Introduction
Film editing has been revolutionized over the years due to a number of factors including changes in viewing behavior and technological advancement amongst others. However, there has been a more or less consistent industry trend as far and film editing is concerned. The Hollywood style of editing is the most dominant in the market and has since minimized the business scope of other film editing companies like French New Wave and Soviet Montage. This is because mod American media like commercials, music videos and televisions still follow the Hollywood style of editing. This paper discusses the various reasons why Hollywood style of editing is still the most preferred in contemporary media. Additionally, the paper highlights the manner in which changes in viewing behavior has had an effect on editing styles.
Discussion
Statistics from the early 1980s indicate that only a handful of independent movies have done well in terms of commercial success. Similarly, movies edited by other editing companies have not done quite well both in America and other parts of the world. Some national film industries have at certain times in history come up as probable threats to Hollywood. Surprisingly, none of them has been a threat for a long time. The irregular upcoming threats to Hollywood filming industry have, therefore, been the most outstanding reason why Hollywood still dominates the industry (Fairservice, 199). Good examples of films whose filming contracts ought to have been won by other filming industries due to their diversity are Iron Man 3 and Sky fall. Here is their YouTube links.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmoIJKBF87o&list=PL64F210D33C0312FE&index=11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPJgVPf88VM&list=PL64F210D33C0312FE&index=36
America’s dominance of the filming industry is also championed by the fact that smaller independent editors do not have a level battling field with Hollywood. This is because the large market share captured by Hollywood and its adaptability to changing trends. Some of the indicators of Hollywood’s market power over other companies include large economies of scale, exclusive ownership of exceptional resources that enables the company to create market entry barriers, its vertical integration and copyrights. As a result, new players in the market find it hard to dominate (Langford, 183).
Another important strategy that Hollywood used to stay ahead of the others was the exploitation of export cartels that aided in the marketing of its products. Despite the fact that this option was also exploitable by other film industries, this strategy never meant much for them and hence they did not make good use of it. Nonetheless, other rival film industries like French New Wave and Soviet Montage are gradually coming up to speed and as a result they are doing relatively well in the comparative market (Gasher, 453).
Film editing styles have been affected quite considerably by the change in viewing behavior. For example, the traditional movies and films did not show a clear transition from one scene to the next. However, viewers became more attentive on scene transition with time and as a result, the traditional film cutting techniques became less convincing (Orpen, 464). This brought about the changes experienced today in film cutting including cutting on cross-frame movement, cutting to empty frame before letting the subject come in and cutting to secondary action followed by a meticulous tilting to main subject of the scene. The introduction of such cutting techniques has played a significant role in vivifying films today.
Conclusion
The filming industry is quite lucrative but extremely competitive and as a result, many upcoming industries have gone to the drains due to their incapability to conform to stiff competition. Hollywood has dominated this industry and does seem to let go anytime soon. In conclusion, therefore, the film industry is still branded as dominated by Hollywood (Bernstein, and Nicholas, 136).
Further questions for participants
- What was the role of the film in US Foreign Policy during World War II?
- What are the major competitors of Hollywood?
- Is there a chance that one of the competitors will dominate the market like Hollywood?
- What are other factors behind Hollywood’s domination?
- What are the factors behind the rise and fall of Classical Hollywood?
- What are the factors behind the rise and fall of studio system?
Works Cited
Bernstein, Alan B, and Nicholas R. Schaffzin. Guide to Your Career. New York: Random House, 2003. Print.
Fairservice, Don. Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice ; Looking at the Invisible. Manchester [u.a.: Manchester Univ. Press, 2001. Print.
Gasher, Mike. Hollywood North: The Feature Film Industry in British Columbia. Vancouver [u.a.: UBC Press, 2002. Print.
Langford, Barry. Post-classical Hollywood: Film Industry, Style and Ideology Since 1945. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. Print.
Orpen, Valerie. Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive. London: Wallflower, 2003. Print.
