Chapter 7 - Movies and the Impact of Images Flashcards
Celluloid
A transparent and pliable film that can hold a coating of chemicals sensitive to light.
Kinetograph
An early movie camera developed by Thomas Edison’s assistant in the 1890s.
Kinetoscope
An early film projection system that served as a kind of peep show in which viewers looked through a hole and saw images moving on a tiny plate.
Vitascope
A large-screen movie protection system developed by Thomas Edison.
Narrative Films
Movies that fell a story, with dramatic action and conflict emerging mainly from individual characters.
Nickelodeons
The first small makeshift movie theaters, which were often converted cigar stores, pawnshops, or restaurants redecorated to mimic vaudeville theaters.
Vertical Integration
In medi economics, the phenomenon of controlling a mass media industry at its three essential levels: production, distribution, and exhibition; the term is most frequently used in reference to the film industry.
Oligopoly
In media economics, an organizational structure in which a few firms control most of an industry’s production and distribution resources.
Studio Systems
An early film production system that constituted a sort of assembly-line process for moviemaking; major film studios controlled not only actors but also directors, editors, writers, and other employees, all of who worked under exclusive contracts.
Block Booking
An early tactic of movie studios to control exhibition, involving pressuring theater operators to accept marginal films with no stars in order to get access to films with the most popular stars.
Movie Palaces
Ornate, lavish single-screen movie theaters that emerged in the 1910s in the United States.
Multiplexes
Contemporary movie theaters that exhibit many movies at the same time on multiple screens.
Big Five
For the late 1920s through the late 1940s, the major movie studios that were vertically integrated and that dominated the industry. The Big Five were Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, and RKO.
Little Three
For the late 1920s through the late 1940s, the major movie studios that were vertically integrated and that dominated the industry. The Little Three were those studios that did not own theaters: Columbia, Universal, and United Artists.
Blockbuster
The type of big-budget special effete films that typically have summer of holiday release dates, heavy promotion, and lucrative merchandising tie-ins.
