High Concept

by Wyatt, Justin

• ISBN13: 9780292790919
• ISBN10: 0292790910
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

Steven Spielberg once said, "I like ideas, especially movies ideas, that you can hold in your hand. If a person can tell me the idea in twenty-five words or less, it's going to make a pretty good movie." Spielberg's comment embodies the essence of the high concept film, which can be condensed into one simple sentence that inspires marketing campaigns, lures audiences and separates success from failure at the box office. This pioneering study explores the development and dominance of the high concept movie within commercial Hollywood film-making since the late 1970s. Justin Wyatt describes how box office success, always important in Hollywood, becomes paramount in the era in which major film studios passed into the hands of media conglomerates concerned more with the economics of film-making than aesthetics. In particular, he shows how high concept films became fully integrated with their marketing, so that a single phrase ("Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. . . ") could sell the movie to studio executives and provide copy for massive advertising campaigns; a single image or a theme song could instantly remind potential audience members of the movie and the tie-in merchandise could generate millions of dollars in additional income. A former market research analyst in the film industry, Justin Wyatt is now an assistant professor of radio, television and film at the University of North Texas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Critical Redefinition: The Concept of High Concept	1	(22)
The Entertainment Industries on High Concept	8	(5)
The Critics on High Concept	13	(2)
Economics, Aesthetics, and High Concept as ``Post'' Classical Cinema	15	(1)
Micro-and Macro-Analysis: Style, Marketing, and Differentiation of Product	16	(4)
``The Look, the Hook, and the Book''	20	(3)
Construction of the Image and the High Concept Style	23	(42)
Advertising as an Influence on Style	24	(2)
``You've Got the Look'': Perfect Images in High Concept	26	(5)
Stars and Style	31	(5)
Music as an Element of Style	36	(8)
Excess in High Concept: The Promotional Music Video	44	(9)
The High Concept Image: Character Types and Genre	53	(7)
Style, Classical Hollywood, and the Art Cinema	60	(5)
High Concept and Changes in the Market for Entertainment	65	(44)
The Marketplace and Traditional Definitions	65	(4)
Conglomeration and Film Content: The Roadshow, The Youth Picture, The Blockbuster	69	(12)
Uncertainty in the Marketplace: The Development of the Contemporary Industry Structure	81	(13)
Differentiation of Product	94	(10)
High Concept as Product Differentiation	104	(5)
Marketing the Image: High Concept and the Development of Marketing	109	(46)
Changing Distribution Patterns	110	(2)
Awareness Marketing: High Concept in Print	112	(21)
Maintenance Marketing: Selling through Music and Product	133	(15)
Merchandising and Ancillary Tie-ins	148	(7)
High Concept and Market Research: Movie Making by the Numbers	155	(33)
The Growth of Market Research	156	(2)
The Model of Market Research within the Film Industry	158	(3)
Case Study: Determining Boxoffice Revenue	161	(1)
Theorizing the Positive Influences on Boxoffice Gross	162	(2)
Specification of the Model	164	(3)
Estimation of the Model and Results	167	(5)
Manipulation, Control, and High Concept	172	(4)
Factors Influencing the Decline of Market Research	176	(12)
Conclusion: High Concept and the Course of American Film History	188	(15)
The Transformation of the Auteur	190	(4)
Television and the Ideological Agenda of High Concept	194	(4)
The Alternatives to High Concept	198	(5)
Notes	203	(24)
Index	227