Hollywood Vertical Integration

In Porter's 5 forces model, the five underlying forces for an industry's structural attractiveness are the barriers to entry for new competitors, the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the bargaining power of suppliers, and the bargaining power of buyers. In analyzing Blockbuster's business model and current position, it is evident that it faces issues in all five areas.

In the digital era of convergent media, the most obvious about the change of cinema is the storage which rely on celluloid that you can touch in the past. Now, however, it is stored as electronic packets of 1s and 0s which is virtual. The changes of the cinema is not only about the film storage, but also the production，post-production, exhibition and distribution which is the main part of the film industry structure. In the era of celluloid, the four steps of movie is relatively independent and has its sequence. In digital movie, whereas, the connection and integration among four parts of industry structure are ever close.

I never gave much thought into what it takes to shoot, direct, edit, and complete a motion picture. Sure, it may sound fun, but after this assignment, it felt like a lot of work. There are quite a few specialized groups that put together the films that we enjoy in our movie theatres. No wonder why it takes months and even years to edit a film, these folks are making sure things are done and synced correctly! The following essay will identify information pertaining to film and importance for their audience so the person or persons watching can have an understanding of what it is they are viewing. A story that has no meaning or becomes very confusing in the details that are presented does not make a good film.

In fact, Webb notes that today, only one major studio still exists in the city, as most back lots have turned into offices that coordinate filming activities elsewhere. This small fact proves that “Hollywood has always been a concept as much as a place” (xi), a symbol people reference for the movie industry, no matter where the movies were actually produced.

Pre Production stage includes work on idea / concept, plan about the budget and the format for shooting, treatment, and research and script development, story board preparation, developing the shooting script.

There are many modes of production such as large-scale, exploitation, independent, DIY and small-scale productions. The classical Hollywood “studio system” uses the mode of mass production.1 A studio is a company in business for making films for example Paramount and Warner Bros are studios.1 These studios have a system called “studio systems” in which they operate the filmmaking process.1 In mass production systems, writers, directors, actors and all workers in between are under contracts.1 These studios have ultimate control on what is being made, how the producers are making it, what cast and crew were to take part and how the film was to be distributed.1 Large-scale production studio systems have a large supply of equipment and vast physical space.1 They work on higher budgets and have large audiences.1 On the other hand, independent films fall into the category of low-budget productions.1 Although they operate in similar ways to the mass-production system, they don 't have major distributers financing them.1 This allows directors to have more control over the production process.1 However, independent filmmaking has its advantages and disadvantages. The major advantages of independent filmmaking are that they could be personal and it allows for upcoming filmmakers to flourish and create. The major disadvantages are working with small budgets and the distribution/exhibition of the film. The films Modern Times (1936) by Charlie Chaplin, Daughters of the Dust (1991) by

The film industry has continuously changed since its inception due to rapid technology advancements. Camera technology has been a key factor that has influenced the growth of filmmaking. The first motion picture in the world was produced in the early 1880s, and the first public screening occurred ten years later. It didn’t take long for the quality of films to improve as new filmmaking equipment emerged. Ever since the first movie was produced, the film industry has been continuously changing in response to emerging filmmaking technology. Introduction of digital photography and digital data storage along with the development of internet significantly influenced the film industry (Barsam, 2015). These technologies contributed

With the studios still adjusting to the affects of the Paramount decision the advent of television created a new and potentially disastrous adversary. As television replaced movies as the safe-for-all audiences viewing experience, Hollywood needed to redefine their place and purpose. Through strategic mergers, film gimmicks, and a change in production code the studios were able to see an end to the lean revenue years in the 50's and 60's to a system that catered more to an audiences age and interests.

Sports, Opera, etc). By acquiring its key competitor Famous Players, Cineplex became a leader in the market. There are presently only 3 major theatre companies in the market.

These five studios were; 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures and Warner Brothers. Together they were able to utilise ‘the studio system’ which is where all the studios ran the production, distribution and exhibition of films allowing them to exercise an unfair monopoly over the film industry. By exercising an unfair monopoly, the big studios had directors, writers, actors and producers under long term contracts meaning they ‘owned’ their stars. Studios could also practice the system of ‘block booking’ where they would sell multiple films to theatres as a unit which generally included only one attractive, A-budget film which theatres really wanted. In doing so the rest of the unit contained a mix

According to the observation of the America and Chinese film industry, there is a trend of vertical integration. The traditional economic theories claim that the motivation of vertical integration of film industry is monopolistic competition. However, due to the product of marginal cost of movie is zero sum, the production company which control by vertical integration enterprise have to maintain as much as possible share from all performing market; on the other hand, the movie screening criteria of theater chain is the predicted attendance ratio, the theater chain which control by vertical

In essence one could describe the Studio system as a particular method of filming, where the studios in hollywood were in complete control of the production and distribution of a particular film (Lewis 2008). During the Golden Age of film the studio system was at its peak. Five major companies dominated the world of movies, they all were conglomerates that owned the production, distribution of their films. In the Golden Age, censorship was also at the forefront of the studio system. Originally, censorship was determined by local boards, so began the self censhipric policies and procedures of the hollywood world.

The term vertical integration refers to the “structure of a marketplace that is integrated (rather than segregated) at a variety of crucial levels; in the case of the motion picture industry, the studio system established a market in which the studios are owners of their production facilities, distribution outlets, and theaters” (Belton 68). Since the studios could control the entire process of production, distribution/booking and exhibition, they could be recognized as a monopoly. The studios even owned their actors, directors, producers, cinematographers, screenwriters, art directors, and other staff by keeping them all under a contract. The formation of vertical integration first started in the 1910s, when independent exhibitors and independent distributors were denied motion pictures by the trust. Independent exhibitors had to pay fees to the trust if they wanted to use its theaters and many refused the idea of paying those fees while independent distributors disliked the idea of the trust’s control on the supply of films.

The Lumière Brothers were significant to the early production of projected motion pictures and how they impacted cinematographs through using a system that created a

Although these crews meant for temporary work only, their skills are most needed during the production stage of film shooting. The crews’ employment rise as the production begins. On the pre-production and post production stage, only several crews’ needed depending on their skills. At the end of making the film the organisation formed for this purposes ceases to exist, leaving no fixed assets and no structure for continued learning.