Laura

The film industry dates back to the early 1800’s in New York City.  At this time illusions were used to create a “moving” object.  Persistence of vision aided in creating peep shows.  Thomas Edition took peep shows to a new level when he invented projection film equipment.  Edison set up the “Motion Picture Patents Company,” also known as the Trust.  Producers had to pay the Trust’s patent fees otherwise they would not be allowed to create movies.  If they did not pay the fee but made movies anyway, the equipment would be destroyed.  Eventually, producers became fed-up with Edison’s Trust and moved to California to make their movies.  Not only was California a good distance away from Edison, California also had a variety of land features such as the following:  beaches, mountains, cities, deserts, and country.  Edison’s Trust was forced to go out of business in 1917 by the American government.  Even after the Trust was gone no one moved back to New York to film their movies; California had beautiful scenery and perfect lighting.  Stars were being born as movies were being produced.  Movies were one of the main forms of entertainment until the television was invented.  Instead of movie companies trying to compete with television, movie studio’s produce television programs.  Television was not the only hurdle that movie companies would have to jump; new media was creating new competitors in the entertainment business.              VCR’s were looked at as a threat, because they were capable of recording programs off of the television.  VCR’s ended up making the movie companies more money by making tapes that people could buy or rent to view in their homes.  DVD’s were not looked at as a threat until people began downloading movies off of the internet illegally.  Pirating is easy for people to do if they’re okay with stealing.  Movie companies had to make some type of profit off of the downloads, so they made movie downloads easily available and legal for consumers to purchase.

            Controversies with movies affect the movie companies and the movie viewers.  The main controversies are as follows:  violence, stereotyping, censorship, and movie ratings.  Every controversy must be taken into consideration before the public views the movie.  The audience, or potential audience, makes the decision to watch or not watch the movie.  People are free to make their own decisions and have the choice of what to watch.  No one is forced to watch anything that movie companies produce, but a wide variety of movies are available to the public.