Week 5 Questions

How were young filmmakers in the late 1960s and early 1970s different from previous generations of filmmakers in terms of the following: how they broke into commercial filmmaking, how their films were financed, and who was in charge of the studios?

 

 

-It was almost impossible to break into the Hollywood film industry in the 1950s.  It was dominated by huge directors like Wyler and Hawks.  The younger generation started pushing things with films like Bonnie Clyde, which was produced by its 29 year old star Warren Beatty.  The Graduate is another film that did well, it was directed by a then 34 year old Mike Nichols.  In 1967, The Graduate earned 32 million dollars, becoming the movie of the decade and earning Nichols an academy award for best director.  The major studios were producing large budget movies at the time, many of which started to flop.  With the success of Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate, the studios began to hire younger producers and directors to try and connect to a younger audience.  This allowed great movies like Stanley Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey to be made.  Most of the major studios were being bought out.  Dennis Hopper’s Eazy Rider established the thought of turning Independent movies of young directors into blockbusters.  The auteur theory began to spend through film schools like USC and UCLA.  Producer Roger Corman began to find talented directors out of film school.  Studios started producing low-budget movies and almost always making their money back.  By a direct result of overproduction, every studio except 20^th Century Fox, Disney, and Columbia had been taken over by major conglomerates. 

 

 

Give examples of how Coppola’s Zoetrope Studios was similar and different from Roger Corman and American International Pictures.

 

-Both Zoetrope Studios and Corman’s AIP were studios that tried to produce movies that would appeal to the “youth culture.”  Coppola admits that he modeled Zoetrope Studios directly after Corman’s American International Pictures.  Coppola started producing his friend’s films such as George Lucas first feature, THX-1138.  The biggest difference between the two companies was Coppola’s desire to produce larger films.  He produced huge epics like Apocalypse Now.  Coppola was the sole owner of Zoetrope Studios.  After the movie One From the Heart, Coppola was almost bankrupt.  The highly stylized musical was expensive and did not do well at the box office.  In 1984, Coppola was forced to sell Zoetrope Studios.