Or perhaps you just like movies and want to know a little more about the film industry. A lot of people assume it’s easy to make a film; many people also believe that all you need is talent and you’ll instantly get hired. Yes, talent is important, but there is so much more to the film industry that many people may not know about. From cover-ups to animal cruelty, you might find this list surprising. Here are 25 Things You Never Knew About the Film Industry. It turns out that some reviews are either fake or mixed and matched with other movie reviews. The marketing department will take a piece of a blurb about a movie here, and put it in a blurb about a movie there. And that’s not all. Moviemakers will even go so far as to bribe critics with free movie screenings, free food, gifts, and visits to the set where the movie is being made. One of the most infamous of these people is Earl Dittman, who actually emailed Fox, sent them different film reviews for the movie Robots, and told them to pick the one they liked the most. The second film was called Roundhay Garden Scene. It was made by Louis LePrince and it’s only 2.11 seconds long, which does technically qualify as a movie. According to Guinness, it’s the oldest surviving film today. The third film was made by The Lumiere Brothers called Arrival of a Train. It’s one single shot of a train pulling up to a station and people getting on. There is a story that when people first saw this, they were freaked out by the train. Many thought it was going to come through the screen and they ran to the back of the theatre to escape. It turns out this happens because ideas are not copyrighted, but scripts are. So, if the filmmakers like the idea but not the script, they just hire someone else to write the script based on your idea. A man named Art Buchenwald won a settlement with Paramount when a script he wrote called King for a Day was made into the movie Coming to America. The film was so realistic that the director of the film, Ruggero Deodato, actually had to go to court and prove that no actors were really killed. Cannibal Holocaust is considered a cult classic among horror fanatics, despite it being banned in several countries. Then there are the actors who really want to get inside the minds of their character and go even further than research. Charlie Sheen reportedly stayed up for 48 hours to achieve the look of a drug addict for his cameo in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In 1982, unknown actress Pia Zadora won an Oscar for her role in the movie Butterfly. Critics panned her performance and many speculate that her husband, who was the producer of the film, flew the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) to Las Vegas for the weekend before they voted. Many films have mistreatment of animals or even real animal deaths. The tiger in Life of Pi reportedly almost drowned during the making of the film. When actor Matthew Broderick was driving in Ireland with his then-girlfriend Jennifer Grey, he accidentally killed two women because he was driving on the wrong side of the road. Broderick faced few legal consequences and only had to pay a $175.00 fine even though he had been found responsible. The scene is comical, but there was actually supposed to be a big sword fight between the two characters. Harrison Ford, who played Jones, wasn’t feeling well that day, and thus not in any condition to do a big fight scene. We think (and many will probably agree) that the resultant scene turned out just fine. (Spoiler ahead) The end of the series reveals that Snape was actually a good guy defending the young Harry Potter because Snape was in love with Potter’s mother. Rickman kept the secret to his grave. You need to apply for a star through the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The cost of roughly $30,000 covers both installation and upkeep of the star. Movie theaters don’t make money from ticket sales until the film has been shown for a few weeks. There are also fees that a theater has to pay in order to screen the movie. So, maybe think twice before sneaking food into the theater. There are a couple of reasons why filmmakers put out a trailer completely different from the movies. They want to fill as many seats on opening day so they will make the trailer to appease to different audiences. For instance, a romantic movie can be made to look like slapstick comedy. The other reason is so as not to spoil the ending of the movie. (Spoiler) Kevin Spacey’s name wasn’t in the trailer for the movie Seven because they didn’t want to reveal the killer. The actress had battled depression for many years. Some say the sign is haunted by her ghost. There is another belief that the song “Peg” by Steely Dan is about the late actress. Many people applauded Hitchcock’s vision and movie-making skills … but not Walt Disney. He was so disgusted with Psycho that he refused to let Hitchcock make any movie at Disneyland. Quentin Tarantino and Peter Jackson are among some of the directors who use this sound in their films. The first time the effect was used occurred in the 1951 film Distant Drums, starring Gary Cooper, when a man crossing a river gets dragged underwater by a crocodile. Since then, the Wilhelm Scream has been used in over 200 movies. The Warner Brothers themselves are rather remarkable as well. Albert, Sam, Harry, and Jack Warner are responsible for putting sounds in motion pictures. They were also the first to put animals in movies. The film cost over $400,000, which at the time was a pretty hefty sum. The film has also rightfully been labeled racist, as Jolson had put on “blackface” for this role and others. They even offered to remit land charges when more churches were built on the property. It was a good intention, but Hollywood turned out a little differently than planned. The very end of the movie has one of the main characters, Rhett Butler, walking out the door. The other one, Scarlett O’Hara, chases after him after she’s used him for the last time. When she cries, “What will I do?” Rhett replies, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” The use of this word cost Selnick $5,000. It was 1939, after all. Alan Livingston, the former president of Capitol, originally had the idea that the blinking lights should use morse code. Leila Morse, the granddaughter of Samuel Morse (inventor of Morse code), was the first to activate the lights. Au contraire (on the contrary), my friends. There is quite the process, and movies sometimes take what seems like forever to make. The director has to find funding for the project, find actors willing to perform in the project, get permission to use the location of the film, etc. For example, James Cameron’s Avatar was in the making for over a decade before it was released. (Spoilers ahead) In a scene near the end of the movie (where Gruber is hanging off the edge of the building), the director told Rickman he was going to drop him at the count of three. When he started counting, however, Rickman was dropped at one. So that look you see on Gruber’s face is a true expression of fear on Alan Rickman’s face. Rest in peace, good sir. The studio had a say on who the actors dated and married, and whether they were allowed to have children. If the actor broke the clause, they got fired. The clause still exists today but it’s gotten much looser, which some say may not be a good thing. The clause is apparently now used to punish those who have used their position of power to prey on the vulnerable. The film put Warner on Hitler’s execution list. Thankfully, Hitler didn’t have the chance to carry out this intention.
