was committed in a way that could teach the audience how to commit that crime
Infinity War Infinity War All the mass-killings would All the mass-killings would not have been acceptable. notAdditionally, have been acceptable. there was Additionally, there cursing, was probably too much probably too villain much cursing, and the won. and the villain won.
USA
Frozen
Revenge is presented in a good light in a ‘civilized’ setting
Hans pretending to fall in love with. Anna would not have made the cut, as it might have edged too close to seduction
YT H W AT TH : (EX CU
This location is called the Vasquez Rocks where several Star Trek episodes were filmed. This is because the rocks are very large making them fitting for a sci-fi series.Shows, mentions, or contains
illegal drug trafficking
Contains curse words
Top cities to film in Star Wars Franchise Darth Vader was presented too sympathetically at the end of the story.
BRAZIL
1. Los angeles, ca 2. new york city, ny 3. london, uk 4. toronto, ont
N O I T A W I ; g V E in t R a R B f B o A finition
‘Evil’ is not punished
The Iguazu Falls at the Argentina-Brazil border is considered one of the most Mocks or presents religion or beautiful waterfalls of the world. Several religious figures in a negative light famous movies have filmed there including Indiana Jones and Black Panther.
De
Another nation’s people, history, or institutions are presented unfairly
FUN FACTS:
SCOTLAND
1. Nearly 200 movies have shot scenes in Washington, D.C. 2. onis used average there are 146 days of ‘Jesus Christ’ in a non-reverent tone pre-production for a movie
Contains nudity or revealing clothing
Harry Potter Franchise
Contains explicit content
Too many heroes died in the end. Also,inSnape’s questionable The train to Hogwarts the popular morality would most likely not movie series Harryhave Potterbeen was filmed on permitted.
The Terminator
this track in the mountains of Scotland.
There’s too much semi-nudity/nudity by silhouette and death/violence for it to have been allowed. Also, a security officer dies.
Shows the mass-slaughter of humans or overly-gruesome murders
h
t t a h
W
Good, innocence, or morality is mocked
AUSTRALIA
AS H IE V O M E TH TING E OR C A s T R OLEN n a I Me : V ING) g in S t a R U at R
Creates sympathy for breaking the law or lawbreakers
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
The movie “The Great Gatsby” was filmed in Sydney at the old site of the White Bay Power Station.
Miles having a crush on Gwen probably edged too close to an interracial romance to be allowed
‘Good’ does not prevail
The Matrix
Neo and Trinity kill too many people, Additionally, a hacker protagonist would not have been acceptable.
The Hunger Games (1st Movie)
MostPolice,expensive security guards, or detectivessets: are killed by criminals movie
1. lord of the rings: 281m 2. titanic: 200m 3. intolerance: 45m Contains lgbtq+ characters 4. ben-hur: 15m
Seeing as our hero was murdering children and breaking the law, it probably wouldn’t have passed
Contains interracial relationships Top Cities - huffpost.com Set Cost - successstory.com Fun Facts - blog.ihg.com : musicgateway.com Vasquez Rocks - jim.choate59 Harry Potter - TimoOK Iquanzu Falls - Arian Zwegers Great Gatsby - Eva Rinaldi
Lights Out! - Does Your Favorite Movie Pass... - Pg 32
WILL I had to go see about a girl.
CUT TO BLACK THE END
