Movies have been wowing us for decades. They provide us with an entertainment portal to escape into. Whether it is to pass the time or whether it is simply a form of escapism taking us to far off worlds or faraway galaxies, movies are there for us to enjoy.
They are now also part of a multi millions dollar industry, at least when Hollywood movies are accounted for. Hollywood is a district of LA in the United States, in an area where the weather includes a lot of sunshine, providing great locations for shooting movies. This is where all of the big studios are based, including Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. and Paramount. It is also where most of the well known movies in history were financed, including Titanic, The Pirates of the Carribean, The Lord of the Rings, Spider Man, Star Wars, Die Hard, Terminator 2, Bladerunner, The Matrix, the Harry Potter movies and The Dark Knight.
There are a great many people responsible for bringing the film to cinema screens all over the world, starting with the producer. Famous producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer are responsible for the funding of a movie as well as overseeing the production. In charge of actually creating the movie and making the creative decisions that steer the whole production is the director. Famous directors over the years have included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Darren Aranovsky, The Coen Brothers, Gore Verbinski, John McTiernan, David Fincher, P. T. Anderson, Clint Eastwood, Michael Bay, Zach Snyder, Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi. As well as these there are screenwriters, who are responsible for writing the script. People such as David Koepp, Paul Haggis, Shane Salerno, Charlie Kaufman, Frank Darabont and Dan O’Bannon have scripted some of the most well known movies over the years. Then there are special effects experts, directors of photography (also known as cinematographers), music composers, foley artists and many more positions that work together to bring the spectacle to the screen.
Cinema has come a long way since the days of silent films and looking into the future there is a whole wealth of opportunity and potential. The next big step is looking to be 3D movies with examples like Beowulf and Journey to the Centre of the Earth already out there and upcoming projects like James Cameron’s Avatar.