Interview-Based Report Essay
Name: Prue Middleton
Student Number: S2917605
Unit Code: CMM10
Unit Name: Screen History and Research
My tutor: Dr Danielle Zuvela
Unit Convenor: Dr David Baker
Assignment Name: Interview Based Report
Assignment Number: 1
Word Count: 1500
Due Date: Friday week 5
Extension Granted: No
(If yes) Extension Date: na
(If yes) Extension Date: na
Interview Based Report
Cinema in Great Britain from the 1920’s onwards became one of the most popular forms of relaxation and entertainment. Today, cinema plays a similar role in people’s lives, yet there are many differences and few similarities between the viewing experience and industry between the past and present.
One woman, Barbara can recall her experiences of attending the cinema in her home town of Doncaster. Her experience of cinema …show more content…
was from her childhood up to the age of 16 during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, including the end of World War 2. In Doncaster, during the 1940’s and early 1950’s there was on estimate, an audience attendance at the local cinemas of about 50,000 every week. Within the town boundaries there were over seven picture houses, used exclusively to show films that could accommodate collectively 10,000 patrons (Curry 1988, pp.1). Barbara, along with her friends were just some of those 50,000 locals who frequented the cinema as a social outing at least once a week. The Gaumont was their favourite picture house, where “boys went to westerns and girls went to musical type things”.
This report will draw on Barbara’s experiences obtained through interview and compare and contrast them with current cinema. Drawing focus to film technology, industry, audience and regulation, the changes evident will be considered what Allen and Gomery (1985) refer to in their ‘generative mechanics’ theory, as events that all constantly converge into what we realise as cinema of today.
There are three main ‘generative mechanics’ that will be considered; the importance of the market, the relationship between the film industry, the audiences, and the outsiders and social/cultural and ideological issues (Allen and Gomery 1985).
Changes in Technology
Coloured films were already significantly developed by the 1940’s. The company Technicolor lead the competition with their three-colour subtractive system. However, the market value of colour film was still uncertain, due to it’s aesthetic association with spectacle and fantasy films such as musicals, westerns, adventures and Disney’s cartoons (Neale 1985, pp. 139), all of which include a sense of non-heightened reality. Outside of these genres, the aesthetic and market value of colour was uncertain, unpredictable and unprofitable and therefore less popular. During Barbara’s time attending the cinema as a child, colour film was not ready to be accepted by the market and social conditions of the time. In contrast, colour has become the norm in present cinema; the view has shifted from colour representing fantasy to that of reality. Sequences shot in black and white now regularly represent a flash back or dream type scene.
Whilst Technicolor dominated the early developments of colour film by employing highly trained science graduates, Eastman Kodak brought competition by taking financial risks and investing heavily in research and development. World War 2 halted Technicolor’s advances as film budgets and resources shrunk, this highlights the non-straightforward historical development of film, as social and cultural events postponed technological advancements.
Due to the cultural climate, Technicolor shifted their customer focus and began to accommodate the demands of wide-screen systems (beginning in the early 1950’s), supplying the colour for the first cinemascope film, The Robe (Henry Koster 1953) (Neale 1985, pp. 144).
Barbara recalls viewing this film at her local cinema on what she describes as “a thin screen that curved around”. The screen that Barbara referred to was CinemaScope.
The reasons behind this historical change in viewing are obvious; post World War 2 caused a drastic change to the American Economy that had previously thrived before its involvement in the war; moviegoers simply did not have enough money to regularly visit the cinema.
(Belton 1990, pp. 187). Moviegoers were also drawn to other, cheaper forms of ‘mass entertainment’ such as theme parks. The wide-screen revolution in cinema viewing attempted to break down the narrow confines of the early cinema screen, by creating a panoramic space of spectacle, that slowly encases the audience aimed to lure audiences back to the picture theatre (Belton 1990, pp. 1985). The change in viewing also represented a dramatic shift in the film industry’s notion of what a motion picture was or should be, shifting the primary function from entertainment to also include that of recreation. Audiences were no longer a group of passive spectators but now active participants in the film experience (at least this is the relationship the film industry pursued). However, Barbara described her CinemaScope experience as
‘awful’.
Cinemagoers have without a doubt become active participants in their film experience. Over the past decades great events in technological advancements such as high definition, 3 and 4D cinema have converged to create a viewing experience like nothing seen before. These new technologies will continue to converge with ‘new’ new technologies again and again, thereby further enhancing the viewing experience.
Changes to the Film Industry and regulation
The years between when Barabara attended the cinema as a child and present day have witnessed events that have reshaped the film industry. It is important to note that historically the film industry can never be seperated from other sysetms such as the popular entertainment industry, i.e. other forms of mass communication, national economies and other art forms (Allen and Gomery 1985, pp.17).
The immediate post World War 2 period saw a decline in British films being made, therefore most of what Barbara viewed in the cinema was imported from the American Film Industry. During this period America saw the end of the ‘Golden Era of Hollywood’ and the beginning of one of the great ‘sellers markets’, where there a consumerist hunger for products arose after the long drought caused by war and depression (Sedgwick 2005, pp. 187). Barbara attended the cinema post war ‘At least twice a week’. Compared to during the war when the cinema was often closed due to air raids near her town. During this time American films were most popular with audiences who as Barabara states that’s ‘how we got our culture’.
Today’s American films still dominate the market. As a teenager Barbara was also exposed to the beginnings of the packaged film industry media such as magazines. She was an avid reader of Picturegoer “a magazine that came every month and showed all the film stars”. Understanding the commerical recipe and economic determinants that these types of magazines and other commerical products such as video games, posters and merchandise of earlier films can give a deep insight into the contemporary film landscape and the importance of popular culture in the film industry today (Wyatt 1994, pp.22).
Refering back to Allen and Gomery’s (1985) ‘generative mechanics’ the film industry is directly influenced by the relationship with audiences and outsider bodies such as the governemnt. For the film industry it is obviously important to know as much as possible about the audience that consitutes their market. Demographic studies conducted by the film industry are evident from as early as the 1940’s.
However, the government are interested for other reasons; to protect those who are considered most vunerable. Barbara can recall attempts at regulating what audiences could view at her local cinema. Films deemed too adult, scary or complex were only accessable to children if accompanied by an adult, however it seems any adult would do as Barbara states, “someone in the que took you in… you never sat with them when you went through, they just got your ticket.” In contemporary times, government imposed laws classify films into age appropriate groups. This prevents the vunerable, mostly children, from being exposed to innapropriate material (Australian Classification, 2014).
The Audience
The audience has been mentioned throughout this report as an important aspect in regards changes that have been introduced to both film technology and the film industry. Although, it is important not to forget the experience of the audience as an important aspect of film history.
During his research Austin concludes that there is three classes of motivation for attending the movies; social, pyschological and intellectual (1989, pp. 58).
Barbara’s experience as an audience member reflects this notion. ‘Going to the pictures” was the center of Barbara’s social life where “girls and boys used to meet”. Going to the cinema was “a communal ritual” (Austin 1989, pp. 44)” for Barbara and her friends. The cinema also acted as a teacher for her “informational self” (Austin 1989, pp. 48) gathering information from a source that was distant from her life; through the form of film.
Today attending the cinema is still a rite of passage for most young people. Although, attendance is most likely to occur on less regular basis with other social and educational activities available and the ability to view films from home take up the majority of social activity time.
References
Allen, Robert Clyde, Gomery, Douglous. (1985) Film history as history. In Film history: theory and practice, Knopf, New York, pp. 3-32.
Australian Government, Australian Classification Homepage, Viewed 7 July 2014,
Austin, Bruce A (1989) Theories of moviegoing, in Immediate seating: a look at movie audiences, Wadsworth Pub. Co., Belmont, California, pp. 44-58.
Belton, John (1990) Glorious Technicolor, breath taking Cinemascope and stereophonic sound, In Balio, Tino (ed.) Hollywood in the age of television, Unwin Hyman, Boston, pp.185-211.
Koster, Henry 1953, The Robe, 20th Century Fox, Hollywood.
Neale, Stephen. (1985) I Cinema and technology: image, sound, colour. London: Macmillan Education. Ch. 8. "The beginnings of Technicolor", pp. 129-1 44.
Sedgwick, John (2005) Product differentiation at the movies: Hollywood 1946 to 1965, in Sedgwick, John & Pokorny, Michael (ed.) An economic history of film, Routledge, London; New York, pp. 186- 217.
Wyatt, Justin (1994) A critical definition: The concept of high concept, in High concept: movies and marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 1-22.
Interview
Conducted on 12.06.14, Manchester, U.K
With Barbara and Gordon Ryder
Where were the films shown in your hometown?
Barbara: We had, six cinemas in our town. And each village has one, each little village had one at least.
How did you find out about up and coming films?
Barbara: Trailers, they’re called trailers after a film
Gordon: You say on Monday you saw what were going to be on Wednesday
Barbara: And it changed three times a week the films, like Sunday it changed to Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday. Changed three times and you got two films. An A picture and a B picture.
Every time you went?
Barbara: Every time, plus a newsreel, like a 20-minute one, you were in like nearly three, four hour, pictures. You didn’t come out to half past ten. It were six thirty, pictures, ad you come out about, just gone ten.
Gordon: In those days an A film and a B film, the A film you being under 15 you had to get someone to take you in.
Barbara: So you stood and went down queue asking people if you could go in with them
How were the films marketed and promoted?
Barbara: They were out the front of the cinemas, A big sign wit billstickers that they used to change every week. Then all the cinemas had a foyer and you could go in before to the ticket place and they were all signs saying coming soon. That’s the only thing really.
Do you remember any particular trailers you saw?
Barbara: No we always wanted to come and see them but we couldn’t afford it you see. I never went to cowboy films but Gordon did didn’t you.
Were all the seats the same price and quality?
Barbara: No. There were cheaper ones at the front where you had to look up at the screen. I was only small so I had to look up really high. At the back were the stalls they were 1 and 9, they were upstairs with a balcony we called them ‘the gods’ It were right up with iron bars in front and kids used to put there heads through and get stuck, a man used to have to come and twist your head out.
Were there ushers to take you in?
Barbara: Yes, Gordon’s sister worked with the torch. She was movie mad so she went and got a job there at the Gormunt. They had to dash and sell ice creams from a big fridge at the back. They got a tray with ice cream on and they had to sell it while showing you to your seat.
How often did you go? And with whom did you go with?
Gordon: When I was working I went twice a week.
Barbara: But we were like a bit hard up, my dad was always off work ill, so unless my Grandma gave me money, probably just once, twice a week as I got a bit older.
Gordon: Up to about 12 years old they had the Saturday pictures in the morning. I can still remember the song.
Was it the same films that they would show for adults?
Barbara: No they were cartoons, Oliver Hardy and Charlie Chaplin films. They were silent, Oliver Hardy and Chaplin. All the kids used to stamp because they were so excited.
Did you dress up especially for it?
Barbara: Not until you got older, no until you were like courting. You know until you were like 14 and looking at boys and boys were looking at you.
What did you call ‘Going to the movies”?
Barbara: Going to pictures, we never called it movies, no.
Have you ever been to a drive-in cinema?
Barbara: No, no.
I think that’s more of an Australian or American thing.
Barbara: Yeah American. We used to here all these American songs and they used to sing about drive-ins, but I couldn’t imagine, because our climate, where it rained I thought how the hell do they sit in a car in the open. Then how do they here it, but I didn’t know you had a speaker in the car.
Did you ever see a 3D film? Before 1970’s
Yeah we did, they gave us glasses as you went in the door. Paper glasses though. I can’t remember the film. It never caught on though really.
Can you remember the introduction of any new moving image technologies like wide screen or sound?
Barbara: I remember when they said it was going to be in panorama. It was like a thin screen that went around. God I’ve never thought of that for years.
What was the biggest film event that you can remember?
Barbara: That biblical one, oh god it was awful. The Robe it was called. It was like six hours long and they had an interval in it. They always had an interval in the pictures.
Gordon: To sell ice creams and go to the toilet.
Barbara: Nobody got up in the middle, never remember anybody getting up in the middle of a film.
How old do you think you were when ‘The Robe’ came out?
Barbara: I’d be about 10. And that epic one where one of the extras had a digital watch on and they never edited it out of the film. Ben Herr, they were on chariots and he had a digital watch.
What were the main reasons you went to the cinema? Was there any particular actors or directors that you like?
Barbara: Oh yeah, film stars, we called them. Yeah they were the cowboys. John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe.
What other sorts of entertainment did the cinema compete with?
Barbara: The live theatre, but that wouldn’t be common. You were a theatregoer or you went to pictures.
Did anything prevent you from going to the cinema as much as you liked?
Barbara: Money.
What was the role of films in your social life?
Barbara: Do you mean dressing like films stars and everything?
Yes, and also did you see most of your friends there or other places?
Barbara: There was dancehalls as well, but that was just Saturday night.
Did you make friends at the cinema, or go with a group of friends?
Barbara; That’s it you used to meet, girls and boys used to meet. But boys went in separate incase they had to pay for the girl. We all paid for ourselves, unless you where courting someone but nobody ever paid for me, only Gord as we got older we just had our own money.
How did you choose what film to see? Did you just see what was showing at the time?
Barbara: Just saw what was one, at the Gormunt. If there was a film you didn’t want to see, you’d just go to another cinema.
What genres did you routinely see? Like Westerns or something else.
Barbara: Well it was a gender thing, boys went to westerns and girls went to musical type things.
Do you remember any particular musicals or westerns that you saw?
Gordon: I can’t remember, I like war films or American films.
Barbara: See they [Americans] kept making films during war years and that’s why we got lots of American films, where as our studios were shut down. So that’s how we got all of our American culture.
During war times when you went to the cinema was all the new reels about the fighting or propaganda about the war?
Barbara: Oh yes, they were always saying we were winning the war and showed you soldiers or sailors having a cigarette or eating all joyful. They never showed you anyone being shot or starving. I was propaganda filling you up to keep the war effort.
Did the cinema become open less often during the war?
Barbara: Yes during the back-outs.
Gordon: They didn’t show much as it got dark because they were frightened someone would open the door and the light would get out and a plane would come.
Barbara: They put thick curtains across the doors and when we knew there was going to be an air raid nobody went out anyway. Because we lived near Sheffield Steelwork were they were trying to bomb and did bomb.
Can you remember any scandals or things in the paper about film stars?
Barbara: Dianna Doors, she was a bit risqué, but they didn’t advertise much about them really. My mum used to tell me this, there was this big Buster Keep in silent films and they reckon he killed this girl but that was a big scandal. He was a big man. I can’t remember but I remember my mum telling me.
Were any of the actual films scandalous?
Barbara: Some got banned, Doncaster banned One Flew Over the Coo Coo’s nest and the day in the life of Joe Ed.
As a child do you remember seeing any films that were to adult, scary or complex to understand?
Barbara: No you weren’t allowed in, unless you went in with your parents, which was a bit daft isn’t it, or someone from the queue took you in. That was a bit silly really wasn’t it? You never sat with them when you went through, they just got your ticket.
What way would you say is the main way moving going has changed?
Barbara: We don’t go now really. They are all in shopping complexes now aren’t they? I think the television killed it. But that is all there was, now they have theme parks and things.
Do you think there are any similarities between going now and back then?
Barbara: No not really, maybe for children when they get excited.
Gordon: We used to have to queue right down the high street. In the rain and everything.
Barbara: They quest were that long that there used to be buskers, and they would sing and play music up and down.
Critical Reflections
Where were the films shown in your hometown?
There are still a large number of cinemas in most towns, however now instead of being a stand alone building they are usually contained within a larger complex, such as a shopping mall, holding other entertainment and shops.
How often did you go? And with whom did you go with?
People do not attend the cinema as much as people did before. The expensive ticket prices and new technology that allows films to be viewed at home are steering people away from the cinema. However the idea of young people going to the cinema, as a social activity with a group of friends is still a right of passage for most young people today.
Was it the same films that they would show for adults?
Age requirements for film viewing have become even stricter than when Barbara attended as a child. Films are now classified in terms of what is appropriate for a certain age to watch. It is illegal for a child under 15 to watch any classification over ‘M’. Therefore identification checks are carried out when purchasing a ticket for any film classified over ‘M’.
Did you ever see a 3D film? Before 1970’s. Can you remember the introduction of any new moving image technologies like wide screen or sound?
On the contrary to what Barbara suggested, 3D cinema has most definitely caught on and is one of the most popular viewing types at the cinema today. Developing technologies allows the viewer to now become completely immersed in the film with the introduction of 4D cinema.
What were the main reasons you went to the cinema? Was there any particular actors or directors that you like?
Many people will choose a film they see based on who directs, acts or produces the film.
Did anything prevent you from going to the cinema as much as you liked?
Money and time taken up by other activities and commitments prevent people for visiting the cinema as much as they would like.
Student Number: S2917605
Unit Code: CMM10
Unit Name: Screen History and Research
My tutor: Dr Danielle Zuvela
Unit Convenor: Dr David Baker
Assignment Name: Interview Based Report
Assignment Number: 1
Word Count: 1500
Due Date: Friday week 5
Extension Granted: No
(If yes) Extension Date: na
(If yes) Extension Date: na
Interview Based Report
Cinema in Great Britain from the 1920’s onwards became one of the most popular forms of relaxation and entertainment. Today, cinema plays a similar role in people’s lives, yet there are many differences and few similarities between the viewing experience and industry between the past and present.
One woman, Barbara can recall her experiences of attending the cinema in her home town of Doncaster. Her experience of cinema …show more content…
was from her childhood up to the age of 16 during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, including the end of World War 2. In Doncaster, during the 1940’s and early 1950’s there was on estimate, an audience attendance at the local cinemas of about 50,000 every week. Within the town boundaries there were over seven picture houses, used exclusively to show films that could accommodate collectively 10,000 patrons (Curry 1988, pp.1). Barbara, along with her friends were just some of those 50,000 locals who frequented the cinema as a social outing at least once a week. The Gaumont was their favourite picture house, where “boys went to westerns and girls went to musical type things”.
This report will draw on Barbara’s experiences obtained through interview and compare and contrast them with current cinema. Drawing focus to film technology, industry, audience and regulation, the changes evident will be considered what Allen and Gomery (1985) refer to in their ‘generative mechanics’ theory, as events that all constantly converge into what we realise as cinema of today.
There are three main ‘generative mechanics’ that will be considered; the importance of the market, the relationship between the film industry, the audiences, and the outsiders and social/cultural and ideological issues (Allen and Gomery 1985).
Changes in Technology
Coloured films were already significantly developed by the 1940’s. The company Technicolor lead the competition with their three-colour subtractive system. However, the market value of colour film was still uncertain, due to it’s aesthetic association with spectacle and fantasy films such as musicals, westerns, adventures and Disney’s cartoons (Neale 1985, pp. 139), all of which include a sense of non-heightened reality. Outside of these genres, the aesthetic and market value of colour was uncertain, unpredictable and unprofitable and therefore less popular. During Barbara’s time attending the cinema as a child, colour film was not ready to be accepted by the market and social conditions of the time. In contrast, colour has become the norm in present cinema; the view has shifted from colour representing fantasy to that of reality. Sequences shot in black and white now regularly represent a flash back or dream type scene.
Whilst Technicolor dominated the early developments of colour film by employing highly trained science graduates, Eastman Kodak brought competition by taking financial risks and investing heavily in research and development. World War 2 halted Technicolor’s advances as film budgets and resources shrunk, this highlights the non-straightforward historical development of film, as social and cultural events postponed technological advancements.
Due to the cultural climate, Technicolor shifted their customer focus and began to accommodate the demands of wide-screen systems (beginning in the early 1950’s), supplying the colour for the first cinemascope film, The Robe (Henry Koster 1953) (Neale 1985, pp. 144).
Barbara recalls viewing this film at her local cinema on what she describes as “a thin screen that curved around”. The screen that Barbara referred to was CinemaScope.
The reasons behind this historical change in viewing are obvious; post World War 2 caused a drastic change to the American Economy that had previously thrived before its involvement in the war; moviegoers simply did not have enough money to regularly visit the cinema.
(Belton 1990, pp. 187). Moviegoers were also drawn to other, cheaper forms of ‘mass entertainment’ such as theme parks. The wide-screen revolution in cinema viewing attempted to break down the narrow confines of the early cinema screen, by creating a panoramic space of spectacle, that slowly encases the audience aimed to lure audiences back to the picture theatre (Belton 1990, pp. 1985). The change in viewing also represented a dramatic shift in the film industry’s notion of what a motion picture was or should be, shifting the primary function from entertainment to also include that of recreation. Audiences were no longer a group of passive spectators but now active participants in the film experience (at least this is the relationship the film industry pursued). However, Barbara described her CinemaScope experience as
‘awful’.
Cinemagoers have without a doubt become active participants in their film experience. Over the past decades great events in technological advancements such as high definition, 3 and 4D cinema have converged to create a viewing experience like nothing seen before. These new technologies will continue to converge with ‘new’ new technologies again and again, thereby further enhancing the viewing experience.
Changes to the Film Industry and regulation
The years between when Barabara attended the cinema as a child and present day have witnessed events that have reshaped the film industry. It is important to note that historically the film industry can never be seperated from other sysetms such as the popular entertainment industry, i.e. other forms of mass communication, national economies and other art forms (Allen and Gomery 1985, pp.17).
The immediate post World War 2 period saw a decline in British films being made, therefore most of what Barbara viewed in the cinema was imported from the American Film Industry. During this period America saw the end of the ‘Golden Era of Hollywood’ and the beginning of one of the great ‘sellers markets’, where there a consumerist hunger for products arose after the long drought caused by war and depression (Sedgwick 2005, pp. 187). Barbara attended the cinema post war ‘At least twice a week’. Compared to during the war when the cinema was often closed due to air raids near her town. During this time American films were most popular with audiences who as Barabara states that’s ‘how we got our culture’.
Today’s American films still dominate the market. As a teenager Barbara was also exposed to the beginnings of the packaged film industry media such as magazines. She was an avid reader of Picturegoer “a magazine that came every month and showed all the film stars”. Understanding the commerical recipe and economic determinants that these types of magazines and other commerical products such as video games, posters and merchandise of earlier films can give a deep insight into the contemporary film landscape and the importance of popular culture in the film industry today (Wyatt 1994, pp.22).
Refering back to Allen and Gomery’s (1985) ‘generative mechanics’ the film industry is directly influenced by the relationship with audiences and outsider bodies such as the governemnt. For the film industry it is obviously important to know as much as possible about the audience that consitutes their market. Demographic studies conducted by the film industry are evident from as early as the 1940’s.
However, the government are interested for other reasons; to protect those who are considered most vunerable. Barbara can recall attempts at regulating what audiences could view at her local cinema. Films deemed too adult, scary or complex were only accessable to children if accompanied by an adult, however it seems any adult would do as Barbara states, “someone in the que took you in… you never sat with them when you went through, they just got your ticket.” In contemporary times, government imposed laws classify films into age appropriate groups. This prevents the vunerable, mostly children, from being exposed to innapropriate material (Australian Classification, 2014).
The Audience
The audience has been mentioned throughout this report as an important aspect in regards changes that have been introduced to both film technology and the film industry. Although, it is important not to forget the experience of the audience as an important aspect of film history.
During his research Austin concludes that there is three classes of motivation for attending the movies; social, pyschological and intellectual (1989, pp. 58).
Barbara’s experience as an audience member reflects this notion. ‘Going to the pictures” was the center of Barbara’s social life where “girls and boys used to meet”. Going to the cinema was “a communal ritual” (Austin 1989, pp. 44)” for Barbara and her friends. The cinema also acted as a teacher for her “informational self” (Austin 1989, pp. 48) gathering information from a source that was distant from her life; through the form of film.
Today attending the cinema is still a rite of passage for most young people. Although, attendance is most likely to occur on less regular basis with other social and educational activities available and the ability to view films from home take up the majority of social activity time.
References
Allen, Robert Clyde, Gomery, Douglous. (1985) Film history as history. In Film history: theory and practice, Knopf, New York, pp. 3-32.
Australian Government, Australian Classification Homepage, Viewed 7 July 2014,
Austin, Bruce A (1989) Theories of moviegoing, in Immediate seating: a look at movie audiences, Wadsworth Pub. Co., Belmont, California, pp. 44-58.
Belton, John (1990) Glorious Technicolor, breath taking Cinemascope and stereophonic sound, In Balio, Tino (ed.) Hollywood in the age of television, Unwin Hyman, Boston, pp.185-211.
Koster, Henry 1953, The Robe, 20th Century Fox, Hollywood.
Neale, Stephen. (1985) I Cinema and technology: image, sound, colour. London: Macmillan Education. Ch. 8. "The beginnings of Technicolor", pp. 129-1 44.
Sedgwick, John (2005) Product differentiation at the movies: Hollywood 1946 to 1965, in Sedgwick, John & Pokorny, Michael (ed.) An economic history of film, Routledge, London; New York, pp. 186- 217.
Wyatt, Justin (1994) A critical definition: The concept of high concept, in High concept: movies and marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 1-22.
Interview
Conducted on 12.06.14, Manchester, U.K
With Barbara and Gordon Ryder
Where were the films shown in your hometown?
Barbara: We had, six cinemas in our town. And each village has one, each little village had one at least.
How did you find out about up and coming films?
Barbara: Trailers, they’re called trailers after a film
Gordon: You say on Monday you saw what were going to be on Wednesday
Barbara: And it changed three times a week the films, like Sunday it changed to Tuesday and Wednesday and Friday. Changed three times and you got two films. An A picture and a B picture.
Every time you went?
Barbara: Every time, plus a newsreel, like a 20-minute one, you were in like nearly three, four hour, pictures. You didn’t come out to half past ten. It were six thirty, pictures, ad you come out about, just gone ten.
Gordon: In those days an A film and a B film, the A film you being under 15 you had to get someone to take you in.
Barbara: So you stood and went down queue asking people if you could go in with them
How were the films marketed and promoted?
Barbara: They were out the front of the cinemas, A big sign wit billstickers that they used to change every week. Then all the cinemas had a foyer and you could go in before to the ticket place and they were all signs saying coming soon. That’s the only thing really.
Do you remember any particular trailers you saw?
Barbara: No we always wanted to come and see them but we couldn’t afford it you see. I never went to cowboy films but Gordon did didn’t you.
Were all the seats the same price and quality?
Barbara: No. There were cheaper ones at the front where you had to look up at the screen. I was only small so I had to look up really high. At the back were the stalls they were 1 and 9, they were upstairs with a balcony we called them ‘the gods’ It were right up with iron bars in front and kids used to put there heads through and get stuck, a man used to have to come and twist your head out.
Were there ushers to take you in?
Barbara: Yes, Gordon’s sister worked with the torch. She was movie mad so she went and got a job there at the Gormunt. They had to dash and sell ice creams from a big fridge at the back. They got a tray with ice cream on and they had to sell it while showing you to your seat.
How often did you go? And with whom did you go with?
Gordon: When I was working I went twice a week.
Barbara: But we were like a bit hard up, my dad was always off work ill, so unless my Grandma gave me money, probably just once, twice a week as I got a bit older.
Gordon: Up to about 12 years old they had the Saturday pictures in the morning. I can still remember the song.
Was it the same films that they would show for adults?
Barbara: No they were cartoons, Oliver Hardy and Charlie Chaplin films. They were silent, Oliver Hardy and Chaplin. All the kids used to stamp because they were so excited.
Did you dress up especially for it?
Barbara: Not until you got older, no until you were like courting. You know until you were like 14 and looking at boys and boys were looking at you.
What did you call ‘Going to the movies”?
Barbara: Going to pictures, we never called it movies, no.
Have you ever been to a drive-in cinema?
Barbara: No, no.
I think that’s more of an Australian or American thing.
Barbara: Yeah American. We used to here all these American songs and they used to sing about drive-ins, but I couldn’t imagine, because our climate, where it rained I thought how the hell do they sit in a car in the open. Then how do they here it, but I didn’t know you had a speaker in the car.
Did you ever see a 3D film? Before 1970’s
Yeah we did, they gave us glasses as you went in the door. Paper glasses though. I can’t remember the film. It never caught on though really.
Can you remember the introduction of any new moving image technologies like wide screen or sound?
Barbara: I remember when they said it was going to be in panorama. It was like a thin screen that went around. God I’ve never thought of that for years.
What was the biggest film event that you can remember?
Barbara: That biblical one, oh god it was awful. The Robe it was called. It was like six hours long and they had an interval in it. They always had an interval in the pictures.
Gordon: To sell ice creams and go to the toilet.
Barbara: Nobody got up in the middle, never remember anybody getting up in the middle of a film.
How old do you think you were when ‘The Robe’ came out?
Barbara: I’d be about 10. And that epic one where one of the extras had a digital watch on and they never edited it out of the film. Ben Herr, they were on chariots and he had a digital watch.
What were the main reasons you went to the cinema? Was there any particular actors or directors that you like?
Barbara: Oh yeah, film stars, we called them. Yeah they were the cowboys. John Wayne or Marilyn Monroe.
What other sorts of entertainment did the cinema compete with?
Barbara: The live theatre, but that wouldn’t be common. You were a theatregoer or you went to pictures.
Did anything prevent you from going to the cinema as much as you liked?
Barbara: Money.
What was the role of films in your social life?
Barbara: Do you mean dressing like films stars and everything?
Yes, and also did you see most of your friends there or other places?
Barbara: There was dancehalls as well, but that was just Saturday night.
Did you make friends at the cinema, or go with a group of friends?
Barbara; That’s it you used to meet, girls and boys used to meet. But boys went in separate incase they had to pay for the girl. We all paid for ourselves, unless you where courting someone but nobody ever paid for me, only Gord as we got older we just had our own money.
How did you choose what film to see? Did you just see what was showing at the time?
Barbara: Just saw what was one, at the Gormunt. If there was a film you didn’t want to see, you’d just go to another cinema.
What genres did you routinely see? Like Westerns or something else.
Barbara: Well it was a gender thing, boys went to westerns and girls went to musical type things.
Do you remember any particular musicals or westerns that you saw?
Gordon: I can’t remember, I like war films or American films.
Barbara: See they [Americans] kept making films during war years and that’s why we got lots of American films, where as our studios were shut down. So that’s how we got all of our American culture.
During war times when you went to the cinema was all the new reels about the fighting or propaganda about the war?
Barbara: Oh yes, they were always saying we were winning the war and showed you soldiers or sailors having a cigarette or eating all joyful. They never showed you anyone being shot or starving. I was propaganda filling you up to keep the war effort.
Did the cinema become open less often during the war?
Barbara: Yes during the back-outs.
Gordon: They didn’t show much as it got dark because they were frightened someone would open the door and the light would get out and a plane would come.
Barbara: They put thick curtains across the doors and when we knew there was going to be an air raid nobody went out anyway. Because we lived near Sheffield Steelwork were they were trying to bomb and did bomb.
Can you remember any scandals or things in the paper about film stars?
Barbara: Dianna Doors, she was a bit risqué, but they didn’t advertise much about them really. My mum used to tell me this, there was this big Buster Keep in silent films and they reckon he killed this girl but that was a big scandal. He was a big man. I can’t remember but I remember my mum telling me.
Were any of the actual films scandalous?
Barbara: Some got banned, Doncaster banned One Flew Over the Coo Coo’s nest and the day in the life of Joe Ed.
As a child do you remember seeing any films that were to adult, scary or complex to understand?
Barbara: No you weren’t allowed in, unless you went in with your parents, which was a bit daft isn’t it, or someone from the queue took you in. That was a bit silly really wasn’t it? You never sat with them when you went through, they just got your ticket.
What way would you say is the main way moving going has changed?
Barbara: We don’t go now really. They are all in shopping complexes now aren’t they? I think the television killed it. But that is all there was, now they have theme parks and things.
Do you think there are any similarities between going now and back then?
Barbara: No not really, maybe for children when they get excited.
Gordon: We used to have to queue right down the high street. In the rain and everything.
Barbara: They quest were that long that there used to be buskers, and they would sing and play music up and down.
Critical Reflections
Where were the films shown in your hometown?
There are still a large number of cinemas in most towns, however now instead of being a stand alone building they are usually contained within a larger complex, such as a shopping mall, holding other entertainment and shops.
How often did you go? And with whom did you go with?
People do not attend the cinema as much as people did before. The expensive ticket prices and new technology that allows films to be viewed at home are steering people away from the cinema. However the idea of young people going to the cinema, as a social activity with a group of friends is still a right of passage for most young people today.
Was it the same films that they would show for adults?
Age requirements for film viewing have become even stricter than when Barbara attended as a child. Films are now classified in terms of what is appropriate for a certain age to watch. It is illegal for a child under 15 to watch any classification over ‘M’. Therefore identification checks are carried out when purchasing a ticket for any film classified over ‘M’.
Did you ever see a 3D film? Before 1970’s. Can you remember the introduction of any new moving image technologies like wide screen or sound?
On the contrary to what Barbara suggested, 3D cinema has most definitely caught on and is one of the most popular viewing types at the cinema today. Developing technologies allows the viewer to now become completely immersed in the film with the introduction of 4D cinema.
What were the main reasons you went to the cinema? Was there any particular actors or directors that you like?
Many people will choose a film they see based on who directs, acts or produces the film.
Did anything prevent you from going to the cinema as much as you liked?
Money and time taken up by other activities and commitments prevent people for visiting the cinema as much as they would like.