Monday, October 10, 2016

Format war in adult industry (Miguel Ovalle

http://migue960527.wixsite.com/blogmedecon

Friday, October 7, 2016

A neglected treasure of world cinema: Benshi (Japanese film before Akira Kurosawa) By Natalia Reyes

BENSHI !!

The benshi or katsuben were one of the most important figures in the early days of cinema in Japan.Its initial role was to narrate foreign films that projected for an audience that could not understand the signs, as they were not subtitled in Japanese, but not only was merely foreign films, but also to Japanese movies.

Benshi also reproduce the dialogues of all characters and even imitated the sounds.

The benshi were not a result of motion pictures. They did not come about because the Japanese masses needed motion pictures and motion picture technologies explained to them. In the early twentieth century the illiteracy rate was still very high and therefore in many countries the figure of someone who was in charge of reading the signs of the film became popular.

BUNRAKU

Japan had few direct precedents, since there was a long tradition of storytellers. Some of the most similar to that of benshi were the e-Toki (in which a narrator explaining a story from an image, sometimes accompanied by music), bunraku (puppet theater that history was explained practices a reciter) or even the narrator in the kabuki theater, which was reciting the plot.

e-TOKI

KABUKI

The benshi, were located on the left side of the stage behind a table, a place that not even left in their time of greatest popularity, as always it was understood that the focus of visual attention had to be the screen (oasiones also try to draw attention for example one specializing in films of Chaplin comment benshi reached the point of dressing like him to foster that relationship).

However, the films began to become complex, the duration was increasing and, gradually, they were daring to narrate stories in greater depth. The role of benshi was no longer merely descriptive, but should also be explanatory. The problem was not only understand the signs of the films and an increasingly elaborate, but understand Western ways that appeared in the films narrative system.

The Kiss 1896

An example of this was the movie: Kiss of Edison in 1896, which was considered highly immoral for its content, but the intervention of censorship by the authorities was avoided thanks to the explanation of benshi, who said that, what they saw it was a typical habit of the West

There were two ways to approach the art of setsumei (name with which the narrative that made the films known):

Yamanote style: more realistic and objective understanding the role of benshi like a mere explainer of what was happening on the screen.
Shitamachi style: more melodramatic and stylized.

The first was obviously more appropriate for foreign films while the second fit more with own productions. So it was not uncommon for the most professional benshi to specialize in a particular type of films: films of time (jidai-geki), contemporary films (gendai-geki) or foreign productions.

On the other hand, the style of each benshi changed depending on whether working in rural or city areas, even to adopt the accent of the region to work. Thus, for the public of every people it was as if the famous Hollywood actors speak with his accent, making closer to those famous international figures

In 1927 it transpires that had benshi 6,818 (of which 180 were women curiously). His popularity reached such levels that in Japan people did not go to see a movie attracted by the name of a popular actor, but by the benshi that interpret.

How does all this affect the Japanese production of the time? From the moment that viewers gave priority to benshi on films, Japanese industry was conditioned by this circumstance. Japanese scriptwriters and directors made their films not thinking them as autonomous works that viewers would see for themselves, but as films that would be accompanied by an explanation of a benshi.

Prompting even in the 20s the Japanese film narrative progressed in a somewhat slow. It did not need to understand the films themselves therefore not seen the need to develop an audiovisual grammar to make them fully understandable films to viewers. On the contrary, the rapid realization of films was encouraged, knowing that benshi narrative fill gaps or errors.

A minority of filmmakers and moviegoers began to show their dissatisfaction with the system when foreign films palpably showed that Japanese cinema was lagging behind the rest of the world. However with the advent of sound, the reign of Benshi began to fall. The attractiveness of this new system ne movies, cuasaba curiosity in people and attracted them and convicting them of going to see them.

The popularity of the Bnshi faded with the introduction of sound to accompany film. Ironically, given the historical dominance of the Benshi profession during the silent film era, today the most celebrated Benshi is a woman, Sawato Midori. Midori has worked as a professional Benshi for the past twenty years, and is now the only person in Japan who earns a living in this field. Dym notes that, when Midori was asked what is the most important role of the Bneshi today, she replied, 'Communicating the spirit of the films made in the past to today's audiences'

CURIOUS FACTS!

No matter which film played or which benshi narrated, the film hero was usually named Jim, the heroine, Mary, and the villain, Robert.

in 1936, there were 5151 registered benshi. In 1937, there were 3726, and by 1939, that number had fallen to 1302.

Of the films shown, in 1920 4588 reels were American film, 231 European, and 1914 Japanese. In 1925, 9679 were Japanese, 8873 American, and 1023 European.

In 1918, the smallest theater seated 244, and the largest theater seated 4221.

The best theaters hired the prettiest female ushers. Trade journals circulated that compared the ushers’ looks and commented on their love lives with theater patrons.

Day laborers received an average salary of 59 sen/day. First-year elementary teachers: 20 yen. Beginning bankers: 40 yen. A particular 13-year-old girl benshi: 80 yen. Benshi Somei Saburo’s signing bonus: 3000 yen.

For a time, audience seating in some theaters were gender segregated to protect virtuous women from wandering hands in the dark theaters.

In 1925, film represented 71% of mass entertainment.

Some areas banned certain words, such as masuizai (anesthesia), kissu or seppu (kiss), and dorobo (burgler). These were replaced with nemuri (sleeping medicine), atsuki kuchi zuke (hot mouth touching), and kano akkan (that scoundrel).

The phrase, “smelled like butter” (batta kusai) was used to describe films too foreign in content and technique.

Somei Saburo simply inserted the English word “and” into his setsumei and fooled the audience into thinking he was educated and could speak English.

Benshi sometimes made fun of actors on screen by commenting on their physical appearances.

1935 marked the sound transition in film: 78% of all theaters were wired for sound, the majority of films produced were sound films, and the top 10 films were all “talkies,” whereas in 1934 eight were silent and six were talkies.

The audience felt that they were on intimate terms with their favorite benshi and often called out to them in the theater by nicknames such as “Big Mouth” or “Fish Face.” (Anderson and Richie 24)

The phrase “spring, ah, spring” was commonly quoted by benshi during lovers’ scenes in films.

To supplement their income, some benshi put gratuity boxes near their podium where fans, especially female ones, left money, often as marks of affection.

LEAR MORE ABOUT JAPAN ORAL TRADITION OF STORYTELLERS (Kabuki and Benshi)

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Rakugo eiga

Yasujiro Ozu and the art of Benshi

References

http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/a_brief_history_of_benshi
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/benching-benshi-japans-illustrious-century.html
http://courses.hamilton.edu/documents/Dym.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benshi
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/video/video-yasujiro-ozu-art-benshi
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/reviews/2005/Shimoda.html

German Federal Film Board- María José Cruz

It is really important to support the film industry, that’s why Film Boards are vital for enhancing the economy of this industry. The Government should support the national film industry and help them, so their projects are not only a success nationally, but worldwide. Down below, there will be some information about how the is the Germany´s film industry financed.

The German Federal Film Board (FFA) is a public institution that supports the promotion and production of the German cinema. It also is in charge of improving the structure of the national film industry and it works to align and coordinate film support measures by the Federal Government and regional states.

The institution was founded in 1968 as an answer to the deterioration of the German´s film industry in that decade and following the lead of France and Italy, countries that had established systems in order to support their national film industries.

The FFA support films at all stages of production (so it can fund projects from script development to the production stage and its distribution). The FFA has also other duties like the preservation of film heritage, the promotion at an international level of German cinema, it has to promote film education and to compare, analyze and publish data from the German film, exhibition and video industries. With the data compared from the box office there are important results about the German cinema market (Cinema-goers, attendance, turnover, ticket price, market share, viewing behavior, among others)

The FFA has a staff of 55 people. The CEO of the institution is Peter Dinges and his deputies are Frank Völkert and Christine Berg. The Administrative Council, which has 36 members, is in charge of the main issues in the FFA´S area of responsibility. There is a granting Committee that is responsible of choosing to which film project are the funds going.

The German Federal Film Board is financed by the “Film Levy” that following the German Film Law (FFG) establishes that companies exploiting feature films have to pay a legally proportion of their revenues to the FFA. It must be paid by exhibitors, the amount is calculated per screen and based on the annual net resulting from the tickets sold; the video industry, it ranges within 1.8% to 2.3%, also calculated on the annual net from the revenues; and the broadcaster: for the public ones, the amount they have to pay is based on their expenditure for airing feature films; and for the private ones, with free to air channels pay based on their net advertising turnover. Finally, the programme providers pay a not scaled of 0.25% of their net turnover from their subscription contacts. The annual budget of the institution is around 76 million Euros.

The German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) is administrated by the FFA, created in 2007. Its funding consists of a non-repayable grant to film producers and awarded for films, documentaries and animated pictures. This funding does not apply for television projects.

The FFA supports co-production with France and Italy. Germany has a supplementary agreement called “Minitraité” established with the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC) in addition to the German- French Film Agreement. On the other hand, the FFA and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage Activities and Tourism (MiBACT) agreed to support the co-development of film projects.

The importance of these Film Boards is to support the national industry, in order to promote the production of films with good quality that can reach the widest audience it can get. For example, the movie Look who´s back (David Wneddt,2015) funded by the FFA with 1.432.040 Euros was listed as one of the German submissions for the Foreign Language Film at the 89^th Academy Awards, it was not selected though. But the point is that as more support the Government gives to these projects, the more possibilities there are for, in this case, German’s films to be known and have even more profits.

An example of the possibilities that the co-production agreements allow is the movie Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015) an international co-production between France, Germany and Turkey. The FFA total amount funding was 170.000 Euros. This movie has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in the Academy Awards (2016), nominated for the Golden Globes for the Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and it won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Director´s Fortnight section in the Cannes Festival, and it has been nominated and won other awards.

Link to the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU9JAN8LtIk

References:

-http://www.ffa.de/ffa-overview-1.html

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Germany#German_Film_Academy

-https://books.google.com.co/books?id=QQsRlg7zjDwC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=german+federal+film+board+1968&source=bl&ots=2KI4difCoV&sig=u5rkDq8ZtnkGmk4wmlymzDlUL5c&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYj6j46snPAhVD8j4KHbuZBDAQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=german%20federal%20film%20board%201968&f=false

-http://www.cineuropa.org/dd.aspx?t=dossier&l=en&tid=1365&did=147062

-http://www.dfff-ffa.de/en.html

-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3966404/awards

KODAK (By María Fernanda Díaz Bernal)

Kodak (The Eastman Kodak Company) is an american technology company that it's focused on imaging products, with photography as its main topic. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, United States and incorporated in New Jersey.

HISTORY

In 1884, the american inventor George Eastman patented photographic film stored in a roll. It only took him four years to perfect the first camera to take an advantage of his creation.

In 1892, the company was founded in Rochester, New York, United States. Its name comes from three principal concepts that Eastman used in order to create the name: it should be short, easy to pronounce and not resemble any other name or be associated with anything else.

First Kodak camera

In 1900, it was launched The Brownie camera with a price of $1. That brought photography to the mass market. The basic cardboard box took square image on 2 ¼ film.

In 1920, an “Autographic feature” gave a means for recording data on the margin of the negative at the time exposure. This feature was supplied on all Kodak cameras except for a box camera designed for making panoramic pictures.

Also in 1920, Tennessee Eastman was established as a wholly owned subsidiary. The manufacture of chemicals, such as asacetyls, needed for Kodak’s film photography became the main purpose of the company.

In 1930, the company launched on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, where it remained for 74 years.

In 1932, at age 77 George Eastman died because he took his life with a gun shot.

In 1935, Kodak introduced a color reversal stock for movie and slide film, called Kodachrome.

In the period covered by 1949 and 1956, Kodak introduced the retina series 35mm camera.

In 1959, Kodak introduced the first automatic Brownie camera called The Starmatic Camera, which sold 10 million units over the next five years.

George Eastman and Thomas Edison

In 1963, Kodak introduced and inexpensive, easy to load, point-and-shoot camera called Instamatic.

In 1969, the film used on the Apollo 11 missions was produced by Kodak. Each double-perforated 70mm roll could capture 160 colour pictures or 200 black and white images.

In 1975, an engineer from Kodak named Steven Sasson created the 3.6kg device that stored images on cassette tape, had a 0.01mp resolution and took 23 seconds to expose each image. This made Kodak the first company to build a working digital camera.

In 1976, a researcher called Bryce Bayer created the Bayer Pattern color array (CFA). The order in which dyes are placed on an image sensor photosite is still in use nowadays. The basic technology is still the most commonly used of its kind to date. Also, during this year, Kodak introduced the first Kodamatic, an instant picture camera, using a similar film and technology to that of the Polaroid company. In addition, Kodak had a 90% market share for photographic film and 85% share of camera sales in the United States.

In 1986, some scientist of Kodak invented the world’s first megapixel sensor, capable of recording 1.4 million pixels and producing a photo quality 12.5 com x 17.5 cm print.

In 1994, Apple launched one of the first consumer digital cameras, the QuickTake. It was designed by Kodak and it currently had been released months before Apple’s version in Japan under its own name. The camera took photos at a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels.

In 2003, Kodak introduced the Kodak EasyShare LS633 Digital Camera, the first camera to feature an AMOLED display, and the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000, the world’s first printer-and-camera dock combination.

In 2005, in the United States Kodak was the largest seller of digital cameras, with revenue reaching $5.7 billion. By 2007, it had fallen to fourth place by 2010 to seventh.

ECONOMY OF KODAK

The film industry was wildly successful for decades and that it’s why Kodak was so single-mindedly set on protecting its core business. At its top point, about 70% of the United States film market, buyer or otherwise, was locked up for Kodak, and the company had a strong international distribution as well. Kodak was selling a lot of film and it was making a lot of money.

Kodak had a huge success due to its advertising campaigns. The company successfully persuade families to become archiver of those airy moments, which could be captured for the eternity in a photograph caught on film. When they had an strong market of consumers, Kodak used its campaigns to make people use it products.

In 1962, Kodak employed 75.000 people and earned more than $1 billion in United States sales. In an industry that was almost their own creation, they had a huge success and an incredible position over more than 70 years. They achieved that due to their focus on selling inexpensive cameras to keep consumers buying their films. The most important thing to Kodak was to protect their interest in film photography.

KODAK AND COLOR

In 1935, Kodachrome was introduced, followed by Agfacolor in 1936. They were designed primarily for amateur home movies and slides. These were the first films of the integral tripack type, coated with layers of differently color sensitive emulsion, which is usually what is meant by words “color film” as commonly used.

The first color negative films and corresponding print films were modified versiones of these films. They were introduced around 1940 but only came into wide use for commercial motion picture production in the early 1950’s. In United States, Eastman Kodak’s Eastmancolor was the usual choice. (Taken from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_motion_picture_film)

Kodachrome came in every format - 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm, 120, 116, 828- and it facilitate the creation of color movies and rich color photos in print publications.

The Kodachrome process — in which three emulsions, each sensitive to a primary color, are coated on a single film base — was the brainchild of Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes, two musicians turned scientists who worked at Kodak's research facility in Rochester, N.Y. Disappointed by the poor quality of a "color" movie they saw in 1916, the two Leopolds spent years perfecting their technique, which Kodak first utilized in 1935 in 16-mm movie film. The next year, they tried out the process on film for still cameras, although the procedure was not for the hobbyist: the earliest 35-mm Kodachrome went for $3.50 a roll, or about $54 in today's dollars. (Taken from http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1906503,00.html)

Bibliography:

Have block booking and vertical integration re-surfaced?. Is “pan and scan” a thing of the past?

Fujifilm: Innovation and Corporate History

Fuji Film Holdings Corporation is a photography and imaging multinational. It's principal activities are the development, production, selling and service of colored photo films, digital cameras, paper, chemical products, screens, printers and many more cool stuff. Their HQ are located in Tokyo, Japan.

Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. was founded in

1934 as a result of the split-off of a previous Japanese company, Dainippon Celluloid Company. The first years of Fujifilm were tricky, their products were way to expensive, taking into account that they were not really high quality, and it turned out to be cheaper for the client to import.

Fortunately, they were able to prove their research and improvement in

1936, after they released their first film and also their first motion picture negative film, the last one not so easy to produce.

The company continued researching and expanding until Japan entered WWII in

1939, at this point, all of their services were aimed for the military so the rest of the people had to wait.

The infraestructural damages war produced in two of their factories, led to some improvements in the company, boosting the color research and finally, in

1948, allowing them to produce their first color film.

Fuji film's international market continue expanding and were able to produce in larger quantities (finally in a competitive way with the Western companies) thanks to some licensing agreements with Eastman Kodak, however, their struggle for their not so good quality was still in few terms. In

1952, Fujifilm introduced it's first amateur roll film and in

1958, the Fuji Photo Film do Brasil Ltda. was stablished (obviously in Brazil), demonstrating the company's international intentions. During this decade, also, Fujifilm reached a lot of exports agreements in different continents.

By the 60's, Eastman Kodak was the biggest developer in the market and it's dominance forced the other companies to adjust their systems to the one Kodak used, this included Fujifilm, which saw it's growing slowed. In

1965, Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc. was stablished in New York State, from this point, Fujifilm managed it's market in the United States. In

1970, Kodak held almost the whole U.S. market, but Fuji's color films were already faster than Kodak.

By the late 80's, Fujifilm was doing pretty good, with presence in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia principally. Despite the traditional market was indifferent, Fujifilm discovered a new segment of consumers, one that was all about instant photography.

1986, Fujifilm introduced the world's first one-time-use recyclable camera, QuickSnap. Their success was being, nationally and internationally, huge till the point where they become the number one camera producers in

1992.

Fujifilm best years were in the early 90's, when their sales kept breaking records until 1992, in part because of the economic recession in Japan.

Fujifilm also works in the development of medical equipment since the 80's (for example, the Digital diagnostic X-ray imaging system: FCR, in 1983). In

1999, they produced Sapientia, a digital endoscope system, which allows to see live in a screen footage taken from inside the patient.

Finally, in

2013, as a subsidiary in Colombia, established FUJIFILM COLOMBIA S.A.S

References:

http://www.fujifilm.com/about/history/corporate_history/
http://www.fujifilm.com/about/history/innovation_history/#content7c
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/fuji-photo-film-co-ltd-history/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujifilm

Nicolas Rincon Diaz

NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA

By: Danna Valentina Rocha

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is an agency of the Government of Canada within the portfolio of the Canadian Heritage Department. Its principal mandate is “to produce and distribute and to promote the production and distribution of films designed to interpret Canada to Canadians and to other nations”; but this mandate has been revised many times over the years to take into account the changing audiovisual environment and financial and social situation.

But, ¿When it was created? ¿Which are it missions and activities? ¿Why it is important for the country?

“The National Film Board has a unique role in providing Canadians with innovative, challenging Canadian content that would otherwise not be available. With increased competitiveness and market pressures and with the rapid and far-reaching impacts of the digital revolution, the private sector in Canada is unable to take the creative, financial and technological risks that must be taken for Canada to remain at the forefront of the cultural industry. By testing the creative possibilities of new technologies, tackling tough issues of concern or enabling distribution into remote communities, the NFB provides Canadians and the Canadian industry with new opportunities and contributes to a vibrant Canadian culture and heritage”.

Well, let’s talk about it history.

In 1938, the Government of Canada invited John Grierson, a British pioneer in documentary film, to study the film production of the country. Until this moment, the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau had been the major film producer. But in 1939, the National Film Commission was funded, based in the National Film Act of 1939, in which were included the results of the study of Grierson. Later, the name was changed to National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The creation of this agency is the central event in the history of Canadian cinema.

By 1945, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) had turned into one of the largest film studios in the world with more than 500 films released and 2 series about Canada in the war (1940).

In this same year, John Grierson resigned and was replaced by Ross McLean, who faced considerable difficulties. Budgets and staff was reduced and the NBF came under attack for allegedly harboring left-wing subversives and as holding monopoly that threatened the livelihoods of commercial producers. He couldn’t fix the problems, so Arthur Irwin came in 1950 to calmed the storm initiating a new National Film Act.

The National Film Act of 1950 included the mandate that I previously said. Besides, it removed any direct government intervention into the operation and administration of the NFB. Also, during the postwar decade, production expanded into new areas: dramatics films were made for the first time, new techniques were explored in animation, and the information film and production for TV were initiated.

One of these improvements was the fact of including French-speaking films. In the beginning, the NFB was an English-speaking institution and it was located in Ottawa. But, in 1947, the screenwriter Jacques Bobet was hired and he started to worked with the French Unit appointing to produce French versions films in 1951; and, in 1964, a French production branch was finally established, after many protests of young Québec filmmakers. In 1956, the NFB’s headquarters was relocated from Ottawa to Montreal.

The mandate for the National Film Board was refined in 1967 after the creation of the Film Development Corporation (Telefilm Canada) and Challenge for change; two projects that promoted the development of film productions in Canada.

In the early 1970s, the NFB began a process of decentralization, in which they opened many regional productions centers across the country helping people to make they own films wherever they are.

During 1970s and 1980s, the NFB produced many series of vignettes which became popular because of their cultural depiction of Canada and because they represented its changing state. They became so popular that began airing in CBC and other Canadian broadcasters.

The NFB budget was cut again in 1996 forcing it to close some departments and to lay off some staff.

In 2006 was the 65^th anniversary of NFB animation. in October 2009, the NFB released a free app for Apple’s iPhone allowing users to watch thousands of NFB films in HD; in 2010, was released an iPad version of the app.

Beginning May 2, 2014, the NFB's 75th anniversary was marked by such events as the release of a series of commemorative stamps by Canada Post, and an NFB documentary about the film board's early years, entitled Shameless Propaganda.

One of the priorities of NFB is the animation and it has amazing productions in this field since 1941. The award winners’ animations are:

Bob’s Birthday (1993, David Fine & Alison Snowden)
The Danish Poet (2006, Torill Kove)
Madame Tutli-Putli (2007, Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski)
Special Delivery (1978, Eunice Macaulay & John Weldon)
Gloria Victoria (2012, Theodore Ushev)
Wild Life (2011, Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby)
Sunday (2011, Patrick Dayan)
Ryan (2004, Chris Landreth)
Me and My Moulton (2014, Torill Kove)

All the information about the agency is in the official page https://www.nfb.ca where people can watch all the contents, the films, the documentaries, the animations and a lot of information about their productions.

REFERENCES