"Could OZ Help Save the Movie Industry ?"

I went down the " Yellow Brick Road " Wednesday night..

We went to see the showing of "Wizard of Oz."

As anyone who either knows me personally, or has read my blog over the last couple of years knows I am a big fan of classic movies. So when when I got the TCM email a couple of months ago, announcing the screening of of OZ, I talked to my wife and she went and prebought the tickets.

It was great. While I was not a huge fan of the movie itself, I did enjoy seeing it.

What really amazed me was the lines... The had 2 showings running at the same time, they had so many, The one I was in was mostly filled up. There were many older folks and yes quite a few kids. When Robert Osborne came on screen it was dead quiet after the applause....

He said his intro talking about the directors and the stars, showing clips as he talked. Even seeing those old black & White clips up on the big screen as amazing. Probably most of the clips he showed had never been blown up that big since they were first shown in theaters 70 years ago. When Mr. Osborne finished there was a applause. Theres was more applause when the movie started. The was no mention of the movie in the lobby, just a line forming, they told us which theater to go into, and the line was huge, they were still coming in to sit when the movie was just starting.. I was proud to see so many people come out to support this classic movie. For generations people have been watching this and other classic movies on a 27" tv, with crappy sound, and now to see it up where it and all classic movies belong was a beautiful thing.

I had read several places where folks were complianing that because it was all digital, it was not the same as the original film print. Who Cares?

When it was over the screen went blank and a windows toolbar came up on the screen bottom, My daughter was surprised, It was on a computer?

You know what she didn't care, it was a great movie, and execellantly restored to its glory,

No matter whether your a die-hard purist, or a tech junkie like me, a great movie transcends any medium, as dose great art of any kind.

There are volumes of material about both the orginial movie, and the rstoration of the movie, I won't try to be a historian about the movie, As, I have bigger fish to fry;;

The bigger point is they did it and people came,,

One perspective of this is; Will help open they eyes of many younger folks to the great movies they're missing and bring attention to film preservation, and restoration in general?

Of course thees a bigger picture. The bigger picture being the movie industry. For many years the movie industry has been complaining about loosing money to piracy There are major lessons to be learned here. That there is a major audience for classic movie in the major theaters. Is it possible that they may have discovered a way to bring folks back to the movie theater? Classic Movies.

I am not for one instant subjesting that they stop making new movies, and inventing new technologys to make the movies with, Far from it. However,, There is a very large untaped market of baby boomer's and even older people who have little or no interst in spending what money they do have on seeing the newest latest greatest movie of the week. On the other hand,, if they were to spend just one weekend a month showing classic movies on one or two screens they would draw them out,, and a whole new market share which has always been there, but been ignored would come out to spend. Of course it would take advertising, and possibility even doing senor specials and discounts. In the long run it would be worth it. Another possiblity, teaming with a national resturant chain to offer package deals with dinner and a classic movie,, I know its crazy,, bit if done right with the right promotion it could very well open up a forgotten market. In southern retirement states, it could go over very well.

Theres also another aspect of the Wizard of Oz that is equally important. Preservation and restoration of classic movies. The general public dose not understand how fragile out movies history is. How little it can take to start a film degrading, actually turning to dust if left in the wrong conditions long enough. Over that last 20-30 years theres have been several projects to preserve and restore our film libraries around the world. Rather then try to explain what happens as films slowly turns to dust I refer you to a film. a documentary actually, called "Keepers of the Frame" This film very clearly tell the tale of the film and why it is so important to preserve and restore our film libraries. Here are three links to material about "Keepers of the frame" ''

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0214844/

http://www.in70mm.com/news/2007/keepers_frame/index.htm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7851705567600658577#

Please take the time to check out this extorinary film about films.

Hopefully all the attention that OZ is getting this next week with a release of Blue-ray and related material will focus interest on the possible comerical value of re-releasing classic films in theaters on a national and widespread basis with the supporting advertising so folks know that are being put out there again.

Judging from I have seen and read, this is a potionial serious money maker for the movie industry which claims to have been bleeding money for the last decade. This will help on at least 2 fronts, 1. Bringing in more revenue across the board, 2. In some ways more importantly, Giving classic movies a venues they haven't had for decades and exposing them to whole new audiences, which most if given the chance probably would at least check out the movies, Introducing theses movies to new audiences on the big screen will have a far different impact then seeing the same material on a 27' screen, or even on a huge flat screen tv. There is no replacing the experience of seing Bogart or other classic stars in a movies screen the size of a house.

Yes the" Wizard of Oz" was important in 1939, and it could be more important in 2009, 70 years after it was released. If it helps bring classic movies to the general movie theater on a regular basis, and bring more attention to preservation and restoration of movies, then it has more then payed for itself, both in historical value, and in saving the movie industry .

Ken lawson

Old Movie Studio System

The history of movies is very colorful especially in the black and white and early silent era.
The advent of the studio system and the star making machines and in the process created most of the greatest screen legends of all time, many of which still live on in at in in the hearts and minds of many. While none of the glitz and glamor of the old school movie machine still survive, except in studio warehouses and in very short and chopped clips of stars doing what they did best making appearances and generally creating the romance the public so desperately needed at the time.. The old studio system run their stars like horses in a race, however, the really good ones stood out , when they get to a certain point most were able to write they're own ticket or at least keep good steady work and build a very good catalogue of work,, In the process of building their careers they learned their trade, and earned the right to call their own shots, many eventually formed their own production companies allowing them to what they really wanted, if it didn't do as well as they hoped, that was OK, they were doing what they wanted.
Not everyone lead such colorful lives, many thousands of actors and actress did many parts that are now just being remembered and called to folks attention. Its nothing to find that a certain actor has done 15-20 films in a year, thus bring his total lifetime output of material up close to 100 if not more films over 50-60 year career.. How many of today stars can say their output comes anywheres near that kind of commitment. Theses people came to work everyday knew their lines and did the parts the best they knew how. That's not to say all the material they put out is Oscar material, obviously the greater number of work you do the chances increase that you'll get some of the better material..
The other thing to consider while they were making all those films every year, they generally didn't have a huge budget per film. Which by default means the director had to really have a vision in mind when he shot the film and and sent it to the editing room. If a director shoot it right there was really one one way to edit it so it would work and he Essentially edited while he shot. So he had to be really creative to get what he wanted on a tight budget.

Economics won't allow it, and the movie machine has changed too much to allow it, and its well-known that there were a lot of problems with the old studio system, However, the idea of bring back the old studio system dose have merit. One thing is would help insure actors got the training and dedication,they really need. One may wonder how many of today stars would have lasted in the old system,if they didn't measure up and didn't pan out at the end of their contract they studio could cut them loose and they had they're chance to be big stars.. Thee are a lot of very good reason why the studio system shouldn't be brought back , and equally as many reasons why it should be brought back. The people who are responsible for setting up the original system are long gone, However, the people running toady's systems would be hard pressed to try to get actors to sign multi- year deals with the actors knowing that they were at the beck and call of the studio and had no choice but to do whatever project was given them, and if they didn't they were fined. Not to mention the studios to really go back would have to hire in-house acting coaches dancing and a whole host of other specialized teachers to work with the contract players and keeping a staff a of screen writers busy, and stunt doubles and many other support personal, many of which they still have already.
But the bigger question is will the public accept the old studio system ?
I'm not a film movie historian, so I don't know all the ins and out of the old studio system, and even less about how the system works today, However, I do know that I don't see many movies today that can compare with the old movies of the40's and 50's, I don't know any actors today that I have a connection with, oh theres a couple I like well enough, but they don't have style or charisma the older ones had. They wee no angles back then either, but most of what they did pales in comparison to the stunts some of today "actors" have pulled. But they showed up on the set every morning and did the job. and turned in good performances. So in while the old studio system did have problems it still was able to produce most of the greatest films of all time, certainly some of my favorites, such as "Casablanca" And Boogie & Bacall in in "To Have and Have Not"


"You do know how to whistle, do you Steve,
You just put your lips together....
And Blow"

Bogart....Who........?

I was talking to a young lady of about 14, She was a very pleasant and polite young lady.
At one point I mentioned that one of My cats is named Bogart. At which point I got kind of a blank look, I asked her if the name sounded familiar, after a minute of thinking she finely said yes. She didn't remember the first name. I said the cat was named after Humphrey Bogart . She seemed to kind of know the name. I then proceed to to give a very general sketch of who he was and the movies he'd done, mentioning Casablanca, and the African Queen. Mentioning that he was born in 1899, and if Boggie was still alive, he'd be over 100 years old now. I also mentioned Lauren Bacall and their movies together. By this time, things were moving along and folks to go so, the history lesson was over.

The point of that little story which happens too many times everyday is that young people today have no sense of history . They have no concept that there was another world before MTV ,computers, Internet and 200 TV channels and Mp3s and all the technologies we enjoy today.
What do they think all they things I mentioned a line above were built on?
Granted the story about a teenager not knowing who Boggie was, is trivial in the grand scheme of things, however, insert a another world leader of Major importance in the name blank , and is it so silly? Take a poll and see how many kids know who Kennedy or Eisenhower , or Truman was, the list is far to long, but you get the idea.

As I've gotten older, I seem to developed more of a sense of the importance of history and keeping it alive, and preserving as much oral history as possible and making itassessable , to everyone and making it in formats that they understand. But, the meat of the material along with as much background detail about what is presented is very important to give the viewer a better sense of what it was like to be in the moment when they person is relating is stories, weather it be about the depression of the 30's or WWII, or Korea, or being around when Kennedy was around or when Man first walked on the moon.

A prime example is the Korean War, largely forgotten, in fact its been said the in many was it would have forgotten, except for a tv show called M*A*S*H . There are whole generations of kids who wouldn't know there had been a Korean war if they hadn't seen repeats of MASH, and were intrigued enough to do the research. But that's only a very rare example of the power of tv and a visual media in general.
Most of the time it offers mind numbing noise that is generally called music, propped up by scantly clad woman, whose only propose is to get every male in the sight of the picture, thinking about everything but what they should be thinking about at the time.
The tools are now available to record theses important memories and preserve them. There are volumes of history that not in the books sitting in VA hospitals and nursing homes across the world . Every day huge number of people die who if given the chance probably would have loved to sit down and tell their lives stories about growing up and living in a world very different then ours.
as far general dates and places, granted memory changes over time, however many can remember 1930 like it was yesterday, and can't remember what they had for breakfast that morning. Obviously some folks for various mental or physical reason aren't good candidates for and should be screened for suitability for doing such a interview. There is also the good it may do the All of those interviews should be edited for clearly and researched for at least the basic ground of the times they are regaling us with for acutes patients to have someone interest in their lives.
As this material is collect and cataloged it should be cross-referenced and indexed so anyone wanting a oral history of, say the depression, can put in a search and find interviews that tell about living in the depression, and have supporting information regarding that time and location where the interviewee is talking about so one can get a more complete picture of what they are talking about, that would mean that items that the mention in the interview such as cars, building and historical places should be cross referenced to give information relating to that item.
This database should be made available to every school and institutions of learning in the world. and need to be continually updated.
Lately I have become a big fan of TCM, or Turner Classic Movies, in fact ,I've always like the station as a whole and lately have become to see it as what it could possibly become a treasure trove of historical film and in many respects a window into our history. The history of motion pictures is from what little I can see is largely lost on the youth of today, Many kids don't know anyone older then say, 1980 or so, and have know idea that theres is a rich history of movies both silent and precode movies. While I am not a huge fan of silent movies personally, I do feel that they should be exposed to as many folks as possible, granted many probably won't get into it too much,they should at least know that they and many other movies are out there, there will be a few who will embrace it and help preserve it along with miles of reels of film. The push to High Definition has probably helped with the preservation of old films as they are upconverted to HD or as close as the negatives will allow.
I new class should be added to grade school, some to tie history and movie appreciation something to let teachers show young students a history of movies and tie it together with history or something else that they're doing in class, then students wouldn't be put off by the idea of watching a black & white movie, if its relevant to what they're doing today in life or at least class. Hopefully it would eventually foster a interest for older movies among at least a few students,,,