The Moviegoing Experience, 1968–2001

The experience of going to the movies, be it a single screen theater, twin, multiplex or drive-in, is affected by many different factors that have shifted over the years. Just as movies emerged from silent to talking, black and white to color, there has invariably been change in the way movies are made, copied, distributed and viewed. This change in the moviegoing experience, for better or for worse, is worth studying.
This work examines the American moviegoing experience from 1968 to 2001—the way in which movies are made and regulated (including the demise of the Production Code and the emergence of the ratings system) as well as changes in lighting, cinematography and coloring techniques. The projection practices of the past and present, during and after the presence of the Projectionists Union, and the advent of the “platter,” which allowed for automated projection, are discussed.
How home video and cable affected the content of films after the eighties and the history of computerized special effects leading to the development of digital cinema projection are included. The work also covers the changing types of venues over the last third of a century and other aspects that affect, positively or negatively, the entire moviegoing experience.

Film director Richard W. Haines is also the author of Technicolor Movies (2003). He lives in New York.

Richard W. Haines
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 280
Bibliographic Info: photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2003
pISBN: 978-0-7864-1361-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8074-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments     vii

Preface     1

Introduction     3

1 Cinema in the Sixties     5

2 Demise of the Production Code     15

3 Multiplexes and Twinning     87

4 Projection     94

5 Cinematography     106

6 The Home Entertainment Revolution     124

7 Distribution Changes in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties     142

8 Alternate Venues     163

9 Digital Cinema     187

10 The Fate of Film     196

Appendix A: Surviving Movie Palaces     199

Appendix B: Surviving Drive-Ins     218

Appendix C: Classic Studio Style Cinematographers     225

Appendix D: Contemporary Style Cinematographers     235

Notes     247

Bibliography     251

Index     259

“detailed…Haines has produced a masterful work. The book expands our understanding by succinctly explaining the decline of the film and cinema in recent times. It poses new questions yet to be answered…a fine contribution to the study of film and the methods by which it is viewed in the United States. The book includes a variety of valuable filmographies…a work that will serve as a fine resource for scholars, students, and media specialists and should spark further investigation and research in the field”—Film & History.