1.
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is an American multinational media conglomerate. It has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial, via the Universal Parks & Resorts division, the company is the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBC Universal was formed on May 12,2004 by the merger of General Electrics National Broadcasting Company with Vivendis Vivendi Universal Entertainment, as of March 19,2013, it is wholly owned by Comcast who bought GEs ownership stake. NBC and Universal Television had a long-standing partnership dating back to 1950 and this partnership continued throughout a number of name changes and changes of ownership. NBC Universal Television has its roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, NBC had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV.
In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, a separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC. com. In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co, the two companies combined their financial news channels outside the US. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, in 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, in 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which included the bilingual Mun2 Television. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo, the sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi, Universal Music Group was not included in the deal and is not part of NBC Universal.
On August 2,2004, the divisions of NBC. NBC Studios series bought into the company include the NBC dramas Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, Universal Network Television bought the Law & Order franchise and The District—in fact, Universal Network Television had co-produced American Dreams with NBC before the merger. Entertainment shows produced by the new group include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, and Saturday Night Live. The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution, marketing, NBC Universal Cable manages the companys investments in The Weather Channel and TiVo. The cable division used to operate NBC Weather Plus until 2008 and it owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and owned a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012
2.
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black was an American actress, dancer and diplomat who was most notable as Hollywoods number one box-office star from 1935 to 1938. As an adult, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia, Shirley Temple began her film career in 1932 at age 3. In 1934, she found fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her image included dolls, dishes. Her box-office popularity waned as she reached adolescence and she appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid-to-late teens, and retired from films in 1950 at the age of 22. Temple returned to business in 1958 with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on shows in the early 1960s. She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, in 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star. Temple was the recipient of awards and honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors.
She is 18th on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest female American screen legends of Classic Hollywood cinema, Shirley Temple was born on April 23,1928, in Santa Monica, California. She was the child of Gertrude Amelia Temple, a homemaker, and George Francis Temple. The family was of English and Dutch ancestry and she had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley. The family moved to Brentwood, Los Angeles and her mother supported her young daughters singing and acting talents, and in September 1931, enrolled her in Meglins Dance School in Los Angeles. About this time, her mother began styling her daughters hair in ringlets, while at Meglins, she was spotted by Charles Lamont, a casting director for Educational Pictures. Although Shirley hid behind the piano while in the studio, Lamont took a shine to her, invited her to audition, Educational Pictures were about to launch their Baby Burlesks, multiple short films satirizing recent film and political events, using preschool children in every role.
Baby Burlesks was a series of one-reelers, another series of two-reelers called Frolics of Youth followed, with Shirley playing Mary Lou Rogers, to underwrite production costs at Educational and her child co-stars modeled for breakfast cereals and other products. She was lent to Tower Productions for a role in her first feature film in 1932 and, in 1933, to Universal, Paramount. After Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy in 1933, her father purchased her contract for $25, while walking out of the viewing of her last Frolics of Youth picture, Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney saw the little girl dancing in the movie theater lobby
3.
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Hanks films have grossed more than $4.5 billion at U. S. and Canadian box offices and more than $9.0 billion worldwide, Hanks has been nominated for numerous awards during his career. In 2004, he received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received a Kennedy Center Honor and, in 2016, he received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, in 2010, Spielberg and Hanks were executive producers on the HBO miniseries The Pacific. Hanks was born in Concord, the son of Janet Marylyn, a worker, and Amos Mefford Hanks. His mother was of Portuguese descent, while his father had English ancestry. The familys three oldest children, Sandra and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, in his childhood, his family moved often. By the age of ten, Hanks had lived in ten different houses, while Hanks family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, he has characterized himself as being a Bible-toting evangelical for several years as a teenager.
In school, Hanks was unpopular with students and teachers alike, telling Rolling Stone magazine, I was a geek, I was horribly, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy whod yell out funny captions during filmstrips, but I didnt get into trouble. I was always a good kid and pretty responsible. In 1965, his father married Frances Wong, a San Francisco native of Chinese descent, Frances had three children, two of whom lived with Hanks during his high school years. Hanks acted in plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward and transferred to California State University, Hanks told New York magazine in 1986, Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of going to plays. I wouldnt take dates with me, id just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, during his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.
At Dowlings suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival and his internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college
4.
Lucasfilm
LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12,1977, on July 8,2005, Lucasfilms marketing and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco. It shares the complex with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors. However, it plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch, in January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features.
She would in June 2013 and is now chairperson of Lucasfilm, on September 5,2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy, Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, on October 30,2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disneys global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas originally announced as serving as creative consultant, the company announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars, The Force Awakens in 2015.
Disney acquired Lucasfilms portfolio of entertainment technologies, the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014, starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4,2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on December 18,2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. was reincorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and on December 21,2012, the deal was announced to be completed, in April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6,2013, Disney announced a deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market
5.
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001, A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science-fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C, partially inspired by Clarkes short story The Sentinel. Clarke concurrently wrote the novel 2001, A Space Odyssey, published soon after the film was released, the film follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer Hal after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution. It deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, artificial intelligence and it is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery. It uses sound and minimal dialogue in place of narrative techniques, the soundtrack consists of classical music such as Gayane Ballet Suite, The Blue Danube. Production was subcontracted to Kubricks production company, and care was taken that the film would be sufficiently British to qualify for subsidy from the Eady Levy, Kubrick had shot his previous two films in England and decided to settle there permanently during filming.
2001, A Space Odyssey initially received mixed reactions from critics and audiences and it was nominated for four Academy Awards and received one for its visual effects. The sequel 2010 was released in 1984, directed by Peter Hyams, Today,2001, A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress, in 2010, it was named the greatest film of all time by The Moving Arts Film Journal. In an African desert millions of years ago, a tribe of ape-men is driven away from their water hole by a rival tribe and they awaken to find a featureless black monolith has appeared before them. Guided in some fashion by the monolith, they learn how to use a bone as a weapon and drive their rivals away from the water hole. Millions of years later, a Pan Am space plane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd to a station orbiting Earth for a layover on his trip to Clavius Base.
After Floyd has a call with his daughter, his Soviet scientist friend. At Clavius, Floyd heads a meeting of base personnel, apologizing for the cover story. His mission is to investigate a recently found artifact buried four years ago. Floyd and others ride in a Moonbus to the artifact, an identical to the one encountered by the ape-men. Sunlight strikes the monolith and a loud high-pitched radio signal is heard, eighteen months later, the United States spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. On board are mission pilots and scientists Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, most of Discoverys operations are controlled by the ships computer, HAL9000, referred to by the crew as Hal
6.
Psycho (1960 film)
When originally made, Psycho was seen as a departure from Hitchcocks previous film North by Northwest, having been filmed on a low budget, with a television crew and in black and white. Psycho is now considered one of Hitchcocks best films and praised as a work of cinematic art by international film critics. After Hitchcocks death in 1980, Universal Studios began producing follow-ups, in 1992, the US Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, after lunch, Marion returns to work, where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip, deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California. She is seen by her boss on her way out of town, during the trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened by a state patrol officer.
He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows her to drive on, shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a Ford Custom 300 that has California tags. Her transaction is all for naught—the highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership, driving on, Marion encounters a sudden rainstorm and decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, the proprietor, Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts, but hears an argument between Norman and his mother about bringing a woman into her house. They eat in the parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his mother. Returning to her room, Marion decides to go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money and she prepares to take a shower, unaware that Norman is spying on her. As she is showering, a female figure suddenly comes in. A week later, Marions sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the whereabouts of her sister, a private investigator named Arbogast approaches them and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer.
He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Normans behavior arouses his suspicions, after hearing that Marion had met with Normans mother, he asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast calls Lila and Sam, informing them of what he has discovered and he goes to the Bates home in search of her, as he reaches the top of the stairs, Mrs. Bates suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders him. When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff, concerned and Sam make their way to the motel. Norman takes his mother from her room, telling her he needs to hide her for a while in the fruit cellar. At the motel and Sam meet Norman, Sam distracts him by striking up a conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house
7.
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne, or Art Moderne, is a late type of the Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Its architectural style emphasized curving forms, long lines. The first streamline buildings evolved from the work of New Objectivity artists, a movement connected to the German Werkbund, as the Great Depression of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of Art Deco—i. e. Cylindrical forms and long horizontal windowing may be influenced by constructivism, as a result, an array of designers quickly ultra-modernized and streamlined the designs of everyday objects. Manufacturers of clocks, telephones, furniture, the style was the first to incorporate electric light into architectural structure. In the first-class dining room of the SS Normandie, fitted out 1933–35, twelve pillars of Lalique glass. The Streamline Moderne was both a reaction to Art Deco and a reflection of austere economic times, Sharp angles were replaced with simple, exotic woods and stone were replaced with cement and glass.
Art Deco and Streamline Moderne were not necessarily opposites, the Sterling Streamliner Diners were diners designed like streamlined trains. Although Streamline Moderne houses are less common than streamline commercial buildings, the Lydecker House in Los Angeles, built by Howard Lydecker, is an example of Streamline Moderne design in residential architecture. In tract development, elements of the style were used as a variation in postwar row housing in San Franciscos Sunset District. The style was applied to such as electric clocks, sewing machines, small radio receivers. Their manufacturing processes exploited developments in science including aluminium and bakelite. Compared to Europe, the United States in the 1930s had a focus on design as a means to increase sales of consumer products. Streamlining was associated with prosperity and an exciting future and this hope resonated with the American middle class, the major market for consumer products. A wide range of goods from refrigerators to pencil sharpeners was produced in streamlined designs, streamlining became a widespread design practice for automobiles, railroad cars and other vehicles in the 1930s.
Streamline style can be contrasted with functionalism, which was a design style in Europe at the same time. One reason for the designs in functionalism was to lower the production costs of the items. Streamlining and functionalism represent two different schools in modernistic industrial design, but both reflecting the intended consumer
8.
Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression. Dolby licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers, Dolby Labs was founded by American Ray Dolby in the United Kingdom in 1965. He moved the company to the United States in 1967, the first product Dolby Labs produced was the Dolby 301 unit which incorporated Type A Dolby Noise Reduction, a compander based noise reduction system. These units were intended for use in recording studios. Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a version of his noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type B in 1968, Dolby sought to improve film sound. As the corporations history explains, Upon investigation, Dolby found that many of the limitations in optical sound stemmed directly from its high background noise. The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange, which used Dolby noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, callan was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack.
In 1975, Dolby released Dolby Stereo, which included a reduction system in addition to more audio channels. The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania, the first true LCRS soundtrack was encoded on the movie A Star Is Born in 1976. In less than ten years,6,000 cinemas worldwide were equipped to use Dolby Stereo sound, Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the cinema. Dolby Stereo Digital was first featured on the 1992 film Batman Returns, Dolby Digital is now found in the HDTV standard of the United States, DVD players, and many satellite-TV and cable-TV receivers. Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for TV series The Simpsons, on February 17,2005, the company became public, offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol DLB. On March 15,2005, Dolby celebrated its fortieth anniversary at the ShoWest 2005 Festival in San Francisco, on January 8,2007, Dolby announced the arrival of Dolby Volume at the International Consumer Electronics Show.
It enables users to maintain a steady volume while switching through channels or program elements, on June 18,2010, Dolby introduced Dolby Surround 7.1, and set up theaters worldwide with 7.1 surround speaker setups to deliver theatrical 7.1 surround sound. The first film to be released with this format was Pixars Toy Story 3 which was followed by 50 releases using the format. As of April 2012, there are 3,600 Dolby Surround 7.1 movie theaters, in April 2012, Dolby introduced its Dolby Atmos, a new cinematic technology adding overhead sound, first applied in Pixars motion picture Brave. In July 2014, Dolby Laboratories announced plans to bring Atmos to home theater, the first television show to use the technology on disc was Game of Thrones
9.
Kathleen Kennedy (producer)
Kathleen Kennedy is an American film producer. In 1981, she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall and she was a producer on the 1982 film E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Jurassic Park franchise, the first two of which became two of the top ten highest-grossing films of the 1990s. Kennedy is third only to Spielberg and Stan Lee in domestic box office receipts, on October 30,2012, she became the president of Lucasfilm, and the brand manager of the Star Wars franchise, after The Walt Disney Company acquired the company for over $4 billion. Overall, Kennedys work has included over 60 films,120 Academy Award nominations, one of her most recent projects, produced by Spielberg, was nominated for seven Golden Globes and twelve Academy Awards. Kennedy was born in Berkeley, the daughter of Dione Marie Dede, a theater actress, and Donald R. Kennedy. Her twin sister, formerly a location manager in British Columbia, Kennedy graduated from Shasta High School in Redding, California, in 1971.
She continued her education at San Diego State University where she majored in telecommunications, after her employment with KCST, she went on to produce a local talk show entitled Youre On for the station for four years before moving to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Kennedy secured her first film production job working as an assistant to John Milius, during the production of 1941, while working for screenwriter John Milius, Kennedy came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg hired Kennedy as his secretary, but both she and he reported that she was a terrible typist who was kept on only because of her good production ideas. Kennedy was credited as associate to Mr. Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark and she began receiving producer credit with Spielberg on the box-office smash E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which continued on most of his films for the next three decades. Following her work on the Indiana Jones films, she rose to one of Hollywoods leading producers. In 1981 she helped co-found and run the successful production company Amblin Entertainment, with Spielberg.
She went on to collaborate with a large and important group of directors, including Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson, and Clint Eastwood when they made films for Amblin. Kennedy took over a portion of the running of Amblin and served as president of the Amblin company until 1992. She became a partner with him in The Kennedy/Marshall Company, a Santa-Monica-based film-production company with a deal at DreamWorks. In 2007, she was the first recipient of Women in Films Paltrow Mentorship Award, for showing extraordinary commitment to mentoring and supporting the generation of filmmakers. In 2005 she was a producer on two of Spielbergs films, War of the Worlds and Munich, the latter of which earned her an Academy Award nomination. Marshall and Kennedy were producers for the US versions of two Studio Ghibli animated features, Ponyo released in 2009 and The Secret World of Arrietty, in May 2012, she stepped down from Kennedy/Marshall, leaving Marshall as sole principal of their eponymous film company
