Veni, Vidi, Video

by Wasser, Frederick

• ISBN13: 9780292791466
• ISBN10: 0292791461
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"This book represents a real addition to our shared knowledge of video, film, and media history, and I have no doubt that it will receive much acclaim. There is no [other] comprehensive history of the video industry, and Wasser's book offers just this in a clear and very useful manner."--Justin Wyatt, author of High Concept: Movies and Marketing in HollywoodA funny thing happened on the way to the movies. Instead of heading downtown to a first-run movie palace, or even to a suburban multiplex with the latest high-tech projection capabilities, many people's first stop is now the neighborhood video store. Indeed, video rentals and sales today generate more income than either theatrical releases or television reruns of movies. This pathfinding book chronicles the rise of home video as a mass medium and the sweeping changes it has caused throughout the film industry since the mid-1970s. Frederick Wasser discusses Hollywood's initial hostility to home video, which studio heads feared would lead to piracy and declining revenues, and shows how, paradoxically, video revitalized the film industry with huge infusions of cash that financed blockbuster movies and massive marketing campaigns to promote them. He also tracks the fallout from the video revolution in everything from changes in film production values to accommodate the small screen to the rise of media conglomerates and the loss of the diversity once provided by smaller studios and independent distributors.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction Signs of the Time	1	(4)
The American Film Industry before Video	5	(5)
The American Film Industry and Video	10	(4)
The Political Economy of Distribution	14	(3)
Video and the Audience	17	(1)
Structure of the Study	18	(5)
Film Distribution and Home Viewing before the VCR	23	(25)
A Brief Review of the Early Days of the Movie Industry	24	(2)
From Universal Audiences to Feature-Length Films	26	(2)
Movies at Home	28	(1)
Tiered Releasing	29	(2)
Broadcasting: The Other Entertainment Medium	31	(5)
Postwar Film Exhibition	36	(3)
Distributing Films to Smaller Audiences	39	(5)
Television Advertising and Jaws: Marketing the Shark Wide and Deep	44	(4)
The Development of Video Recording	48	(28)
Broadcast Networks and Recording Technology	51	(4)
Television and Recording	55	(5)
Home Video 1: Playback-only Systems	60	(10)
Home Video 2: Japanese Recorder System Development	70	(6)
Home Video: The Early Years	76	(28)
Choice, ``Harried'' Leisure, and New Technologies	77	(4)
The Emergence of Cable	81	(1)
The Universal Lawsuit	82	(9)
VCR and Subversion	91	(1)
X-rated Cassettes	92	(3)
The Majors Start Video Distribution	95	(1)
Videotape Pricing	95	(3)
Renting	98	(6)
The Years of Independence: 1981-1986	104	(27)
Independence on the Cusp of Video	105	(1)
New Companies Get into Video Business	106	(4)
Hollywood Tries to Control Rentals	110	(6)
Video, Theater, and Cable	116	(5)
Pre-Selling/Pre-Buying	121	(4)
Video and New Genres	125	(2)
Vestron's Video Publishing	127	(2)
Conclusion	129	(2)
Video Becomes Big Business	131	(27)
The Development of Two-Tiered Pricing	132	(3)
The New Movie Theater	135	(3)
Microeconomics 1: Overview	138	(3)
Microeconomics 2: Rental	141	(4)
Video and Other Commodities	145	(1)
Retailing Consolidation	146	(3)
Breadth versus Depth	149	(2)
Video Advertising	151	(1)
Video and Revenue Streams	152	(2)
Production Increase	154	(1)
More Money, Same Product	154	(4)
Consolidation and Shakeouts	158	(27)
High Concept	161	(1)
Disney Comes Back On-line	162	(3)
The Majors Hold the Line on Production Expansion	165	(6)
Vestron Responds	171	(5)
The Fate of Pre-Selling and the Mini-Majors	176	(4)
LIVE, Miramax, and New Line	180	(3)
Conclusion	183	(2)
The Lessons of the Video Revolution	185	(22)
Media Industries after the VCR	185	(9)
Home Video and Changes in the Form of Film	194	(6)
Images of Audience Time	200	(2)
A Philosophic View of Film and Audience	202	(2)
Whither the Mass Audience?	204	(3)
Notes	207	(20)
Bibliography	227	(10)
Index	237