NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Film studio

A film studio is a controlled environment for the making of a film. This environment may be interior (sound stage), exterior (backlot), or both. In general parlance, the term is synonymous with "major film production company," due largely to the fact that the leading production companies of Hollywood's "Golden Age"—stretching from the late 1920s to the late 1940s—owned their own studio facilities, as do a few today. However, worldwide (and even in the United States) the majority of production companies have never owned their own studios, but have had to rent space at independently owned facilities that, in many cases, never produce a film of their own. Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... A sound stage is a hangar-like structure, building or room, that is soundproof for the production of theatrical motion pictures and television, usually inside a movie studio. ... A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with permanent exterior sets for outdoor scenes in motion picture and/or television productions. ... Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of a film or television program. ... Much like American popular music, American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ...

Beginnings

In 1893, Thomas Edison built the first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria, a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. Other studio operations followed in New Jersey, New York City, and Chicago. Year 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 â€“ October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life around the world. ... The Black Maria was Thomas Edisons movie production studio, built in West Orange, New Jersey, completed in February, 1893 at a cost of $637. ... Map of West Orange Township in Essex County West Orange is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area Ranked 47th - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 kmÂ²) - Width 70 miles (110 km) - Length 150 miles (240 km) - % water 14. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as...

The Saint Petersburg film studio facilities "Lenfilm" were founded in 1896. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and... Kinostudiya Lenfilm (Ð›ÐµÐ½Ñ„Ð¸ÌÐ»ÑŒÐ¼) was a production unit of the Soviet film industry), with its own film studio, located in Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R.. After the fall of Communism and the foundation of the Russian Republic, it became a quasi-private film production company, retaining its name in spite of... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ...

In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California, because of the good weather and longer days. Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in downtown Los Angeles. Early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. The distance from New Jersey made it more difficult for Edison to enforce his patents. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area Ranked 3rd - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 kmÂ²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 770 miles (1,240 km) - % water 4. ... Most of the industrialized world is lit by electric lights, which are used both at night and to provide additional light during the daytime. ... Skyline of downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the geographic center of metropolitan Los Angeles, California. ... Downtown Los Angeles Skyline Southern California, also colloquially referred to as SoCal, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the U.S. state of California. ... MPPC stands for Motion Picture Patents Company, also known as the Edison Trust, also known as the First Oligopoly. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a patentee (the inventor or assignee) for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which...

The first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios, opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley. In the same year, another fifteen independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City, Burbank, and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... Christie-Nestor Studios, circa 1913 The Nestor Motion Picture Company of Bayonne, New Jersey, owned by David Horsley and his brother William, opened the first motion picture studio in Hollywood in the Blondeau Tavern building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street on October 27, 1911. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Al Christie Al Christie, (November 24, 1881 – April 4, 1951) was a Canadian_born motion picture director, producer and screenwriter. ... David Horsley (March 11, 1873 – February 23, 1933) was English born pioneer of the movie industry who built the first movie studio in Hollywood. ... Culver City Seal Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. ... Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Studio City is a four-square-mile district in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. ... San Fernando Valley from southwestern edge. ...

"The Majors"

By the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy film industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions, and theaters, and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel, led to the sometimes confusing equation of "studio" with "production company" in industry slang. Five large companies, 20th Century-Fox, MGM, Paramount, RKO, and Warner Bros., came to be known as the "Big Five," the "majors," or "the Studios" in trade publications such as Variety, and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the "studio system." A Film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent between a film production company or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producers film on the exhibitors screen. ... A typical multiplex (AMC Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California). ... 20th Century Fox logo Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... RKO could stand for: RKO Pictures The R.K.O. - finishing manoever (and initials) of WWE professional wrestler Randy Orton. ... Warner Bros. ... Variety is a daily magazine for the entertainment industry. ... The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s. ...

Although they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making a total of eight generally recognized "major studios". United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during the Golden Age, had an often tenuous hold on the title of "major" and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films. This article is about the major American media conglomerate. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The current United Artists logo (a variant was used during the 1980s). ...

The minors

Smaller studios operated simultaneously with "the majors." These included operations such as Republic Pictures, active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched the scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures, which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC and Grand National, the minor studios filled the demand for B-movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row. Republic Pictures Corporation (aka Republic Entertainment) is an independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B pictures, westerns and movie serials. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... PRCs logo 1945 One of the larger Hollywood production conglomerates of Poverty Row of the late 30s-mid 40s (along with Republic Pictures and Monogram Pictures and smaller outfits) PRC, as it was commonly known, intentionally made mostly small-budget B-movies. ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of mostly short-lived small studios, many clustered in the area of Los Angeles, USA known as Gower Gulch, near the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower...

The independents

The Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Walt Disney, and Walter Wanger. In 1948 the federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court, which ruled that the vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly. This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's "Golden Age". // Samuel Goldwyn (July, 1879, Warsaw, Poland â€“ January 31, 1974, Los Angeles, California, United States) was a widely known motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios. ... David O. Selznick David Oliver Selznick (May 10, 1902â€“June 22, 1965), was one of the icon Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. ... For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Walter Wanger (July 11, 1894 - November 18, 1968) was an important American film producer. ... United States v. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties Libertarian Party State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body... It has been suggested that Vertical expansion be merged into this article or section. ... In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monopolium - Greek language monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service. ...

Film to television

Midway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a profitable enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon -- as many in the film industry had once hoped -- movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsized film companies, such as Republic Pictures, eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns. Republic Pictures Corporation (aka Republic Entertainment) is an independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B pictures, westerns and movie serials. ... Production company refers to a company responsible for the development and physical production of a film or television program. ...

Today

With the breakup of domination by "the Studios" and the continued incursion of television into the cinematic audience, the major production companies gradually transformed into management structures that simply put together artistic teams on a project-by-project basis and made what studio spaces they retained available for rental, which remains the norm today.

Notable movie studios

AB Svensk Filmindustri or Svensk Filmindustri (SF) is Swedens most well-known company for film production and distribution of cinema, both Swedish and international. ... Filmstudio Babelsberg Logo showing a scene from Metropolis The Babelsberg Studios is a film studio located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. ... Barrandov Studios are a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. ... The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (also known as the Biograph Company) was founded in 1895 and is the oldest movie production company in the United States. ... Christie Film Company was a pioneer motion picture company founded by Al Christie and Charles Christie, two brothers from London, Ontario, Canada. ... The Black Maria (pronounced b. ... The Black Maria was Thomas Edisons movie production studio, built in West Orange, New Jersey, completed in February, 1893 at a cost of $637. ... Toronto ON-based Famous Players is a Canadian company which owns many movie theatres across Canada. ... The Fox Film Corporation was an American company which produced motion pictures, formed in 1915 when founder William Fox merged two companies he had established in 1913: Greater New York Film Rental, a distribution firm, which was part of the Independents; and Fox (or Box, depending on the source) Office... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Gaumont is a French film production company and is the worlds oldest film company. ... In 1916 Samuel Goldfish partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise the Goldwyn Picture Corporation. ... Central portal of Gorky Film Studio Gorky Film Studio (in Russian, ÐšÐ¸Ð½Ð¾ÑÑ‚ÑƒÐ´Ð¸Ñ Ð¸Ð¼ÐµÐ½Ð¸ Ð“Ð¾Ñ€ÑŒÐºÐ¾Ð³Ð¾) is a film studio in Moscow, Russian Federation. ... Kalem Studios and Hollywood staff, 1915 The Kalem Company was an American film studio founded in New York City in 1907 by Frank J. Marion, Samuel Long, and George Kleine. ... The Keystone / Mack Sennett studios Keystone Studios was an early movie studio founded in Glendale, California in 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from Adam Kessel and Charles O. Bauman, owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. ... Kinostudiya Lenfilm (Ð›ÐµÐ½Ñ„Ð¸ÌÐ»ÑŒÐ¼) was a production unit of the Soviet film industry), with its own film studio, located in Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R.. After the fall of Communism and the foundation of the Russian Republic, it became a quasi-private film production company, retaining its name in spite of... Lubin Studios, Philadelphia (c. ... Marwah Films & Video Studios, near New Delhi, has produced over 1800 films and television shows during the past seven years. ... Georges MÃ©liÃ¨s (December 8, 1861 â€“ January 21, 1938), full name Maries-Georges-Jean MÃ©liÃ¨s, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. ... Melnitsa Animation Studio (Russian: , melnitsa meaning windmill) is a Saint Petersburg-based Russian studio which produces animated films. ... Mosfilm logo was the Statue of the Worker and Kolkhoznitsa at VDNKh Mosfilm film studio (in Cyrillic, ÐœÐ¾ÑÑ„Ð¸ÌÐ»ÑŒÐ¼) is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. ... Mutual Film Corporation was an early American motion picture conglomerate that originated with the Western Film Exchange founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July of 1906 by Wisconsin natives John R. Freuler (1872-1958) and Harry E. Aitken (1877-1956). ... Christie-Nestor Studios, circa 1913 The Nestor Motion Picture Company of Bayonne, New Jersey, owned by David Horsley and his brother William, opened the first motion picture studio in Hollywood in the Blondeau Tavern building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street on October 27, 1911. ... Nordisk Film is an Egmont electronic media production and distribution group that employs 1,090 people in six countries. ... PathÃ© or PathÃ© FrÃ¨res is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the PathÃ© Brothers of France. ... The entrance to Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a major British film studio situated approximately 20 miles west of London among the pine trees on what was the estate of Heatherden Hall, near the village of Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. ... Premium Picture Productions is a former movie studio located in Beaverton, Oregon which was active in the early 1920s. ... The Selig Polyscope Company was an American motion picture company founded in 1896 in Chicago, Illinois by William Selig. ... Solax Studios was an American motion picture studio founded in 1910 by executives from the Gaumont Film Company of France. ... This page has been deleted, and protected to prevent re-creation. ... Winnie-the-Pooh by Soyuzmultfilm The Studio Soyuzmultfilm () is the most important Soviet animation film studio, founded in 1935 under the name of Soyuzdetmultfilm. ... Sverdlovsk Film Studio (Russian: ) is a Russian (former Soviet) film studio based in Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk). ... The Thanhouser Company (later the Thanhouser Film Corporation) was a motion picture studio founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser. ... Triangle Film Corporation a. ... This article is about the major American media conglomerate. ... In 1912 the Victor Film Company was formed by movie star Florence Lawrence and her husband, Harry Solter. ... American Vitagraph was a United States movie studio, founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 and bought by Warner Brothers in 1925. ...

Contents

Beginnings

"The Majors"

The minors

The independents

Film to television

Today

Notable movie studios

See also

Contents

Beginnings GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

"The Majors"

The minors

The independents

Film to television

Today

Notable movie studios

See also

Beginnings