Fascinating documentation of one of the most important film societies in American history.

Featuring nearly three thousand film stills, production shots, and other illustrations, an authoritative history of the cinema traces the development of the medium, its filmmakers and stars, and the evolution of national cinemas around the world.

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Despite being one of the biggest industries in the United States, indeed the World, the internal workings of the 'dream factory' that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entitles which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, Head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930. For the next three decades, the movie industry in the United States and the rest of the world operated by according to these principles. Cultural, social and economic changes ensured the dernise of this system after the Second World War. A new way to run Hollywood was required. Beginning in 1962, Lew Wasserman of Universal Studios emerged as the key innovator in creating a second studio system. He realized that creating a global media conglomerate was more important than simply being vertically integrated. Gomery's history tells the story of a 'tale of two systems 'using primary materials from a score of archives across the United States as well as a close reading of both the business and trade press of the time. Together with a range of photographs never before published the book also features over 150 box features illuminating aspect of the business.

Cinema was the first, and is arguably still the greatest, of the industrialized art forms that came to dominate the cultural life of the twentieth century. Today, it continues to adapt and grow as new technologies and viewing platforms become available, and remains an integral cultural and aesthetic entertainment experience for people the world over. Cinema developed against the backdrop of the two world wars, and over the years has seen smaller wars, revolutions, and profound social changes. Its history reflects this changing landscape, and, more than any other art form, developments in technology. In this Very Short Introduction, Nowell-Smith looks at the defining moments of the industry, from silent to sound, black and white to colour, and considers its genres from intellectual art house to mass market entertainment. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introduction series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

From stereoview cards to large-format IMAX films, 3-D technology's heightened realism and powerful visual allure have held audiences captive for over a century and a half. The technology, known as stereoscopy, creates an illusion of depth by presenting two slightly different images to the eye in print or on-screen. The advent of stereoscopic film technology excited both filmmakers and audiences, as a means of replicating all of the sounds, colors, movement, and dimensionality of life and nature for the first time. The origins of 3-D film are often linked with a proliferation of stereoscopic films in the 1950s. By the time films like Man in the Dark and House of Wax was attracting large crowds, however, the technology behind this form of filmmaking was already over a century old. Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838--1952, examines this "novelty period" of stereoscopic film, charting its progression from Charles Wheatstone's 1938 discovery of 3-D to the 1952 release of Arch Oboler's innovative film, Bwana Devil. Stereoscopic specialist Ray Zone argues that the development of stereoscopic film can best be understood through a historical analysis of the technology rather than of its inventors. Zone examines the products used to create stereoscopic images, noting such milestones as David Brewster's and Oliver Wendell Holmes's work with stereoscopes, the use of polarizing image selection, and the success of twin-strip 3-D films, among others. In addition, Zone looks at the films produced up to 1952, discussing public reception of early 3-D short films as well as longer features such as Power of Love in single-strip anaglyphic projection in 1922 and Semyon Ivanov's 1941 autostereoscope Robinson Crusoe. He integrates his examination of the evolution of 3-D film with other cinematic developments, demonstrating the connection between stereoscopic motion pictures and modern film production. Stereoscopic Cinema and the Origins of 3-D Film, 1838--1952, is an exhaustive study of not only the evolution of 3-D technology and the subsequent filmmaking achievements but also the public response to and cultural impact of 3-D movies. Zone takes the reader on a voyage of discovery into the rich history of a field that predates photography and that continues to influence television and computer animation today.