Essay: Economic impact of the creative industries

For the purpose of this assignment I will be analysing the economic impact of the creative industries and reflect upon how creative industries have integrated, resulting in an impact on the economy.
The creative industries are complex and ever-changing, especially over the past 100 years. The fundamental inputs of these industries are tangible and intangible (Intellectual property) property based on a creative, innovative and technological culture.
In relation to the national economy (Specifically America), the promotion of the creative industries has meant economic gain, contributing to employment and growth. In turn this then integrates economics and creative industries making them interchangeable at times.
My focus is on three separate elements of the Creative industries and the substantial growth that they have generated. These elements are; film, television and sound and visual effects and are discussed throughout this assignment in overlapping stages.
The creative industry is also a growing industry in the UK and is legitimate competition for the rest of the world due to the quality of its productions. This will be especially relevant nowadays due to the UK exiting the European Union, meaning that the creative sector here will need to produce quality work to gain financial revenue from the world economy.
Film – Take out the title film as all are discussed throughout
The very first successful camera was made by Nicephorus Niépce in 1816, using a small camera and a piece of paper that was cover in a silver chloride substance. This means that it darkened wherever it was exposed to light.
However can this really be debated as the origins of film?, yes certainly this was something which was revolutionary for its time, being able to take still life photographs but at its most basic is it film for the entertainment industry maybe not.
Technology began back in 1881, when Edison and Lumiere brothers made cameras. Edison created the first motion camera and kinetoscope that was 16 frames per seconds; this was obviously not only innovative but revolutionary. These inventions were then shown to the public 1895 when the Lumiere brothers filmed at their father’s factory. A year later the brothers had made 40 films and they allowed the public to view during private viewings. Films originated right back to the 1890s, where they were first seen in black and white and only lasted a minute long; these short films did not even include any audio within them. Historically it is Louis Lumiere who was from France that is credited and is known as the inventor of the motion picture camera in 1895. The reason being, that his competitor Edison had a bulky/heavy camera and Lumiere had a portable camera, thus revolutionising the era of motion pictures. This was back when there was no such thing as a cinema, as a small group of people would be shown a short at the back of shops, this method was used to see if it could involve later in life, this was happening all around the world. Cameras were very expensive as no-one could afford one.
Information taken from article:
(https://interestingengineering.com/how-edison-and-the-lumiere-brothers-gave-the-world-cinema)
1918 the first acceptable coloured movie was “Cupid Angling”, although there were hand coloured segments in movies that have been known as dating back to 1902. By 1927, the first film produced to have film was “The Jazz Singer”, not only did it have synchronised recorded music but also lip-synchronous singing and dialogue, this film then ended the silent film era. , utilising the sound technologies, silent films did not stop right away as cinemas where still showing silent movies but ‘talkies’ were now a thing of the future.
The Jazz Singer was the first full length film to not only feature instrumental but actual dialogue and singing rather than sound effect; naturally this became more relatable to the public thus sparking more interest. Geographically this was happening in New York
As technology progressed the economization of the creative media/film industry seen film production as a commodity for consumers, therefore creating a new ‘culture’ of film in return for capital and economic gain. Film industries were a growing industry and were as important in areas such as Europe and even Russia as much as the USA. During the time of the early 20th century the creative industries were consolidating to create the cinema industry. Sound, colour and production industries were growing and the establishment of studies and cinemas create profitable gain for economies throughout the world, through jobs, capital, and industrial advancement. However a lot of the film creative industries were geographically centralized in America and specifically Hollywood, this occurred as the First World War had an extremely significant impact on Europe.
“By the early 1930s, nearly all feature-length movies were presented with synchronised sound and, by the mid-1930s, some were in full colour too. The advent of sound secured the dominant role of the American industry and gave rise to the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’.
During the 1930s and 1940s, cinema was the principal form of popular entertainment, with people often attending cinemas twice weekly. In Britain the highest attendances occurred in 1946, with over 31 million visits to the cinema each week.”
(HTTP:scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/very-short-history-of-cinema/)
As sound was growing in movies, a lot of large studies followed suit from The Jazz Singer and by the 1930s the film production industry included sound, production,
film and editing. Although at that time there was mass economic global uncertainty due to the Great depression and the Wall Street crash of 1929, thus impacting, not just the American economy but world economy. In contrast to hardship between 60 and 80 million Americans still attended the cinema each week. It is thought that the growing audiences of the time in America, was due to the public wanting a distraction from reality however it could also be down to the fact that cinemas where showing films about the time.
Specifically the Hollywood creative industry and the beginnings of the ‘golden age’, partly through a community need for distraction and through resourcefulness, managed to thrive while the rest of the world was economically in trouble. Although the creative industry where comfortable enough in the first few years of the economic depression, by 1933 their huge debts were outstanding. All parts of the industry had borrowed money to fund production and cinemas and had accumulated massive debts. To add to this America faced mass unemployment thus impacting attendance at cinemas. This has an extreme economic impact for the better part of a decade.
“Industry revenues dropped from $720 million in 1929 to $480 million in 1933, while total company profits of $54.5 million in 1929 gave way to total company losses of $55.7 million in 1932.”
( http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Great-Depression-THE-DEPRESSION-AND-INDUSTRY-FINANCES.html#ixzz5dYvE6v1m)
The Hollywood film industry was also greatly affected by the economic slump, not only for slashed ticket prices, debts from expensive cinemas, the costly experience of switching to technicolor and sound but also the rapid decrease of construction of new cinemas following the boom of building studios and theatres in the 1920s.
The creative industry was growing and diversifying entering the market of animated movies such as Walt Disney’s 1937 snow white and the seven dwarfs. Technicolour growth had increased also such movies like the Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind were made in technicolour back in 1939.
Throughout the War years the theatres were used for newsreels and a lot of restrictions were placed on the film industry. This obviously had a huge economic impact as filming could not take place at night, bomb shelters had to be constructed and filming at sea was also restricted meaning things was not ‘the norm’. The war production board set up to oversee finances set a 5000 dollar budget, this had a direct impact on wages, production, quality.
Moving into the 1950’s, television popularity was growing, this meant that people had accessible access to newsreels; TV shows etc. in their own homes, incorporating technologies such as picture, effects and sound.
The initial triumph with stereophonic movie sound and the synchronisation of sound which was problematic until now was the introduction of Cinerama in 1952. This saw the onset of surround sound when speakers where placed to the front, back rear left and right of the cinemas, this gave the viewers a multi sensory approach to cinema and opened up a new era of cinema. This came at that time, Hollywood cinema was at risk by the rise of television.
As the growth of televisions increased, cinema and movie producers felt that their old movies should be kept in cinema therefore allowing it to come to the home of customers and viewers.
“Between 1959 and 1970, the percentage of households in the U.S. with at least one TV went from 88 percent to 96 percent. By 1970, there were around 700 UHF and VHF television stations; today there are 1,300. By 1970, TV stations and networks raked in $3.6 billion in ad revenues; today, that figure is over $60 billion.”
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_17.html
Television programming basically changed the world, the golden age of television (1950’s) saw the rise of more Americans purchasing in house entertainment rather than visiting cinemas. This had a massive impact on American and world culture. However the massive downfall so to speak was that TV sets were expensive and so the customer was usually affluent.
The end of the Second World War saw the birth of many babies as soldiers returned home obviously having an impact on economic and cultural culture. As the babies grew older, popular culture also changed, Hollywood encountered problems in adjusting to the new post war environment and change in popular culture and entertainment wants, Prior to the war, film studios had owned their own movie theatres where they showed the Movies they produced, however, in the United States v. Paramount Picture (1948), Inc. A case in the Supreme Court, the outcome had a massive economic and cultural impact for America and the culture of film.
“this vertical integration of the industry—the complete control by one firm of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures—was deemed a violation of antitrust laws”
(https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1950s-america/a/popular-culture-and-mass-media-cnx)
From the 1950s to the 1970s, a lot of movie theatres would close, due to massive decline in business as a result of the huge popularity of television.
Those movie houses which had previously remained pen could not afford the change to stereophonic films and surround sound therefore the quality of the cinema experience was affected badly. The beginning of the 1970s saw several movie houses began to surface meaning that Theatre/Cinema owners could benefit by screening multiple films, this was the birth of the multiplex so to speak, and this was an attempt to draw costumers back to the theatres, thus introducing the age of the Dolby era a new revolutionary noise reduction system for film.
Fast forwarding to 1973, the first 2D CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) movie Westworld, though its 3D imagery was in its sequel Future world in 1976, this featured a computer-generated hand and face.
“Beginning in the early 1970s, and continuing to this day, the engineering achievements at Dolby Laboratories have led to several of the most important advances in film sound technology. Dolby’s A-type noise reduction system was first developed for the professional music recording industry, but later applications to film sound recording were shown to be highly beneficial in reducing the inherent noise levels in both magnetic and optical recordings. The lower noise achieved with optical soundtracks, in particular, would eliminate the need for the extreme treble cutoff specified in the Academy standard, leading to sound with greater clarity and improved dynamic range.”
(http://www.filmjournal.com/seventy-years-movie-sound)
Although this sound technology was groundbreaking it also had its drawbacks as it could easily be affected by outside elements like dust or scratches thus effecting its quality, during the 1980’s, professional audio/sound industries were making exceptional progress in incorporating the two visual and audio industries in relation to digital audio. The first digital sound system for film was Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), a combined development between the Kodak Company and Optical Radiation Corporation. This was a new era for film entering the digital technology age where a digital time code was printed on the visual track as and used to sync the CD player with films such as Batman returns and Jurassic Park (1993).
Although television came about in the 1927 created by a male inventor called Philo Taylor Farnsworth, it wasn’t that popular as no-one could afford it due to it being so expensive.
In 1940 the first 3D television (not 3D as we understand it today) was demonstrated by John Logie Baird. The television really didn’t pick up popularity until 1945, as this was when world war two ended, during wartime the finances of the country and time given by people where dedicated to other efforts. There was a lot of rebuilding and cleaning up after World War 2, meaning people would earn more money for themselves and be able to afford a television set for their living rooms, although most houses had the one television as this is all the could afford. This was brilliant, especially after the war, as it brought comfort to families and homes.
Television saw the decline of movie theatre attendance during the 1950s for the reasons stated above, the Crt this is a computer monitor television that was then brought into existence in the late 1950s within the United States. Although the television was popular all over the world it was an extremely popular time for England, in the 1953, it was the year of the Queen’s coronation which was narrated by presenter Richard Dimbleby. The population of televisions went up rapidly from 14% in 1952, to 21% in 1953 and 31% in 1954. In 1955 there was a small variety or programmes made by the BBC. Nowadays we can watch television 24 hours, it wasn’t like that when it first started off, and there was a tight restriction of when everything could be broadcasted and timings. There was a timing called “toddlers’ truce”, which was then dropped in 1957. Later on, the first PDP (Plasma display panel) was then created in 1964. This was when more channels were added, meaning people had to buy new sets or update/ converter, 60% of households could watch ITV, and by 1961 80%.
(http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1321302/index.html)
Television edged towards more popular and liked programmes such as; quiz shows, hospital dramas and soaps. ITV then brought and imported programmes from big countries, like America. BBC was forgotten as ITV brought in 70% of their viewers. This was when the BBC had changed to become more successful like ITV.
In 1970, television saw a massive change in both the United States and the United Kingdom as more programs began to evolve.
July 23rd, 1996 the first wral-Tv in the united stated was the very first station to broadcast digital TV signal, by 1998 HDTV sets became available I the united states, when broadcasts began in November.
Sony announced an 11-inch television model was called the XEL-1 was first released in Japan 2007.
Samsung being the world’s largest leading company for television, manufactured its first selling smart television in 2008.
The big switch over from analogue to digital happened in 2009, this is when the FCC (Federal communications commission) commanded all United states-based signals should only be digitally transferred.
The UK made the terrestrial switchover by October 2012, thus meaning that all channels were now digital.
This obviously has a direct impact on jobs roles and employees in the UK, the growing age of communication and technology is vast and ever changing. Television has even moved away for the traditional image and programmes can now be accessed anywhere on portable devises and through streaming services.
For example: Netflix originally was formed in 1998 and actually started as a DVD rental store. However due to the digital and technological changes the company and its job roles for production services changed and in 2010 streaming was launched becoming worldwide in 2012. Netflix have offices in London that aim to cover the UK market and reflect the UK culture and community. They have various teams of workers for the streaming service including, financial analysts, marketing, content teams and legal teams specifically dealing with UK laws, One major job role that will have changed is the Post Production team who partner with the Netflix Content Creative team and producers globally job roles from the preparation stage through to the delivery of shows/programmes are interlinked so that the company can show the title/show on the same date in 190+ countries.
This shows how huge Netflix has become
(Information researched from https://jobs.netflix.com/)
To reflect on the American economic market in relation to Netflix, the traditional TV subscription fees popularity and ratings are expected to decrease in the U.S.A., and it is expected to decrease further in the next few years, due to cheaper offerings from Amazon, YouTube and especially Netflix, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study.
“Traditional TV and home video, which includes pay TV subscriptions, DVD rentals and sales, and VOD, appears to have peaked in 2015 at $110.3 billion. This year, it will hit $102.5 billion and will sink to $96.1 billion in 2022, according to the study. Netflix-inspired cord-cutting is the culprit, says the research firm, noting that at the end of last year, 73 percent of U.S. households subscribed to a cable, satellite or telecom TV service, down from 79 percent in 2015.”
(https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-effect-is-netflix-having-hollywood-1117092)
Netflix and other streaming services such as Amazon have had such economic growth through job, Producers, marking, legal etc, through subscription services, however the traditional TV market, is finding it increasingly difficult to compete with the digital upstarts, “with Netflix spending $6 billion last year while Amazon spent $4.5 billion.”
(https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/what-effect-is-netflix-having-hollywood-1117092)
Television is still a growing industry worldwide and contributes to the economy through production, jobs and even tourist attractions. The like of Disneyland is based on the film and television culture. The growth of Pixar has also meant that the film, sound for synchronisation and visual effects technologies merge, adapt and seek constant improvement to create such films.
“By the time modern television became a reality, in the mid 1930s, there had already been over 50 serious proposals for television. The competition was truly international, with inventors and companies working in 11 different countries. Many of these pioneers had no success; a few however were able to produce silhouette pictures and were hailed as the ‘inventors’ of television within their own countries.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/general/tvstory1
Filmmakers use digital visual effects (VE) to adapt and enhance cinematography and create better, more realistic television programmes and films. Some of these effects can be in the camera itself, using an assortment of technologies embedded in the camera. Visual effects can also involve changing and enhancing some physical elements such as light or make up, the film and television production and VE artists create objects that do not exist in the real world, making them look genuine. A Visual effect could be fog added to a haunted castle or talking animals for example.
Film and VE work closely together and in recent years there has definitely been a technological explosion so to speak. The invention of the smart phone has transformed the way that media is presented changing the course of the entertainment industry as public demand for high quality yet low cost products are ever increasing putting added pressure on film makers and television broadcasters. The Creative industries such as the film, television and visual effects industries have advanced technologically throughout the last 100 years. Visual effects and the creative industry have made such advances in set design and animation (Pixar films for example) allowing a merge of technologies. Virtual reality although still relatively is its early years, is used to create a visual and auditory experience for the viewer and with the advancement of smart phones that are now capable of supporting this virtual experience means the whole digital landscape has changed merging the industries and technologies to create a better entertainment experience for the audiences.
The earliest development of visual/ special effects dates back to 1857, when the first special effect movie was created by Oscar Rejlander. Although in 1895 the first accepted motion special effect picture was created by, Alfred Clark.
The evolution of the dolly – contrazoom, was first shown/used in the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Vertigo. Although vertigo was the first time we seen it, it became an extremely popular method that was used in Jaws when the police officer is sitting on the beac
h watching the sea for the shark, in 1975. This is an inside camera effect used to undermine normal day to day perception.
In movies such as; Jurassic park and terminator 1 are contemplated the establishment of CGI which was created for the movie Ton in 1982.
After CGI, animated movies became more popular and updated, in 1995, Toy story was released by Pixar alongside Disney, which was the first ever feature length movie. The franchise is still in popular demand nowadays with the next instalment due in June 2019.
Other effected such as; digital compositing is combining separate images into one single image creating the final result. Visual effects even have its own category in the Oscars nowadays (1929 -2019).
Modern films such as Star wars and Jurassic world (2015) and Jurassic world fallen kingdom (2018) heavily rely on visual effects, sound and crisp cinematography in the forms of explosions, fire, smoke, space ships and dinosaurs to create a realistic visually pleasing movie, helping the viewer experience the scenes as if they are real.
In conclusion there is a vast difference from the initial days of motion picture and the merging of sound, moving image and picture technologies revolutionised the creative and entertainment industries having such an economic impact on economic growth and expansion to a global market.
From the talkies of the 1920s to the 1950s sound in stereo, to the 1980s introducing a new digital era, huge advances in film have proved to be extremely successful, but the digital age prompted additional developments in movie sound technology, the three digital sound formats emerging into the cinema market meant greater qualities of digital sound, along with that the growing number of cinemas, has created a culture of quality entertainment, developing economic growth through jobs, production, equipment manufacturing and even theme parks and tourism.
The merging of the creative technologies within creative industries is related to the rise of cultural industries, the public want to be entertained and want quality entertainment at a low price. As discussed above, this industry and merge of technologies comprise of all those sectors that provide customer demands for entertainment, edification/production, sound technology, cinematography, visual effects and picture technology. The rise in the demand for the industry is possibly due to increased leisure time and disposable income.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America in the 2018 report (Analyses the previous year 2017) with reflection on the film and television industry and economic growth in America:
“In all, film and television supports 400,000 local businesses, with the industry making $49 billion in payments to these enterprises,” the MPAA said. “The U.S. film and television industry is also a key player in markets around the world, with demand for creative content continuing to grow. The industry registers a positive balance of trade in nearly every country with $16.5 billion in exports worldwide”
(https://variety.com/2018/film/news/mpaa-report-2016-film-tv-us-economy-1202665904/)
The entertainment industry in America is an ever-changing culture and with continued development and growth should continue to have a positive impact on the economy and the exports film/television to the global market.