Focus: Film and television

Abstract: The 1950s and 1960s saw a swell of films shot on location and abroad, often big-budget, widescreen epic films. These runaway productions represented a practical financial decision for Hollywood studios, incentivized by tax breaks, government subsidies, frozen funds and rising union salaries in the U.S. When George Stevens began pre-production on his Biblical epic, […]

Abstract: The early 1970s marked a number of significant changes in the television landscape: new regulatory structures, the growth of cable, and shifts in programming including a steep rise in televised reruns. By 1972, reruns constituted over half of prime time network television. Although this practice benefited the financial bottom-line for producers, it was frustrating […]