Book Description
In this unprecedented, all-encompassing, and thoroughly entertaining account of the movie business, acclaimed writer Edward Jay Epstein reveals the real magic behind moviemaking: how the studios make their money.
Epstein shows that in Hollywood, the only art that matters is the art of the deal: Major films turn huge profits not from the movies themselves but through myriad other enterprises, from video-game spin-offs and soundtracks to fast-food tie-ins, and even theme-park rides. The studios may compete for stars and Oscars, but their corporate parents view wth one another in less glamorous markets such as cable, home video, and pay-TV.
Money, though, is only a small part of the Hollywood story; the social and political milieus–power, prestige, and status–tell the rest. Alongside its remarkable financial revelations and incisive profiles of the pioneers who helped build Hollywood, The Big Picture is filled with eye-opening insider stories. If you are interested in Hollywood today and the complex and fascinating way it has evolved in order to survive, you haven’t seen the big picture until you’ve read The Big Picture.
Customer Reviews:
An authoritative, mesmerising read.......2007-05-01
If you want to understand how Hollywood became what it is today then this book ticks all the boxes: it tracks Hollywood from its beginnings in the early-20th century and the early part of the book focusses on the development of the big six media corporations in the world and who runs them and why TV and DVD are now far more important to the bottom line than straight theatrical release.
Some of the real examples of Hollywood's incredible loss-making ability are startling: one studio's 'greatest success' actually lost over US$60m, and you learn that the drivers of money and power are not the strong but actually it all boils down to children: what they want and don't want fuels the whole industry.
Fascinating stuff and very easy to read...five stars, no questions asked.
a good book about recent changes in the industry.......2006-09-26
Edward Jay Epstein's book provides an excellent overview of how business has changed in Hollywood since the 1970s. The book will give the reader a chance to think about how the industry moderates its relentless pursuit of money occasionally in order to pursue loftier goals. The book is particular strong in identifying key industry leaders, such as Lew Wasserman, who were able to respond quickly to changing circumstances and to rebuild the studio system in a new form after the rise of television. For a more complete history of the studio system, see Douglas Gomery's recently published book. But this one is a good read and it does a good job of recounting the recent history of the industry.
The New Hollywood Chicken/Egg Theory Exposed.......2005-11-16
Hollywood quality controlled by the bottom line? Gee, what an original concept. The question is, does Tinseltown point its checkbook any which way new media outlet winds blow or does it take a moral philosophical stance in a chaotic evil-is-hip era defined by a fantasy video game role playing culture of death?
Do most films today suck because they're only made for kids? And should it not matter because they're an easy target audience? That's a cop out. In the days of old Hollywood, moguls created demand across a wide demographic spectrum. Only advances in home media in the past 30 years have disaffected the issue of quality.
Epstein's new age filmic disorder tome basically applies cold harsh statistical reality to a cultural traffic accident and doesn't make a reasonable value judgment on what's happening. He's too busy dotting his is and crossing his ts with stat data to care. His beef is to say that's the way it is. Tough cookies.
As such, stating the facts and stressing the obvious is not rocket science when the largest demographic of Americans in 40 somethings are left out in the cold in ageist exclusion. Mature adults would rather stay at home because suits have decided only kids are worth making movies for. So they fear good filmmaking.
Any entertainment consumer with a clue is staying away in droves because the current generation of talent have no brains, style, taste or creativity for anything except that which will appeal to the lowest common denominator. And when the dream machine's quality control chicken is its egg, apathy becomes its own vice.
So don't blame the the demise of Americana on the rise of home video. Instead, blame the missing vision and low IQ of modern media decision makers and end users. Generations X and Y rule the roost. At the end of the alphabet, only Z is left. Does this signal our end days? Take in the latest 50 Cent flick to decide.
If we live in a world where movies and music contain no more important civil messages and merely serve as escapist pastime and we experience societal downfall as a result, soon there will be no bottom line to speak of. A show business peddling dreck to kids while good will falls to ruin doesn't deserve to survive.
The only useful thing this book has to say is that corporate entities make most of their profits in direct home DVD sales. So if you're making a movie, bypass bohemian green lighters who set the substandards and go straight to digital video. Not only is quality old hat these days. Film itself is an endangered species.
Interesting book, but a lot of redundant information.......2005-11-15
This is a good book about the evolution and the workings of the modern Hollywood system. (For summaries, see the other reviews.) I enjoyed the first third of the book a lot, but then it became more and more repetitive. A lot of the information contained in Part 4 ("The Economic Logic of Hollywood"), Part 5 ("Social Logic"), and Part 6 ("Political Logic") had been already presented in the preceeding parts. For example, I don't know how many times Epstein mentions the 29 million USD Arnold Schwarzenegger received for "Terminator 3" - it sure seems like a million times. In the end, you get the impression that the author had access to more detailed information about a limited number of movies (T3, Gone in 60 seconds) and then used them as examples for each and every point he is trying to make. All in all, some serios editing would have turned this really good book into an excellent one.
Hollywood in the spotlight.......2005-11-09
There's no business like show business, goes the old adage. But we now need a clarifier; which show business? The old show business of the 1940s-1950s of the big-budget epics starring the big name stars, or the new show business of DVD's, toys, stand-alone soundtracks, digital piracy, multi-national crews and casts and computer animation...
This book examines the evolution of the Hollywood business throughout the 20th century and into the early 21st century. Unlike other books of the same topic, this one looks at the major players, both individuals and companies, and covers a lot of the technological changes such as the advent of talkies, color movies, VHS, DVD, and the Internet. The book also deals with a lot of the legal / political issues, such as free-agency of actors and actresses, unions and guilds within the industry, copyright laws and intellectual property, and interconnected web that links TV, video, toy sales, franchise names, and company logos together.
The author shows how changes in technology and laws have changed the Hollywood business by changing relations between movie companies and their employees, between directors and the actors and actresses, and between moviegoers and moviemakers. The role of advertising is examined to see how it has changed over the decades from posters and previews of previous decades, to the TV spots, toys in food boxes, pre-screenings, and guest-show appearances of today. The book also shows how changes in Hollywood have affected the movie industry in other countries, and vice versa.
Overall, a well balanced and comprehensive book on the movie-making history.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Weekly Standard, published by News America Incorporated on April 25, 2005. The length of the article is 3317 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Hollywood means business: art, and commerce, make movies.(Books & Arts)(The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood)(Book Review)
Author: Martha Bayles
Publication:
The Weekly Standard (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 25, 2005
Publisher: News America Incorporated
Volume: 10
Issue: 30
Page: 31(5)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Let It Blurt is the raucous and righteous biography of Lester Bangs (1949-82)--the gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock criticism. No writer on rock 'n' roll ever lived harder or wrote better--more passionately, more compellingly, more penetratingly. He lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, guzzling booze and Romilar like water, matching its energy in prose that erupted from the pages of Rolling Stone, Creem, and The Village Voice. Bangs agitated in the seventies for sounds that were harsher, louder, more electric, and more alive, in the course of which he charted and defined the aesthetics of heavy metal and punk. He was treated as a peer by such brash visionaries as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Captain Beefheart, The Clash, Debbie Harry, and other luminaries.
Let It Blurt is a scrupulously researched account of Lester Bangs's fascinating (if often tawdry and unappetizing) life story, as well as a window on rock criticism and rock culture in their most turbulent and creative years. It includes a never-before-published piece by Bangs, the hilarious "How to Be a Rock Critic," in which he reveals the secrets of his dubious, freeloading trade.
Customer Reviews:
a legend.......2007-06-10
lester bangs is a legend in the music industry. this is a great read for anyone who is a fan of his work. i got a used copy and it was in great condition.
More or less a shame.......2007-03-31
Let it be assumed that most of the people who read this book will be familiar with Lester Bangs, be it through his writings or (as when I first heard of him, from the initial issues of _Punk_ magazine or like quasi-insider sources) by reputation.
For such readers, reading this book will be an experience that brings only minor rewards. For those interested in Bangs' writing and its influences, the book will clarify the direct stylistic influences (those called the Beats, mostly). On the other hand, anyone who's read Bangs' articles (collected or in situ) should have had no trouble recognizing the rather flimsy rants as variations on the Beat theme.
Other readers might be interested in the milieu of the book. This was the appeal to me, as I spent much of my youth moving in the same world, meeting the same people (and, indeed, running into Bangs himself at CBGB's). Such readers will find the book a pleasant way to be reminded of other times.
The "shame" part of my title stems from two things: first, Bangs' life as described in this book was pretty pathetic. Much of it was wasted with drug and drink, as was common and unremarkable at the time. (Most of the Bangs reputation grew from self-publicizing.) Likewise, it becomes clear from the book that Bangs knew little about music technically (as becomes clear from reading his generally useless reviews), so that the great measure of the value of his writing comes only from his profoundly derivitive style, which stood out only because of the places in which it was published. Note that Derogatis is clearly a Bangs fan, so that any critical apprasal of Bangs' writing must be supplied by the reader.
The second shame is that this book is a better read than anything Bangs turned out. "Let it Blurt" is not a bad way to pass an afternoon or two, but the uninteresting subject finally gives the reader an impresssion of emptiness. This is no fault of Derogatis': writing about an empty life is no mean task.
Buy the colections instead.......2006-10-19
It was necessary that someone would write a book about the late great Lester Bangs but it could have been better. As some of Lester's stuff it suffers from juvenile tendencies and does not in that sense allways give the man the seriousnes he deserves. It is in no way a very bad book but it should have been better and the two colections of hiw work deserve to be bougth first.
Very Good Biography.......2006-02-22
He was raised by Jehovah's Witenesses, didn't bathe often, and got high off cough syrup. He was recently enshrined in the Rock Snob Dictionary. Welcome to the world of Lester Bangs, whose speed-feuled writing made rock criticism into an art form. Jim Derogatis has done Lester's memory justice, though the subject of his biography comes across as difficult, immature, and self-destructive. Lester lived the life of the rock stars he wrote about. And though he tried his hand at playing in a few bands, his music career never went anywhere. What he's remembered for is his writing, which was done in the gonzo journalist style of Hunter S. Thompson. Whether or not you share Lester's tastes--which ranged from the New York Dolls and Captain Beefheart to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music anti-album--you have to appreciate his passion for music. He's like the guy in school who would rant and rave about his favorite bands in a way that was both poetic and embarrassing. After all, was what he was talking about that important? For Lester it was: what was at stake was an art form that he felt was more democratic than any. Punk's "Do it Yourself" aesthetic was supposed to signal a new era of self-made musicians and raw, powerful albums. Lester believed that rock was never about the music so much as the swagger. One only needed three chords and a lot of attitude. When the 1980s rolled around, Lester seemed depressed by the move away from musicians who couldn't play to the more competent bands of New Wave. Although Lester has been immortalized by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous, the spirit of Lester is more apparent in a movie like High Fidelity, which celebrates vinyl snobs and music fanaticism. Whether you like Lester as a person after reading this book, and I did not, Derogatis has written an entertaining and well-balanced biography. However, he doesn't include much of Lester's own critical writing in the book other than the appendix piece, "How to Be a Rock Critic." But, having read this book, I now want to seek out collections of Lester's work. Recommended reading for any serious rock fan.
Lester Bangs Lives!.......2005-09-24
I first became exposed to rock 'n roll literature through an older cousin who was an avid reader of Creem magazine. I soon became a fan of Lester Bangs'work through that medium. This book does a good job of book documenting the turbulent life of Lester with sincerity, compassion and is a great, easy read. Any fan of Lester and his imaginative, cerebral writings would find this book worthy of being in your collection.
Average customer rating:
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Lillian Roxon: Mother of Rock
Robert Milliken , and
Lillian Roxon
Manufacturer: Black (Aus)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1863951393 |
Book Description
Lillian Roxon is the undisputed godmother of rock journalism. Audacious, independent and fiercely intelligent, she cut her teeth as a reporter in the lively world of 1950's Sydney tabloid journalism. She moved to New York in the 1960s just in time for the cultural revolution celebrating fresh attitudes to sexual freedom, women's liberation - and, of course, rock music. At Max's Kansas City in New York, she became the center of a crowd including Lou Reed, Jim Morrison and Andy Warhol. Linda McCartney confided in her about her first date with Paul, and Germaine Greer knocked on her door for a place to stay. Lillian's Rock Encyclopedia was the first book of its kind and established her as one of America's leading chroniclers of rock culture. Twenty-five years after her tragic death, she was termed the Mother of Rock, but was more than this. Smart, cheeky, vibrant and idealistic, of her times, she was a trailblazer and an inspiration -- a woman who encouraged others to follow the new paths she opened up
Customer Reviews:
From Oz She Came.......2006-03-13
Robert Milliken has written a fine biography of the pioneering journalist Lillian Roxon, author of ROCK ENCYCLOPEDA (1969). On one hand anyone would feel sorry for Roxon, who died alone in a crumby New York apartment surrounded by giant cockroaches, and so young, only 41, and she died of asthma which thank God very few people die of. One has the feeling that if only she felt able to share her life with someone she might have lived; as Milliken hints there are some unanswered questions about her death.
However on the whole the book is a colonnade of sustained joy, for Roxon's life was an extraordinary one and she seems on every turn to have found the most fun available. Plus she lived during a great period in Australian history, finding herself at a very young age (as a schoolgirl) part of Brisbane's chic, avant-garde "Pink Elephant" crowd, a young girl in a wild scene of poetry, homosexuality and small, intensive galleries and late night cafes and bars. She never looked back, becoming a top journalist in Sydney where she worked for the city's top paper, the Morning Herald, where eventually the corporation sent her to New York City. In 1960, just in time for Camelot and the Kennedys and the beginning of the Twist and Nureyev and Fonteyn and, finally, the scene where she found her niche, the rock/art back room at Max's Kansas City. Nearly everyone loved her, for she was not only beautiful and brainy but she had a shrewd, native generosity, and helped out her fellow writers wherever she could. She befriended Linda Eastman, who broke her heart by ignoring her after her marriage to Paul McCartney was brokeraged. And she encountered another Australian wild woman, the provovateuse Germaine Greer, who wrote THE FEMALE EUNUCH in 1971, dedicating it to Lillian as most of us have forgotten by now. All these tangled stories and scenes Milliken lays out like the pro he is, and yet never losing sight of his main thread, the way Roxon took to innovation and the experimental like a dog to water.
As a bonus, Milliken included a shrewd selection of some of the highlights of Roxon's famous ENCYCLOPEDIA, now apparently sadly out of print, as well as some pertient and previously uncollected articles that were published before her death. This small anthology of Roxon's work makes us long for an edition of her critical slash gossip writing in toto.
Book Description
Few British jazz musicians have been at the cutting edge of as many movements as Ian Carr. A pioneer bebop player in his youth, a colleague of Eric Burdon and John McLaughlin in the R'n'B explosion of the 60s, co-leader of one of Britain's most innovative jazz groups, the Rendell-Carr Quintet, a free-jazz colleague of John Stevens and Trevor Watts, and the founding father of jazz rock in the UK with his band Nucleus, Carr's musical career alone is truly remarkable, and a one-man history of British jazz in the 60s and 70s. Add to that his work as a member of the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble with such distinguished leaders as George Russell, Stan Tracey and Mike Gibbs, and his work as a player is even more remarkable.
Yet Ian Carr is also one of the most perceptive critical writers and broadcasters about jazz, being not only the co-author of the Rough Guide, but also the celebrated biographer of Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis. In recent years he has transformed his writing talents into making innovative and prizewinning films on the music he loves, for which he has always been a fearless and outspoken advocate, from the time of his 1973 book Music Outside. As a teacher, his pupils have included such stellar British talents as Julian Joseph, the Mondesir brothers and Nikki Yeoh. He has been a professor of jazz at London's Guildhall School of Music since the 1980s and was founder of the jazz workshop at the Interchange arts scheme.
In this full length biography, Alyn Shipton examines the fascinating mix of ingredients that comprise the man and his music, and in the process draws a vivid picture of Carr's home region, the North-East of England, of National Service, of such literary influences as W. Somerset Maughan, of post-war continental Europe and its Bohemian arts scene, and of the London jazz world from the 1960s onwards. The book shows that jazz does not have to have an American accent to be original and innovative, and to inspire audiences all around the world.
Customer Reviews:
Human sidelight on Shostakovich.......2007-01-04
Limited as it is in scope and ambition, the book brings out the eminently humman side of Shostakovich through correspondence dealing essentially with matter-of-fact everyday matters. Glikman seems to have worshipped Shostakovich, who evidently valued his friendship highly.
A pleasing volume with interesting photos and ample notes to fill in the background, it will be appreciated in particular by aficionados.
An engaging journey through 30+ years.......2002-06-21
Shostakovich's letters to Glikman show the personal side of the composer -- a man of humor, wit, intelligence, and an overall powerful mind. While keeping in mind his highly negative attitudes towards the Soviet government, the reader sees clearly Shostakovich's use of codified language, forms of reverse psychology, irony, parody, all of which he uses to keep the offical government censors off his (and Glikman's) back, and yet to deliver his true message, idea, opinion in a singularly and brilliantly effective way.
My only reservation about the book is the one-sidedness of it. Glikman's letters, or simply more extensive commentary (although it is remarkably thorough, and an outstanding job for an old man 30 years later!). Shostakovich destroyed all the letters he received, so remedying this problem, alas, is virtually impossible.
Highly, highly recommended despite this.
Average customer rating:
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Beethoven's Critics: Aesthetic Dilemmas and Resolutions during the Composer's Lifetime
Robin Wallace
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Beethoven, Ludwig van
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ASIN: 0521306620 |
Book Description
This book is a survey of the critical reaction to Beethoven's music as it appeared in the major musical journals, French as well as German, of his day, and represents the first book-length history of Beethoven reception. The author discusses the philosophical and analytical implications of these reviews - by, among others, Hoffmann, A. B. Marx and Berlioz - and reassesses what has come to be the accepted view of a nineteenth- century musical aesthetics rooted in Romantic Idealism. Wallace sees Beethoven's critics as in fact providing a link between two apparently antithetical approaches to music: the eighteenth-century emphasis on expression and extra-musical interpretation and the nineteenth-century emphasis on `absolute' music and formal analysis. This book thus provides, in addition to a carefully documented study of Beethoven's critical reception, a re-evaluation of his oeuvre and its significance in music history. An index of all reviews cited is provided, and a further appendix contains the quoted material in its original language. 'Robin Wallace's book is an important addition to the literature in the field, providing a detailed, yet concisely presented examination of the critical reception of Beethoven in contemporary musical periodicals.' -- Music and Letters 'Beethoven's Critics contains a wealth of fascinating information about the ways in which the composer's contemporaries and the following generation performed, heard, studied and evaluated his music.' -- Classical MusicThis book is a survey of the critical reaction to Beethoven's music as it appeared in the major musical journals, French as well as German, of his day, and represents the first book-length history of Beethoven reception. The author discusses the philosophical and analytical implications of these reviews - by, among others, Hoffmann, A. B. Marx and Berlioz - and reassesses what has come to be the accepted view of a nineteenth- century musical aesthetics rooted in Romantic Idealism. Wallace sees Beethoven's critics as in fact providing a link between two apparently antithetical approaches to music: the eighteenth-century emphasis on expression and extra-musical interpretation and the nineteenth-century emphasis on `absolute' music and formal analysis. This book thus provides, in addition to a carefully documented study of Beethoven's critical reception, a re-evaluation of his oeuvre and its significance in music history. An index of all reviews cited is provided, and a further appendix contains the quoted material in its original language. 'Robin Wallace's book is an important addition to the literature in the field, providing a detailed, yet concisely presented examination of the critical reception of Beethoven in contemporary musical periodicals.' -- Music and Letters 'Beethoven's Critics contains a wealth of fascinating information about the ways in which the composer's contemporaries and the following generation performed, heard, studied and evaluated his music.' -- Classical Music
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