Networks of Entertainment

Description

Prominent scholars examine film distribution in the early years of cinema

This collection of essays explores the complex issue of film distribution from the invention of cinema into the 1910s. From regional distribution networks to international marketing strategies, from the analysis of distribution catalogs to case studies on individual distributors, these essays written by well-known specialists in the field discuss the intriguing question of how films came to meet their audiences. Among the authors are Richard Abel, Marta Braun, Joseph Garncarz, André Gaudreault, François Jost, Charlie Keil, Martin Loiperdinger, Viva Paci, Wanda Strauven, and Gregory Waller.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Essays
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Película fotográfica
• Cinema
• History
• Film
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: John Libbey Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 février 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780861969371
• Langue: English

Extrait

Networks of Entertainment: Early Film Distribution 1895-1915
Networks of Entertainment: Early Film Distribution 1895-1915
Edited by
Frank Kessler and Nanna Verhoeff
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Networks of Entertainment: Early Film Distribution 1895-1915
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 9780 86196 681 3 (Paperback)
Published by
John Libbey Publishing Ltd , 3 Leicester Road, New Barnet, Herts EN5 5EW, United Kingdom e-mail: [e-mail] ; web site: www.johnlibbey.com
Distributed Worldwide by
Indiana University Press , Herman B Wells Library-350, 1320 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. www.iupress.indiana.edu
2007 Copyright John Libbey Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.
Unauthorised duplication contravenes applicable laws.
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Contents
Introduction
Distribution - preliminary notes
Frank Kessler
PART I
NETWORKS:
Distribution across borders
Chapter 1
Rethinking Boundaries. The first moving images between Spain and Portugal
Bego a Soto
Chapter 2
What imports may not be able to tell us about the emergence of the last-minute rescue narrative in the American cinema
David Levy
Chapter 3
Avoid giving wine to children : George Kleine s correspondence with Cines and the discourse of uplift
John P. Welle
Chapter 4
Film colour and national cinema before WWI: Path color in the United States and Great Britain
Charles O Brien
PART II
NETWORKS:
Regional distribution and the problem of the national
Chapter 5
La distribution dans la r gion Lyonnaise: entre sp cificit s locales et strat gies nationales (1908-1914)
Renaud Chaplain
Chapter 6
Une diffusion nationale ? De la circulation d images locales ou nationales Lausanne 1896-1914
Pierre-Emmanuel Jaques
Chapter 7
De l ind pendance l absorption : le cas qu b cois
Pierre V ronneau
Chapter 8
Araign es et mouches : la formation du " syst me cin ma et les d buts de la distribution cin matographique en Espagne, 1906-1921
Luis Alonso Garc a
Chapter 9
Censorship and film distribution in Russia: 1908-1914
Rashit M. Yangirov
Chapter 10
The backbone of the business: Scanning signs of US film distribution in the newspapers, 1911-1914
Richard Abel
Chapter 11
Mapping the moving picture world: distribution in the United States circa 1915
Gregory A. Waller
PART III
NETWORKS:
Local actors
Chapter 12
Mr. Elliot Books Chaplins Direct : Essanay s Exclusive s Strategy in Southampton 1915
Michael Hammond
Chapter 13
Zeppelin ber Berlin - on the distribution of an early media event
Pelle Snickars
Chapter 14
The Audience Feels rather at Home : Peter Marzen s Localisation of Film Exhibition in Trier
Martin Loiperdinger
Chapter 15
Local distribution: The case of Jens Christian Gundersen in Norway
Gunnar Iversen
Chapter 16
Infrastructure, open system and the take-off phase. Jean Desmet as a case for early distribution in the Netherlands
Ivo Blom
PART IV
PRACTICES:
Distribution strategies
Chapter 17
Politics, steam and scopes; marketing the Biograph
Paul C. Spehr
Chapter 18
The price of independence: The Rolin Film Company s quest for distribution
Richard Ward
Chapter 19
Distribution s rielle et synchronisation du spectateur aux premiers temps du cin ma
Nicolas Dulac
Chapter 20
Monopolizing episodic adventures: series and seriality in Germany, 1914-20
Rudmer Canjels
PART V
PRACTICES:
Distribution paratexts
Chapter 21
Les consignes de l " diteur pour l assemblage des vues dans les catalogues de distribution
Pierre Chemartin et Andr Gaudreault
Chapter 22
Cataloging contingency
Jonathan Auerbach
Chapter 23
Comparing catalogues
Ian Christie
Chapter 24
As pleasing as it is incomprehensible : film catalogues as paratext
Marta Braun and Charlie Keil
Chapter 25
Liste f r gebrauchte Films zum Verkauf : Used Films for Sale in Germany and Austro-Hungary (1911-13)
Janelle Blankenship
PART VI
PRACTICES:
Non-theatrical distribution
Chapter 26
Sunday and Holy Days
Tony Fletcher
Chapter 27
Local entertainment and national patriotism: the distribution of colonial films in Early German cinema
Wolfgang Fuhrmann
Chapter 28
Early forms of film distribution in Germany, 1896-1905
Joseph Garncarz
Chapter 29
Just like a Public Library maintained for public welfare : 28mm as a comprehensive service strategy for non-theatrical clientele, 1912-23
Anke Mebold
Chapter 30
Bringing movies into the home: distribution strategies for 17.5 mm film (1903-08)
Martina Roepke
PART VII
PRACTICES:
Distribution into the future
Chapter 31
Avant-guerre and the international avant-garde. Circulation and programming of early films in the European avant-garde programs in the 1920s and 1930s
Ansje van Beusekom
Chapter 32
The imagination of wireless distribution
Wanda Strauven
Chapter 33
Les films impossibles ou les possibilit s du cin ma
Viva Paci
Chapter 34
Any ID? Building a database out of the Jean Desmet archive
Rixt Jonkman
Chapter 35
Des fragments des premiers temps l esth tique de la ruine
Andr Habib
Conclusion
Distribuer les films ou distribuer les r les?
Fran ois Jost
Afterthoughts
Beyond distribution: some thoughts on the future of archival films
Giovanna Fossati and Nanna Verhoeff

The Authors
Acknowledgements
The editors wish to thank the Research Institute of History and Culture (OGC) and the Institute for Media and Re/Presentation at Utrecht University for providing funding and support to this project.
Eva Baaren, Stephen Bottomore, and Sabine Lenk generously helped us with the editing process. We are particularly grateful to Berber Hagedoorn who, with extraordinary efficiency, formatted the manuscript and made sure we could meet the deadline we were running up against.
Introduction
Distribution - preliminary notes
Frank Kessler
Utrecht University
W hat is distribution ? According to Jean Giraud s invaluable, and indispensable, Lexique fran ais du cin ma des origines 1930 there are two meanings of the word, which originally are derived from technical theatre terms, the first one referring to a detailed listing of the tableaux or scenes of a film , the second being the equivalent of the English word cast . But there is also a third definition - which, of course, is the most relevant one with regard to the problems dealt with in the essays collected here:
In the language of cinema economy: intermediate stage between production and exhibition, or the theatre circuit. Providing exhibitors with prints. Synonym of: renting . 1
The corresponding activity, to distribute , is consequently defined as: dispatching, placing prints of a film for exhibition purposes . 2 And a distributor is the one who is in charge of placing the films produced by a firm in a given geographic area . 3
The different definitions that Giraud proposes for distribution as an aspect of the economy of cinema can be used to map a multi-dimensional field of research raising different sets of questions.
First, distribution has a relay function , it serves as an intermediate stage making sure that an exhibitor receives a steady supply of prints from the various producers. This may actually also be a reason why, up to now, distribution has been a comparatively neglected area, as historians paid much more attention to the two outer ends of the chain: film production, on the one hand, and exhibition - that is: the ways in which films encountered an audience - on the other. So some of the fundamental questions to ask, are the following: What exactly happens between the two outer ends, between production and exhibition? How did this intermediate stage emerge? In what ways did that stage have consequences for production practices, but also for what, finally, audiences will see on the screens of movie theatres? How did this intermediate stage become institutionalised? By which means did producers, distributors, and exhibitors communicate with each other?
Second, distribution is about placing the films, or rather the prints for exhibition purposes. What factors do come into play here? How did they influence choices that are being made in this area? How were films distributed physically? Which networks did emerge? What economic, political, legal etc. forces had an influence on the circulation of films? Who controlled what, and at which level?
Third, one of the definitions quoted above mentions the specific geographic areas in which distribution takes place. So how did distribution networks function locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally? Were there differences between countries, regions and cities? How were these geographic areas established?
Distribution, in other words, should be understood, in more than one respect, as a key element in the emergence of the institution of cinema. In fact, there isn t really any equivalent for its specific way of functioning in other domains of the cultural industry of that period: in tho