The Film in Hand Modes of Coordination and Assisted Virtuosity in the Bombay Film Studios

Less has been said about the hand movements of the film makers, their cultural dimension and the place of this "corporate language" in the film making process, probably because this object is difficult to capture even with a diary. Gestures go too fast to be sketched on the spot and often faster than the perception of the ethnographer. Some of these gestures are made to stabilize the frame or simulate the camera movement but lots of them are difficult to classify and don't fall into this category, like the ones which are produced to accompany the actors' action or to invite him to perform a certain action and which have more to do with a mode of demonstration involving the entire body. This article, mostly based on videos of Bombay film makers at work, tries to identify the specificity of these gestures in terms of communication or interaction and their potential of coordination in the film set dynamics.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE FORMATION OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE STUDIO OBJECTS

The article analyzes the development and influences on the formation of film studio architecture. The article reveals to what extent and how the architecture of film studios has changed and what influenced it. The work aims to study and analyze the development and factors of influence on the evolution of the architecture of film studios. The tasks include identifying the periods of formation of architecture, characterizing these periods, and investigating the factors influencing them. Among the main conclusions is that it is appropriate to focus on the third stage of development of the architecture of studio buildings. Each period has its peculiarity of architecture. I = 1 building 1 function, II = spaciousness, III = optimization, avoidance of large squares. From the early stages to the present day, technological factors have the greatest influence. Indeed, with the development of technology (the emergence of sound, colour, etc.), architecture became spatial (the number of necessary pavilions, workshops), and the development of computer technology and graphics led to the development of research without filming pavilions and workshops.

Vitagraph

For more than a century, the origin story of the American film industry has been that the founders of Paramount and Fox invented the feature film, that Universal created the star system, and that these three companies (along with the heads of MGM and Warner Bros.) were responsible for developing the multi-billion-dollar business we now know as Hollywood. Unfortunately for history, this is simply not true. Andrew A. Erish's definitive history of this important but oft-forgotten studio compels a reassessment of the birth and development of motion pictures in America. Founded in 1897, the Vitagraph Company of America (later known as Vitagraph Studios) was ground zero for American cinema. By 1907, it was one of the largest film studios in America, with notable productions including the first film adaptation of Les Misérables (1909); The Military Air-Scout (1911), considered to be one of the first aviation films; and the World War I propaganda film The Battle Cry of Peace (1915). In 1925, Warner Bros. purchased Vitagraph and all of its subsidiaries and began to rewrite the history of American cinema. Drawing on valuable primary material overlooked by other historians, Erish challenges the creation myths marketed by Hollywood's conquering moguls, introduces readers to many unsung pioneers, and offers a much-needed correction to the history of commercial cinema.

The Cinema Centaur

The 1960s witnessed the transformation of “film factories” from metaphor to lived reality. Lenfilm’s output rose once more to the levels its predecessor studios had reached in the 1920s, but the conditions of production were now far more complex and demanding, with staffs more than ten times the size. And while the 1960s was an era of optimistic emphasis on the Soviet film industry’s capacity to equal and surpass the world in technological terms, during the 1970s, the conviction took hold that the technological superiority of Western films was of direct relevance to audience share. Increasingly, ambitious filmmakers petitioned Goskino for permission to shoot on Kodak and to use Arriflex cameras; criticism of inferior Soviet film stock and GDR-produced film editing tables mounted, both across the USSR and at Lenfilm itself. Yet investment in studio infrastructure and technology remained at best haphazard, particularly at Lenfilm, which enjoyed less generous support from the center than Mosfilm, but also more limited resourcing than film studios in the capitals of Soviet republics. At the same time, Lenfilm had an unusually diverse, energetic, inventive, and loyal workforce, with corporate values that inspired manual workers and porters as well as “creative” personnel. Hierarchical at some levels, the work culture was egalitarian at others, and the frenetic process of scrambling to finish films in trying circumstances created strong bonds. The chapter explores the various conflicts and contradictions, but also rewards, that this situation generated.

Modern formats of graphic novels as a tool of continuity of ethnocultural traditions in the upbringing and education of youth and adolescents

This article describes such modern formats of literary and graphic genres as manga and comics (including ranobe, manhwa, and manhua). Graphic novels are currently relevant all over the world, especially among young people. Graphic novels of this type are actively promoted in the mass media and pop culture. These picture books received the attention and adaptation not only of small film studios and book publishers, but also of the cinematic giant – Hollywood. Due to the interest of the younger generation in the format of comics, this genre can be used to promote ethnocultural traditions in the education and education of the younger generation with an orientation on the national characteristics of the country and the values ​ ​ of Kazakh art and culture. Such an axiological dialogue of the culture of near and far ethnic systems will certainly contribute to the development of interest in national heritage, since the conversation will be conducted in an accessible language of images and in the original presentation using modern graphic formats and genres.

Creating Big-Screen Audiences Through Small-Screen Appeals

Film trailers have begun to garner scholarly interest among film and music specialists, whereas spots or trailers produced for cinematic campaigns on television remain unexamined. This chapter attempts to redress the gap by studying the history, functions, and aesthetics of film advertising on television, primarily from the perspective of their soundtracks. The study documents how film studios only gradually accepted the medium of television for promoting their products, initially experimenting with a variety of formats and distribution models into the 1960s. Analysis of recent television trailer texts and practices reveals their reliance upon music as a narrative and gestural force, which increases as the release day draws closer and the short forms become shorter: music’s concision dictates its leading role in creating the urgency of last-minute appeals. Closer examination of one television marketing campaign in particular, for The Dark Knight Rises (2012), illustrates how music functions within typical small-screen advertising promotion.

YOUNG OLEXANDER KORNIYCHUK: SCREENWRITER AND FILM DIRECTOR (1929–1934)

For the first time, the cinematographic heritage of the 1920s by Ukrainian comedian Oleksandr Korniychuk (1905–1972) was comprehensively considered, and an attempt to create a new historical and cultural optics in considering the creative heritage of Soviet playwrights and cinematographers of official ideological orientation was proposed. The degree of importance of studying the author’s compositional architecture of the «big mute» at the Odessa and Kyiv film studios in deepening the elucidation of the dramatic principles of Korniychuk’s stage work is shown.Key words: Oleksandr Korniychuk and cinema, Ukrainian cinema of the 1920s, screenwriting.

The Rise and Demise of a Developmental State Studio

This chapter introduces five motion picture studios that stood out in Asia at the beginning of the 1960s, such as Shin Films in South Korea, GMP and CMPC in Taiwan, and Shaw Brothers and MP&GI in Hong Kong and Singapore. It examines how film studios in the region aspired to implement the rationalized and industrialized system of mass-producing motion pictures known as the Hollywood studio system. It also explains that the Hollywood studio system evolved in the United States to handle film production, distribution, and exhibition during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The chapter recounts how the studio system became a highly efficient system that produced feature films, newsreels, animations, and shorts to supply its mass-produced motion pictures to subsidized theaters. It describes Fordism as the famous American system of mass production with particular American circumstances.

The Cinema of Transcaucasia in the 1920s and 1930s

The paper is concerning the Soviet seizure of the cultural space of Transcaucasia and the establishment of „national“cinematography in the Soviet republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1920s – 1930s. The Soviet power realizing the influential potential of cinema turned it into instrument of state propaganda. The three Transcaucasian film studios (in Tiflis, Yerevan, Baku) had a common task – to change the image of the East as exotic world and to alternate it with the image of the Soviet East. At the same time each of the film studios was entrusted a specific role in the Soviet cinema: The Georgian film studio as the first established Transcaucasian studio initiated the earliest agitation films glorifying the Soviet republic and the earliest heroic – adventure (western) films „Red Devils“ (“Krasnye dyavolyata”) (1923). But as the most prominent success of the Georgian cinema was labelled the movie „Eliso“ (1928), which according to the Soviet critique was considered as „ historically realistic narrative about the struggles against the colonial politics of Tsar’s autocracy“. The role of the non-Muslim Armenia and the Armenian film studio was to contribute for the removing the yashmaks from the face of the East. About the highly evaluated from the Soviet propaganda film „Namus“ (1925) „the father of the Trans-caucasian cinema“ Hamo Bek-Nazarov received the recognition of being the first one to show the true image of the East without make-up. Another task of the Armenian cinema which was successfully done was to ridicule and relegate the independent Armenian republic, governed by the party of Dashnaktsutyun (1918-1920). Baku film studio was called upon to turn into centre of movies influencing ideologically and artistically the audience of Azerbaijan, Dagestan, Persia, Turkey and other Eastern countries. It was proclaimed to be national proletarian centre for export of socialism to „ the foreign countries of the East“. By Azerbaijan movies anti-Islamic Soviet propaganda was implemented denouncing „the reactionary essence of the Muslim priesthood “. Such are movies „Bismillah“ (1925) and „Sevil“(1929, co-production with Armenian film studio). The movie „Sevil“ came out during the campaign for removing the yashmaks which was organized and controlled by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It got the recognition of contributing for the „liberating of women of the East“. The movie is significant of the cooperation between the Azerbaijani playwright, poet and screenwriter Jafar Jabbarli, the film studio in Baku today is named after him, and the Armenian director Hamo Bek-Nazarov, the film studio in Yerevan is also named after him. In the conclusions some myths about the Soviet Transcaucasian cinema are mentioned, myths already demystified. The Transcaucasian cinema from 1920s – 1930s was not a result of free and creative exchange of knowledge and experience but it was created in a capsulated world under the control of the Soviet power. That is way the whole story of this cinema from the beginning of the 20th century is full of examples for its use for narrow political aims.