In 1915 Charlie Chaplin released “The Tramp,” which propelled him to stardom as the down-on-his-luck but hilarious to watch character people know him for today. The very next year he said that cinema was only a fad and that on-stage drama was what people truly longed for. Luckily for Chaplin, film continued to grow throughout the 20th century and made him a household name.
What the modern filmmaker goes through to create their final product is far different from what Chaplin was used to in the early days of cinema. Filmmaking as a career has been subject to the processes of rationalization first discussed by Max Weber. Though film production cannot be optimized in exactly the same way as a factory or fast food restaurant can, the creative process of filmmaking has been undeniably affected by the process of rationalization.
A Brief History of Film
In 1891, Thomas Edison invented the kinetoscope, a small box which a single viewer could peer into and view one of several different short clips (Lule, 2018). Edison soon developed the Vitascope, and the first film screening held in America occurred in April 1896. During this period viewers were more interested in film as a moving image than as a medium through which to tell stories. As the novelty began to wear off by the beginning of the 20th century, filmmakers such as George Méliès began experimenting with the medium by using technical tricks to tell short, contained stories.
However, “Méliès’s films remained anchored in the aesthetic of the theater, going so far as to replicate the exact dimensions of the Théâtre” (Solomon 2012). The use of moving pictures only as a way to record adapted theatrical works limited its use. That is, until the release of Edwin Porter’s The Great Train Robbery in 1903, which used editing and shot composition to create an entirely new type of content utilizing moving picture technology (Lule, 2018). This led to the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company. The company was resistant to change, however, and did not provide audiences with the long-form, multi-reel film they desired, leading to the success of independent companies which are still relevant today, such as Universal, Goldwyn, Fox, and Paramount (Lule, 2018).
The silent film era, along with being a period in which advancements were made in cinema as an art form, saw the first forms of censorship occur in the film industry. In 1922 what would become the Motion Picture Association of America formed in response to the fear of potential government censorship. William Hays imposed a voluntary code (known as the “Hay’s Code”) which ensured films were not morally dubious (Mondello, 2008). Though this code was voluntary, any filmmaker hoping to get their film in theatres had to subject it to a long list of ambiguous rules in order to receive the Hays stamp of approval. Eventually the MPAA would transition to the ratings-based system we know today, though the PG-13 rating was not added until 1984 (Parker, 2017).
The end of the silent era came when Warner Brother’s purchased the Vitaphone, which allowed easy synchronization of film and sound. After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, silent films quickly became less and less popular until they were essentially phased out by 1930 (Lule, 2018). Film continued to evolve technically with the introduction of the three-color Technicolor process, which allowed the widespread viewing of color films for the first time (Lule, 2018). Filmmakers also began using wider aspect ratios around the 1950s, partially as a response to the increasing popularity of television (Pogue, 2018). After what has become popularly known as the golden age of cinema ended in the mid-1940s, the percentage of Americans who went to the movie theatre regularly began to decline.
The 1970s saw the rise of blockbuster films and the increasing popularity of sequel films (Lule, 2018). Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Godfather, and others saw multiple sequels, and in some cases spawned larger franchises (Lule, 2018). As big-budget movies continued to grow in popularity and profitability, the 1990s and 2000s saw the rise of small, independent filmmakers as a reaction to these larger films (Ortner, 2012). Today, the most profitable films are sequels, remake films, and those part of already popular film series.
Rationalization
Rationalization as first defined by Max Weber is the replacement of traditional approaches to behavior in society with rationality and reason. American Sociologist George Ritzer put a modern spin on this with his book “The McDonaldization of Society,” which describes how most if not all aspects of society are becoming more and more dependent on aspects of what made fast-food a successful industry (Ritzer, 2020). The most effective way to view how filmmaking has becoming rationalized is by using Ritzer’s four dimensions of McDonaldization (Ritzer, 2021). These four dimensions are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control.
Forces Driving Rationalization
Advancements in Technology
Almost every time film has gone through a major technological change, those within the industry declare the change as only a fad. Louis Lumière described cinema itself as “an invention without any commercial future,” (Menand 2005). Charlie Chaplin described films with sound as having a limited field, and that “they are held down to the particular tongues of particular races,” (Chaplin, 1931). Early film director Allen Parker described color as violent and something to be restrained, despite ongoing scientific efforts that would eventually develop the three-color Technicolor process (Lafrance, 2015). Quentin Tarantino has said that “If I can't shoot on film I'll stop making movies," in response to the rise of digital filming formats (Bramesco, 2016).
Despite this resistance, these changes have almost always seemed to stick (Menand, 2005). The reason for this lies mostly within audience demand and how this relates to the profitability of films; for instance, after audiences received a taste of what synchronous sound was like with the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, the number of silent-only movie theatres gradually decreased. As sound continued to become a mainstay in theatres across the United States, weekly attendance of the cinema continued to grow, though attendance dropped in the mid-1930s due to the great depression (Butsch, 2001).
Technological advancements, despite resistance from industry professionals, have worked to rationalize the process of filmmaking by increasing the ease with which films can be made, as well as putting more control in the hands of the filmmaker.
Increase of importance in marketing
Changes in film advertisement has had an undeniable effect on the process of filmmaking itself. For instance, since the MPAA introduced the PG-13 rating in 1984 it has seen an overall increase in profanity (Perez, 2015). Perez hypothesizes that this is due to the PG-13 rating being more appealing to both younger and older viewers (Perez, 2015).
The rise in recognizable franchise films has also increased the rationalization of filmmaking. As previously mentioned, the top 10 grossing films of 2019 all had some form of precedent, whether that be because the film was a remake, sequel, or part of a larger franchise. These films have free marketing from the films they are associated with, which Brinker argues conflates the processes of production and consumption through the free word-of-mouth (and online) advertisement these franchise films have (Brinker, 2016). This argument echoes Ritzer’s idea of the “prosumption” in a way that directly relates to the marketing of films (Ritzer, 2020).
Ritzer’s Four Dimensions and How they have Increasingly Shaped Film Production
As a creative medium, film may not seem immediately susceptible to rationalization. However, the increase of focus on film as a means to profit has inevitably led to more and more aspects of the systems which produce movies becoming rationalized. The process of rationalization, then, has had more of an effect on movies produced by the “Big Five” film studios—Paramount, Columbia, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, and Universal—than it has on independent or “indie” films. Indie films, then, can be seen as a resistance to the for-profit motivations of the Big Five film companies as rationalization continues (Ortner, 2012).
Efficiency
Ritzer defines efficiency in McDonaldized systems as “finding and using the optimum method for getting from one point to another,” (Ritzer, 2021). In terms of film production, this can be defined as the speed with which a film goes from an idea to a completed work. While the length of popular films increasing since the integration of sound in the late 1920s may seem to contradict the idea that the process of filmmaking is becoming more efficient, this is simply the reflection of audience desires. While it would be more efficient to create shorter pieces of media, this niche is already filled by television. Filmmakers, however, fill the public’s desire to consume longer, more detailed pieces of video media.
The first step towards efficiency in film production was the splitting up of roles on the film set. Early films were largely solo projects, meaning that the director of the film was involved in every aspect of the film's production from inception to editing (Donnelly, 2015). Thomas Ince became one of the film industry’s first and most powerful producers in the early 1910s when he began utilizing what would eventually become known as the continuity script (Staiger, 1979). These scripts laid out every step in the process of filming one of Ince’s movies, from the writing of the proto-screenplays used in the silent film era, to the filming of the movie, and finally to the film’s distribution (Staiger, 1979). Ince became the first person to successfully split up both the creative and technical aspects of film production in a highly efficient system. According to Staiger, the development of a fully-fledged management system in the production of film “was more important to the long-term structure of the film industry and to the development of the form and style of films that industry was to produce than was the impact of any individual film or director,” (Staiger, 1979). After 1930, the continuity script gained prominence as an industry-wide tool used to increase efficiency in the production of any film (Donnelly, 2015).
Calculability
According to Ritzer, calculability emphasizes the quantitative rather than qualitative aspects of a product (Ritzer, 2021). As a creative profession filmmaking typically involves more qualitative aspects. However, over time these qualitative aspects have been quantified by members of the profession in order to maintain audience interest and improve marketability.
Because film is a recreational activity rather than a necessity, audiences are not as concerned about receiving their entertainment calculably faster as is the focus in the fast-food world. Audiences are concerned with receiving more entertainment for their dollar, however, which is present in the fact that the highest-grossing films have increased in length since the end of the silent film era.
Moreover, there is more action now within an individual film. The length of individual shots has become shorter, but there is now more visual activity on screen than ever before. There are now more shots and more physical action within those shots, which reflects the audience's desire for maximum stimulation in their movie-going experience. Audiences who choose to go to films calculate that they will receive more enjoyment in their spare time from the movies than any other medium, and this has been reflected on the production side by increased efforts to put more length and more action into films.
Calculability has also increased in film production in response to how marketable certain films are. The MPAA rating system acts as an earmark for what type of audience a film is meant for. In their study on how MPAA ratings influence film revenue, Conaway and Ellis conclude that movies rated PG-13 earn $15 million to $34 million more in revenue compared to movies with an R rating (Conaway and Ellis, 2015). They note that this conclusion is a departure from previous studies that had used older data, meaning that this trend in the importance of film ratings has only emerged in recent years. While the rating of a film may only seem to affect how that film is marketed, the incentive of making more money by producing a film rated PG-13 as opposed to R, for instance, can affect that film’s production: “The creation of the PG-13 rating changed the incentives of filmmakers; to maximize revenues, films must have access to the broadest market of potential viewers and any rating above the PG-13 designation effectively eliminated potential revenue streams,” (Conaway and Ellis, 2015).
Filmmakers must contend with the limitations of making a PG-13 rather than R-rated film if they want to please the studio they are working with. Filmmakers must be precise with exactly what type of violence, nudity, and profanity they use in their films. For instance, the practice of only allowing one use of the word “fuck” in PG-13 movies has led to the careful placement of when the word is used. The full guidelines for what qualifies a movie for being PG-13 include provisions about drug use, nudity, and sexually derived words (“Classification and Rating Rules”). Perez found an increase in profanity and some forms of violence in his study of PG-13 and R-rated movies since the invention of the PG-13 rating class, which he said reflects some director’s desire to produce films with more violence and profanity within the limitations of PG-13 films (Perez, 2015). Director Ridley Scott has commented on this struggle: “The question is, do you go for the PG-13, or do you go for what it should be, which is R? Financially it makes quite a difference…” (Conaway and Ellis, 2015).
Predictability
McDonald’s offers predictability in that “products and services will be much the same over time and in all locales,” (Ritzer, 2021). While customers can order two big macs from different McDonald's locations and receive essentially the same item, two films produced by the same company or directed by the same person will always have innate differences. However, this aspect of rationalization has still managed to touch the film industry in a big way. Though films have not become more like each other overall and have arguably only diversified more in terms of genre over time, the most profitable films are those that have some form of existence in popular media before the film itself is released. As previously mentioned, the top ten grossing films of 2019 were all a remake, sequel, or part of a larger franchise. Actor Dustin Hoffman himself compared people’s perception of the cinema to “McDonald’s Culture” in a 1995 Washington Post article: “...in our culture now people want to know what they’re getting when they go to the movies,” (Powers, 1995).
Ritzer touches on the movie franchise in a section of the McDonaldization of Society called “Entertainment: Welcome to McMovieworld,” (Ritzer, 2021). In this section, Ritzer emphasizes the number of sequels scheduled to come out in 2021 and explains this trend as a result of audiences' desires for familiar storylines and the studio’s desire for predictable profit margins (Ritzer, 2021).
This predictability becomes even more apparent in light of the rise of the cinema franchises such as Marvel, which took up three spaces in the top ten movies of 2019. Every film in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” has elements of other films within the franchise, in a way acting as marketing for these other films (Brinker, 2016). Moreover, audiences have come to expect certain elements in these films, most notably science fiction or fantasy action sequences and a particular brand of comedy that has become deeply ingrained within the Marvel-movie experience (Leadbeater, 2019). Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige manages all aspects of the creative side of film production at Marvel. Feige’s job is similar to that of a manager at McDonald’s: he ensures the relative uniformity of Marvel’s products. Though individual directors still have final say in what happens within their own films, Feige has overall control of the creative direction of Marvel. Chief Creative Officer has become a role at other studios as well, such as Pixar and DC Entertainment.
While films overall may not have increased in similarity, movies within franchises are becoming increasingly similar to each other, and therefore more predictable when the film is eventually seen by the viewing audience. And this ensures predictable earnings for studios at the box office.
Control
Companies exert control over both customers and employees through nonhuman technology in McDonaldized systems (Ritzer, 2021). In the case of filmmaking, employees could be any person with the potential to take part in the creative process—those on set, those involved in post-production—and the customer is the person watching the completed film.
Control is exerted over film crews through the irrational promise of Hollywood's grandeur and style. To focus on one person’s experience, Michelle Caruso, who worked on film crews for ten years, said that it was standard to work more than ten-hour days and over weekends while working on a film (Caruso, 2020). Moreover, she said that it is expected for crewmembers to do tasks above their position and pay grade in order to make career progress (Caruso, 2020). Though there is no set of rules stating that this is a part of every film crew, Hollywood culture has made working unrealistic, unhealthy hours the de facto reality. It is difficult to prove quantitatively that there is an increased amount of control within Hollywood film crews, it is a fact that jobs with markers of hierarchical structure in film crews have been increasing at a relatively steady rate.
Because filmmaking and watching of the film are comparatively separate from fast-food restaurants—where the food is prepared several feet away from the customer—it is difficult to imagine any direct control being exerted over the moviegoer. This view, however, comes from the strictly modern perspective of what a “movie” is and entails. To fully understand how filmmakers have increased control of how their movies are viewed, it is first necessary to have a background of what theatres were like prior to and in the early days of cinema. According to Butsch, theatre audiences used to have a fair bit of control over what happened while they were entertained; they would influence what music the musicians played and would force actors to repeat favorite lines or perform a certain way (Butsch, 2001). When silent film became a popular format audiences remained loud and rowdy (Butsch, 2001). With no sound, there was little incentive to stay quiet. When sound was implemented with film, Butsch claims, these previously loud audiences were forced to remain quiet (Butsch, 2001). This resulted in directors and other creatives expressing more control over how their film is viewed. Any increase in the technological side of film production increases how much control the director has over how a film is viewed.
Conclusion
Thus far, I have avoided references to the Coronavirus pandemic in this paper. This is because the effects it will have in the post-pandemic world are still unclear; while the pandemic has inevitably increased the number of movies people watch within their own homes, we do not yet know whether people will continue watching from their own homes or return to theatres in any capacity. As some movie theatres across the country reopen, some film distributors have decided to take a dual approach in how they release their films. Warner Brothers, for instance, is releasing all of its 2021 films simultaneously in theatres and on HBO Max (Ivie, 2020). Even before the pandemic use of streaming services and the number of streaming services had been on the rise. Figure eight shows that the number of people subscribed to online video mediums surpassed users of cable in 2017. Two best picture nominees of 2020 were primarily distributed through Netflix (Dove, 2020). The question, then, is what sort of effects will the continuing rise of streaming services have on the film production industry?
The rise of streaming services will blur the lines between television and film. Streaming services have already surpassed both cable and satellite in terms of popular use (See Figure 8), and the release of high-funded, high-quality series released all at once, as opposed to the previous practice of releasing shows weekly, will blur the lines between these previously distinct formats. Moreover, this will allow filmmakers to begin producing longer pieces of work under the guise of it being a “limited scripted series.” Limited series are by no means a new format, but they have grown in popularity since the rise of Netflix and other streaming services. The Queen's Gambit, a limited Netflix series released in its entirety on October 23rd, 2020, has a total runtime of more than six-and-a-half hours (“The Queen's Gambit”). The Queen's Gambit is not dissimilar to the highly regarded films released on Netflix: it has a high production value, it came out all at once, and has a director (Scott Frank) whose background consists of both film and television.
The only real difference between a movie released on Netflix and this type of limited series is how it is presented: in comparatively small chunks of media. This provides two clear benefits to both the filmmaker and the streaming service. First, it allows the filmmaker to produce a longer piece of work. As previously discussed, the most profitable films have become longer, but it is unlikely that anyone outside the staunchest film connoisseur would sit down to watch a six-and-a-half-hour film. Presenting a long film in the guise of a limited scripted series allows filmmakers to make a movie however long they want without any marketing backlash. This then leads to the second benefit, which is the rise in popularity of binge-watching among young people. Figure nine shows that the percentage of 18-29 year olds who took part in binge-watching behavior is higher in every instance compared to their older counterpart. Filmmakers exert more control over their audience when they decide to present a piece of work in this way; under the guise of freedom, it is the audience who “chooses” to just watch one more episode before bed, or before eating dinner, or before starting that term paper due Sunday. While people are unlikely to watch a six-and-a-half-hour film, they are likely to watch seven 55-minute installments of a television show nearly back-to-back.
Though some long-time directors (Martin Scorsese in particular, despite releasing his most recent film on Netflix) have opposed the transition to at-home film watching, the rise of streaming services has been compounded by the pandemic and is most likely here to stay. What the exact effect this will have on the profession of filmmaking is not yet clear.
References
Bramesco, C. (2016, January 05). Film vs. digital: The most contentious debate in the film world, explained. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2016/1/5/10714588/film-digital-35mm-70mm-explainer
Brinker, F. (2016). 4.2 On the Political Economy of the Contemporary (Superhero) Blockbuster Series. In 1326568478 973695919 S. Denson & 1326568479 973695919 J. Leyda (Eds.), Post-Cinema, Theorizing 21st-Century Film (pp. 433-473). Sussex, UK: Reframe Books.
Butsch, R. (2001). American Movie Audiences of the 1930s. International Labor and Working-Class History, (59), 106-120. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27672712
Caruso, M. (2020, July 27). Hollywood: Not so glamorous. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@michelle.caruso.film/hollywood-not-so-glamorous-60db01860121
Chaplin, C. (1931). Pantomime and Comedy. Retrieved from https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/01/25/118397961.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
Clarke, A. (2019, April 20). Changing times: Working on a film set. Retrieved from https://www.filmstories.co.uk/features/changing-times-working-on-a-film-set/
CLASSIFICATION AND RATING RULES. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.filmratings.com/Content/Downloads/rating_rules.pdf
Conaway, Brooke & Ellis, Daniel. (2015). Do MPAA Ratings Affect Box Office Revenues?. Academy of Business Research Journal. I. 64-88.
Cutting, J. E., Brunick, K. L., DeLong, J. E., Iricinschi, C., & Candan, A. (2011). Quicker, faster, Darker: Changes in Hollywood film over 75 years. I-Perception, 2(6), 569-576. doi:10.1068/i0441aap
Donnelly, M. (2015, February 03). The history of the screenplay. Retrieved from https://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/3147-the-history-of-the-screenplay/
Dove, S. (2020). Best picture Oscar NOMINATIONS 2020 - oscars 2021 News: 93RD Academy Awards. Retrieved from https://abc.com/shows/oscars/news/nominations/best-picture-oscar-nominations-2020
Follows, S. (2016, January 11). Film vs digital - what is HOLLYWOOD shooting on? Retrieved from https://stephenfollows.com/film-vs-digital/
Ivie, D. (2020, December 03). Warner Bros. to RELEASE Dune, the SUICIDE SQUAD, All 2021 films on HBO Max. Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://www.vulture.com/2020/12/warner-bros-to-release-dune-all-2021-films-on-hbomax.html
LaFrance, A. (2020, September 07). How technicolor changed storytelling. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/02/technicolor-at-100/385039/
Leadbeater, A. (2019, March 26). Captain Marvel points out THE MCU's biggest problem (but can't quite fix it). Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/captain-marvel-mcu-problem-comedy/
Loria, Staff, B., Eggertsen, C., & Loria, D. (2020, March 19). MPA: 2019 global box office and Home Entertainment surpasses $100 billion. Retrieved from https://www.boxofficepro.com/mpa-2019-global-box-office-and-home-entertainment-surpasses-100-billion/
Lule, J. (2018). Chapter 8: Movies. In Understanding media and culture: An introduction to mass communication. Boston, MA: FlatWorld.
Menand, L. (2005, January 30). Gross points. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/02/07/gross-points
Mondello, B. (2008, August 08). Remembering Hollywood's hays Code, 40 years on. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93301189
Olson, R. S. (2014, January 25). Movies aren't actually much longer than they used to be. Retrieved from http://www.randalolson.com/2014/01/25/movies-arent-actually-much-longer-than-they-used-to-be/
Ortner, S. B. (2012). Against Hollywood. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2(2), 1-21. doi:10.14318/hau2.2.002
Parker, R. (2017, May 23). How 'the temple of doom' changed the mpaa ratings system. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/indiana-jones-temple-doom-changed-mpaa-ratings-system-999618
Perez, C. A. (2015). A Content Analysis of the MPAA Rating System and its Evolution. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1089&context=honors-theses
Pogue, D. (2018, February 20). A brief history of aspect RATIOS, AKA Screen Proportions. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-brief-history-of-aspect-ratios-aka-screen-proportions/
Powers, J. (1995, March 05). TALES of HOFFMAN. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1995/03/05/tales-of-hoffman/650d23a0-72d1-4f9f-9eff-188e1714df53/
Pravato, M. (2020, November 12). Netflix is successfully stealing the Hallmark holiday movie formula. Retrieved from https://dbknews.com/2020/11/11/bad-christmas-movies-hallmark-netflix/
Radloff, J. (2018, November 30). The secret formula Behind Hallmark's Christmas Movie Empire. Retrieved from https://www.glamour.com/story/hallmark-christmas-movie-secret-formula
Ritzer, G. (2021). The McDonaldization of society: Into the digital age (10th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Sabin, S. (2018, November 05). Most young adults have an appetite for binge-watching shows. Retrieved from https://morningconsult.com/2018/11/06/most-young-adults-have-an-appetite-for-binge-watching-shows/
Solomon, M. (2012). Georges Méliès: Anti-Boulangist Caricature and the Incohérent Movement. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 53(2), 305-327. Retrieved April 21, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850978
Staiger, J. (1979). Dividing labor for Production control: Thomas Ince and the rise of the studio system. Cinema Journal, 18(2), 16-25. doi:10.2307/1225439
The queen's gambit. (2020, October 23). Retrieved April 21, 2021, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10048342/
Tinits, P., & Sobchuk, O. (2020). Open-ended cumulative cultural evolution of Hollywood film crews. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2, E26. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.21
Top-Grossing movies of 2019. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.the-numbers.com/market/2019/top-grossing-movies
Image Credits
Fred Hartsook (1876–1930), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Bug, B. (2019, July 03). Maria robot Metropolis 1927 silent Film 3671. Retrieved May 04, 2021, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/93779577@N00/48187793306
Welcome to filmratings.com. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2021, from https://www.filmratings.com/
Fade to color. (2014, April 19). Retrieved May 04, 2021, from https://viennasclassichollywood.com/2014/04/18/fade-to-color/
Credits:
Created with images by Skitterphoto - "film 35mm vintage" • InspiredImages - "marvel comics cartoon" • MelanieFHardy - "camera crew film"