Romantic comedies survived WW2 and the 20th Century nicely, becoming the staple entertainment items of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Cary Grant alone has made enough romantic comedies to last us for a while… THE AWFUL TRUTH, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, HOLIDAY, THE GRASS IS GREENER, OPERATION PETTICOAT, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, MY FAVORITE WIFE, HOUSEBOAT… the list goes on and on.

Starting in the late 50s and continuing through the 60s, we have the Pillow Talk genre of rom-coms. Who can forget the Doris Day and Rock Hudson magic? It was great while it lasted.

Zoom ahead to our day, what do we have? Has anyone watched a good romantic comedy since the monumental achievement of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) and SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993), both written by Nora Ephron, and the latter also directed by the same?

YOU’VE GOT MAIL (1998) was one time too many Ephron tried to create the same Sleeples magic. As gifted a writer and director as she was, even Nora Ephron could not pull the rom-com rabbit out of her hat whenever she wanted. And I’m afraid it’s getting harder by the day.

How can we have true comedy, and especially romantic comedy, when the world seems to be exploding at the seams? With all these wars, international terrorism, global warming, nuclear proliferation, unheard of pandemics, who has the heart to celebrate the innocence of a romantic comedy?

One alternative is to recombine rom-com with other genres, like the rom-com-action-thriller experiment MR. AND MRS. SMITH (2005). I give that genre-saddling approach another ten years and then perhaps we may have to do with rom-com-horror and rom-com-sci-fi anomalies masquerading as the original thing.

Buckle your seatbelts, kids. Romantic comedy could be a rough ride in the years ahead.

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Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Senior Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation. He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 corporations since 1999. He is the editor of PRIVATE TUTOR FOR SAT MATH SUCCESS web site http://www.privatetutor.us

In addition to being an Ezine Articles Expert Author, he is also a Senior Member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI).

A true movie fan since he was a child, Akinci provides FREE MOVIE PLOT IDEAS every day of the year at SCRIPT BOILER. Visit http://scriptboiler.blogspot.com today. You are most welcomed to visit his COPYWRITING WEB SITE http://www.writer111.com for more information on his multidisciplinary background, writing career, and client testimonials.

The Great Train Robbery was a film made in 1903 and was the first American film that had a story to tell its audience. It was made by Edwin S. Porter and it lasted for eight minutes. This was a silent movie and had a “cops and robbers” plot, like a lot of films that followed it. Printed subtitles were eventually added to the silent movies in 1912. These subtitles were flashed together with the action scenes to help the audience understand what was happening. In order to add more drama and excitement to the scenes, an untiring pianist would play throughout the movie. He would switch from fast music for exciting or dramatic numbers to a more sentimental and slow music as the mood of the picture changed.

In April of 1914, the first large theater was built for the sole purpose of showing films. This theater was able to hold 3000 people. The building of this grand scale theater inspired the age of magnitude and splendor in motion pictures.

In 1915, David Wark Griffith produced a 3-hour film entitled The Birth of a Nation. The movie was about the American Civil War and the Reconstruction or the rebuilding of the South. This movie was a great advancement in the film industry. This was not only because of its controversial topic, which was a story that was told from the perspective of the defeated South, but it introduced a much more developed and refined camera technique. The movie used a series of close-ups and long shots in combination with very unique editing, which is the arrangement of the shots. This camera technique was able to bring the historical setting to life and immerse the audience in the epoch. Griffith also added a full orchestra in the theater pits. The orchestra played an especially composed musical score and added the sound effects. The music together with the camera technique mesmerized the audience. The Birth of a Nation was the first epic of American cinema.

Before long motion pictures were made, “flickers” as long as 20 minutes were shown in small stores called Nickelodeons. However, in the advent of large-scale motion pictures, these Nickelodeons expanded into larger theaters. When they did not have motion pictures to show, they had showed “serials”. These serials were divided into 20-minute episodes. One episode was shown every week and it would always end with the hero and heroine facing another dilemma. The term “cliffhangers” came from these serials because the hero or the heroin was often left hanging dangerously over a cliff at the end of the episode. The audience would have to wait until the next week to see what would happen to them. This strategy secured a continuous and interested audience.

Earlier, films were made by small independent producers. But with the birth of the large theater, silent movies had become a booming business in the span of 20 years. The films were now produced by companies of producers or studios. Some of these companies were Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal and United Artists. As a consequence of World War I, most of these the big-shot producers moved to California. The center of the production of American films became Hollywood, which is an area within Los Angeles. It was not long until Hollywood acquired its reputation for glamour and made it a famous name around the world. This status of Hollywood is true even today.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Movies

While Hollywood delivers summer flops instead of money makers, i.e. Mission Impossible 3 and Poseidon, savvy people in the entertainment business seem to be moving ever closer to changing the way we go to the movies. Bram Cohen, the founder and inventor of the Bit Torrent application, which enables extremely fast downloads of large files, like movies, has been slowly establishing a relationship with some of the Hollywood studios over the past year; and last week it was announced l he had signed a deal with Warner Brothers studios to use his software, bit torrent, to distribute movies and TV shows. Warner is going to sell the movies and TV shows for about $1, under cutting ITunes price for similar downloads.

Bit Torrent has been used by P2P community for years and although it is legal to use the Bit Torrent application it has been widely used to download pirated movies, TV shows and videos.

Perhaps the real significance of this deal with Cohen and Bit Torrent, is that it will begin the process familiarizing more people with the software. Why is this significant? because the rumor is the next step will be the simultaneous release of movies in all formats. That would mean the simultaneous release on DVD, video on demand via cable and or direct TV, and via computer download. Many people say that is not the future for movies and that computer download in particular would not would not allow for viewing on your home TV. However Netflix has just applied for permission to make movie downloads available to it’s customers in the future. So there must be something happening somewhere in Hollywood. As for the download aspect I’m sure there is an easy fix either by a Tivo type box or by a software application, after all why are all the big companies like Microsoft, Dell and Gateway focusing on home media PCs.

The press have been mentioning this from time to time but seem to think movie downloading is far off. I would disagree. The new release of King Kong has gone to DVD even earlier than most major movies before it. Which leads one to ask why delay simultaneous release any longer?

The short answer is movie theatres, or I should say the multiplexes that are out there. They still benefit form getting the first crack at the audience and are fighting not to loose that revenue edge. But as Marc Cuban (What business are Theatres In?) and Mark Pesce ( Piracy is good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV) have written in some recent articles. What business are the theaters really in? and will simultaneous releases really hurt them? or just cause the long over due evolution of the movie theatre business model.

There are two distinct forces that are at work in the world right now. Both are unstoppable and both will eventually change the movie theatre experience as we now know it. The first is the portable media device. The ipod , the cell phone, the blackberry, and other like devices that enable media to be portable and accessible anywhere anytime.

The second is the new culture of choice. What you want, when you want it ,and where and how you choose to consume it. This second concept may not be as clear as the first. It means instead of going to a multiplex in the Mall, with cell phones ringing and teenagers text messaging and gossiping, to see a movie, you might choose to go to a quiet small local cinema. One that caters to your neighborhood or your life style. One that offers matinees for stay at home Moms who can bring small children. One that perhaps has dinner included in a dinner theatre setting in the evening. One that bans cell phones and does not appeal to teens or tweens. Sound unlikely? you would be surprised. Marc Cuban has developed a whole new movie theatre model not unlike those that are springing up across the country. Here is one example:

In rural Connecticut this type of theatre experience is thriving. The small local cinema reborn and catering to two profitable demographic groups, the young family with small children wanting a family night or afternoon with family oriented movies and the older baby boomers seeking a night out with dinner included in their neighborhood. Smart entrepreneurs are developing this small specialized type of movie experience. The demand is there. This is just the next level of choice that is being offered. You can see a movie at home, you can see it at the Mall with your 15 year old friends, or you can see it at a quiet small local theatre with dinner or lunch and your small children. You are still consuming movies the choices are just more numerous and more diverse.

If you think simultaneous release is still far off again just look at what Dell, Gateway, Microsoft and other manufactures are focusing on. The home media center computer. One that does it all and integrates with your TV or home theatre set up. The application to download large media files , Bit Torrent, is already here and is being exposed to a wider audience. Now the application just has to be made easier for the general public to use. I should think that would not be too hard for a room full of engineers.

Skye Conroy works for websitedesignpartners.com, a small business help and resource web site that provides free information to small businesses who want to start marketing there business on the world wide web. Copyright webdesignpartners,inc.

Articles by Marc Cuban may be found at blogmaverik.com and by Mark Pesce at mindjack.com