This blog will look at how the institutional context of creative media production can influence and constrain its production. It will examine how the modern Hollywood director is nowadays subjected to corporate, studio controls thanks to measures taken following the financial disaster that occurred at United Artists’ in the late 1970’s during the production of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate. When viewing the director as a separate entity within the world of filming this can also be considered a self imposed control in terms of the restricted creative freedoms to produce a film. It will also examine the distribution model of early Pay Per View operations in relation to World Wrestling Entertainment Chairman Vince McMahon and his distribution tactics of his wrestling extravaganza Wrestlemania. Lastly it will take a brief look at the power of product placement in films.

To understand how film production studios shifted from allowing their directors to have a large degree of control over, not only the creative side of filming, but also the financial side, to essentially controlling every aspect of a film’s production from corporate offices, it is wise to look at production company United Artists.

Founded in 1939 by Charlie Chaplin, DW Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford the intention of United Artists was to create a production company by artists and for artists.  The notion behind UA was that a director could attain finances from the studio and were then given the freedom to spend the money how they wished. The director was also afforded the privilege to choose his own cast, make changes to the script and had the right to final cut without the interference from studios. United Artists became one of the most accomplished production companies in the world releasing films such as the James Bond series, Rocky & 12 Angry Men. A dispute arose with their then parent company Transamerica in 1978.  Fearing a loss of autonomy, the top executives, including chairman Arthur Krim, walked out of UA to form Orion Pictures where they hoped to keep what were the core values of UA alive.  Transamerica had to save UA so turned to director Michael Cimino in attempt to financially resurrect themselves based on the success of his multi Academy Award winning film The Deer Hunter. UA were desperate for success and allowed Cimino to make a film about whatever he wanted.  He chose a film that he had attempted to begin eight years earlier about the Johnson County War of 1892 and told UA that he could do it for $7 million. He called it Heaven’s Gate.

Creative differences arose early on between Cimino and studio executives Stephen Bach and David Field, mainly the casting of a female lead. Cimino was interested in casting Isabella Huppert, a French actress with a heavy French accent which studio bosses felt would be inaccessible to an audience.  Trust issues arose between Cimino and Field & Bach however Cimino was eventually allowed to cast Huppert such was UA’s confidence that he could draw money. This was as much a psychological battle between studio and director as it was a creative battle. Cimino had won and was willing to exploit the executives’ apparent weakness to make the film that he, and he alone, wanted to make.

Although Heaven’s Gate was enormous in scale, it was nothing unusual by Hollywood standards. What set the film apart was Cimino’s fanatical and obsessive attention to detail, often resulting in up to fifty takes for a particular scene and a standard minimum of thirty, exhausting his cast and crew. He managed to motivate them by instilling a belief that the film would be an even bigger success than The Deer Hunter. Among the crew was producer Joann Carelli, a personal friend of Cimino. She was theoretically in charge of the budget however this was not the case in reality. Cimino had full control over the finances of the film.

There were clear warning signs that the film was in jeopardy as early as five days into shooting when the production was already six days behind schedule and well over the projected budget.  Despite this, studio bosses hoped the film would turn out like Francis Ford Copolla’s Apocalypse Now which had encountered similar issues.  Amid huge tensions between Cimino and executives at UA, UA fired Carelli and took an aggressive stance as the new producers of Heaven’s Gate, three months and $18 million dollars into production.

Cimino’s contract stated that he had final cut of the film.  Heaven’s Gate’s first cut had a duration of five hours, twenty five minutes, to the horror of UA executives. By the time of the films New York premiere in 1980, not a single UN employee had seen the final cut. Early reviews were so harsh that Cimino called for UN to withdraw the film from distribution so that he could re edit the project. In 1981 UN head Andy Albech left the company due to its dismal financial numbers. Cimino released a radically recut version of the film that same year in the hopes of saving its integrity and giving it an audience however this was not the case and in mid 1981, United Artists, a company with a forty two year history, went bankrupt, blaming Heaven’s Gate in its entirety.

Having gained insight into how one film was allowed to bring down an entire company it is very easy to see why this was never allowed to happen again. After Heaven’s Gate studios began to have a far greater control over the production of a film. They decided the financial deviation of a film, the cast, the crew, the schedule, even the look and style of a film. Hollywood directors no longer had the creative freedoms that they were once afforded, instead we began to see a ‘cookie cutter’ mentality where films were invested in, in the hopes that they would turn a profit rather than to achieve artistic success. The dollar began to drive the film business and it would be a fair assessment to claim that the quality of films has suffered immeasurably from it. Evidence for this can be found in the American Film Institutes compilation of the greatest one hundred films made - not a single film made after 1985 is in the top thirty.  It could be argued however that the film business is just that; a business. Top Hollywood production studios are not in the business to appease to the minority fan base that enjoys the artistic expressions portrayed through moving image. Their primary concern is dollars and if The Fast and the Furious 6 is the way to achieve their targets then so be it. Perhaps?

We will now look at distribution methods and the tactics used to ensure a share of the market. In 1985 professional wrestling promoter Vince K McMahon had a vision; to merge pop culture with wrestling in a once off extravaganza. He called it Wrestlemania. He invested millions of dollars in acquiring the world’s top celebrities at the time to make guest appearances on the show to increase interest from outside the typical wrestling universe. Names such as Cyndi Lauper, Mr T and Muhammad Ali as well as McMahon’s famed wrestlers such as Andre The Giant, Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper were drafted in to drive up media attention. McMahon’s promotion was based in New York and Wrestlemania was to take place in the world’s most famous arena; Madison Square Garden. At the same time as this, rival Atlanta promotion World Class Championship Wrestling had their own version of Wrestlemania called Starrcade. Starrcade began in 1983 and by the time Wrestlemania began, WCCW had already two years of experience. This put Starrcade in pole position as the world’s number one wrestling attraction. Wrestlemania occurred on 31st March 1985 and was a huge success. So much so that McMahon began works for Wrestlemania 2 the following year. This year however, McMahon wanted to be the number one promotion in the US and adopted aggressive tactics to ensure this.

Pay Per View was in it’s infancy during the mid 80s. The concept was that the viewer payed a once off fee to be allowed to watch a sporting event that existed outside of their cable package. It relied heavily on promoting an event to the point that the viewer deemed it ‘must watch’ television and was willing to part with their money. Both boxing and professional wrestling operated using PPV and Vince McMahon saw an opportunity to take advantage of the PPV system. He told network providers that if they offered their customers the chance to buy Starrcade on PPV then they he would never allow them to sell any future Wrestlemania.

This bullying tactic proved to be a success as cable providers feared that was Wrestlemania to become a huge success for years to come then they would never be able to benefit from its popularity. What resulted from these aggressive tactics was that WCCW’s business went heavily downhill while WWF’s turnover and popularity skyrocketed.

In relation to product placement, this form of media advertising can be traced back to nineteenth century novel Around The World In Eighty Days. Author Jules Verne reportedly received cash sums to mention commercial companies shipping companies in his book, increasing the likelihood of the businesses growth.

Where film is concerned, the first notable product placement occurred in 1927 Academy Award winning film Wings in which a clear push of chocolate bar Hershey's was featured. Throughout the next two decades product placement took off and became a hugely successful advertising method for companies wishing to reach a specific target audience.
Perhaps the most cynical use of product placement can be seen in the more recent James Bond film franchise. 1995s Goldeneye heavily promoted German car 

BMW with sales of Bond's BMW Z3 reportedly surging following the films release. More recently, watch company Omega have poured millions of dollars into promoting their 'Bond Watch'. James Bond can be seen talking about the merits of the watch while denouncing the quality of rival company Rolex's equivalent marketable offerings. This shows the lengths that companies are willing to go to in order for their product to be mentioned in the actual script of the film! Omega's website now is offering a 50th anniversary edition of Bond watches claiming that 

"While some of the advanced features will appeal particularly to divers, the James Bond 007 50th Anniversary Collector's Piece will prove irresistible to fans of 007 and to anyone interested in elegant, distinctive timepieces."

This shows the success of Omega's advertising campaign and proves the values of product placement when aiming the product at a particular audience that a film can capture for you. 

In conclusion, product placement is perhaps the most effective method of advertising. While it would be foolish to advertise Barbie dolls in a slasher film, it would be sensible to place the doll in a children's fairy princess movie. This naturally occurring captive audience offers advertisers an enormous opportunity to promote their product and it is likely to remain a part of our movie going experience for a considerable time in the future.