Inventing The Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation And The Status Quo, From Thomas Edison To Steve Jobs [Paperback]

Scott Kirsner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2008

From Edison to the iPod, from the Warner Brothers to George Lucas, the story of how the movies became America's favorite form of escapist entertainment - and retained their hold on our imaginations for more than a century - is a story of innovators prevailing again and again over skeptics who prefer to preserve the status quo. Inventing the Movies unspools the never-before-told story of the innovators who shaped Hollywood: how a chance meeting at the Saratoga Race Track led to the end of black-and-white movies ... how Bing Crosby brought you the VCR ... how Walt Disney tamed television ... how a shotgun blast signaled the end of hand-made models and the beginning of digital special effects ... and how even the almighty Morgan Freeman had trouble persuading theater-owners that the Internet wasn't their mortal enemy. Inventing the Movies is an important read not just for fans of Hollywood's history, but for innovators trying to make change happen in any industry.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Scott Kirsner is a journalist and blogger who writes about new ideas and their impact on the world. He edits the blog CinemaTech (http://cinematech.blogspot.com), and is the author of "The Future of Web Video: New Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers," published in March 2007. He writes regularly for Variety and the Boston Globe. Scott’s writing has also appeared in the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Wired, Fast Company, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek, among other publications. Scott regularly speaks and moderates at entertainment industry events, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the South by Southwest Film Festival. He is part of the founding team of The Conversation, a new event geared to exploring the convergence of new technologies and the entertainment industry.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

BY SCOTT KIRSNER. CREATESPACE/2008/218 PP./$15.95 (SB)

In his latest book, Scott Kirsner charts what he calls "Hollywood's epic battle between innovation and the status quo." Film history is full of examples of this antagonism. In 1908 Thomas Edison co-founded the so-called "Trust," an organization aimed at putting movie production under its control. Its members doubted that an audience would tolerate movies longer than twelve minutes, until the renegade filmmaker D. W. Griffith released the three-hour The Birth of a Nation (1915), which was a huge success. When asked about the possibilities of motion pictures with sound, Kodak founder George Eastman famously declared, "The public will never accept it." Resisting color on the screen, "studios... --This text refers to the Digital edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1438209991
• ISBN-13: 978-1438209999
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #940,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wanna understand the movie business? Start here., August 6, 2008

By 

Jimmy Guterman "http://guterman.com" (MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inventing The Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation And The Status Quo, From Thomas Edison To Steve Jobs (Paperback)

Over the past several years, especially since he wrote a definitive article on the topic for Esther Dyson's Release 1.0, Scott Kirsner has become to go-to guy for insight about where digital entertainment is going. He's got more contacts than a dozen beat reporters and more new ideas than a dozen thought leaders. Inventing the Movies taught this media-watcher quite a bit and even the asides are fun: bet you didn't know there's a brand of makeup called blu_ray. Anyone who wants a firm grounding in the never-ending wars between new ideas and entrenched attitudes should read this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Study of the Tension between Technical Innovation and Entrenched Business Models throughout Hollywood History, August 2, 2008

By 

Kendall Whitehouse - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing The Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation And The Status Quo, From Thomas Edison To Steve Jobs (Paperback)

Subtitled "Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation and the Status Quo, from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs," Scott Kirsner's "Inventing the Movies" traces the evolution of all the major technological advances in the cinema -- from the introduction of sound, color, and widescreen formats, to digital projection, digital cameras ("filming without film"), and the new business models ushered in by the Worldwide Web.

The book is a fascinating case study in the difficulties of introducing technological change in an industry that carefully guards its well-entrenched business models. While technological progress may appear to be inevitable, the amount of money riding on each major studio release tends to tilt the scales in favor of those who want to preserve the status quo. The fear that a new technology will upset the (very profitable) apple cart runs throughout Kirsner's book, which spans the entire history of the cinema -- from its origins in the late 19th century up to the present.

Full of wonderful details and compelling insights, "Inventing the Movies" is recommended reading for anyone interested in technology, the history of the movies, or how technological change can get bogged down by the fear of undermining the dominant business models in any industry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read and thought-provoking, January 22, 2009

By 

J. Tango "Reader Man" (Boston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inventing The Movies: Hollywood's Epic Battle Between Innovation And The Status Quo, From Thomas Edison To Steve Jobs (Paperback)

I wasn't sure what to make of this book when I picked it up, but it exceeded my expectations. It's a very thoughtful look into innovation and blows away many myths. For example, many think innovation is about an-idea-in-the-shower that catches fire quickly; instead, Mr. Kirsner shows that the road to innovation *implemented* is fraught with opponents, tensions, politics, and fear. Innovation usually involves a gradual "chipping away" campaign. By looking at one industry over a long period of time and analyzing its multiple cycles of innovation, the author provides a very thoughtful perspective as to why entrepreneurship is hard. A must-read for entrepreneurs, I think. And, a fun read, too--I too would love to be invited to George Lucas' house for thought-provoking conversation.