Global Theater History as Education

Global Theater History As Education for 4th Grade Children

California's unique strength has been the winning blend of technology and rich entertainment content, which has driven the people of California craving for high-tech media entertainment.

After the 1990s, with the growth of digital content in entertainment, California has been acknowledged as the bastion of media entertainment with big banners like Titanic and Jurassic park becoming blockbuster movies. The heavy special effects in these movies owe their origin in California which has the indomitable strengths of latest technology and rich content. Besides novel forms of technology is expected to roll out when PC, TV and telephone converge into one. Los Angeles is presently witnessing a multimedia boom as more than a several thousands of people are engaged in the multimedia business. California's tryst with entertainment dates back to the silent era when Mendocino became the first film to be made in its category in the Silent Movie Theatre. In the forthcoming five to six years it is anticipated that computer and video game business will be break unforeseen barriers will be worth a whopping $10 billion in U.S. alone hooking kids and surprising adults too. The future lies in Interactive Entertainment that will take some major features of the computer and video game industry thereby putting an immense impact on the future of entertainment and technology. Disney's contribution to the world of entertainment is a unique blend of theme parks and animated movies. Its theme parks in California provides various thrilling rides and its animated movies and cartoon shows enjoys immense popularity worldwide generating huge revenues in the form of souvenirs & mementos. Japanese animation industry which once featured content like Start Trek categories has now been a hit in the U.S. Animation pictures and programs produced by major companies such as Walt Disney and Fox TV are presently worth more than $2 billion. It is surprising to see that while ten years back, there were just a handful animated TV shows, currently almost all the channels catering to the entertainment needs of the kids is replete with Japanese cartoon which is gaining in popularity among the youth.

Introduction:

California boasts of the breathtaking media entertainment content which are immensely popular worldwide. Ranging from the striking visual effects of the sinking ship of the mega grosser Titanic to the awestruck monsters of Jurassic Park, California has everything to offer in world of media entertainment. Among the ten biggest crows puller of all time, eight are 'special effect' heavy ones. This trend has paved the way for sharp rise of computer-generated effects in Los Angeles, which is acknowledged as the ideal convergence of the two fundamental strengths of California. This unique strength has built a new wave of high wage high skilled job for the Californian media industry professional. However, this has been a late phenomenon, which had started taking roots only after the 1990s. Before that the economy was languishing while the rest of the country recovered from recession. Presently, nevertheless, a greater diverse economic base, with the entertainment at the leading edge, is propelling the growth of the area. In excess of 1, 30,000 citizens of Los Angeles are engaged in the mushrooming multimedia business. Riding the crest of success has been the media entertainment giant Megadrive which has seen its revenues doubling every two years as the digital entertainment industry has flourished. (Special Effects)

The products of Megadrive are used by the visual effects companies such as Digital Domain, one of Los Angeles's most successful companies. In order to create its special effects, the companies although used conventional techniques like smoke, mirrors, however most of the effects are computer enhanced or generated. A Michael Jackson video for example from Digital Domain features an increasingly simple technique wherein a performer's motions are recorded by a computer and later produced as animation. This is the happening technology - the digital technology that is known as the digital revolution. The surface has just been scratched and possibly the coming years will witness the most vital revolutionary change in the manner in which we educate our children, and the manner in which we communicate. New forms of communication are originating when computer, television, and telephone co-ordinate themselves into one technology which will demand novel ways of telling stories and creating images, resulting in even higher growth in the digital production industry and the California's economy. (Special Effects)

The various Entertainment eras:

Starting with silent era in movies, the first movie was filmed in Mendocino, California which was a documentary on the giant redwood trees in the region. Starting in 1916, there were 17 silent movies which was filmed in the region with 43 movies with sound filmed at the place including the famous TV series "Murder She Wrote" and other TV programs and advertisements. (100 years of movies filmed here) The Silent Movie Theatre in California was a crowd puller that had warm neon glow that draws a new generation of silent moviegoers. This silent movie arena was created in 1942 at the time while silent movies appeared like the ancient relics before the masses. Although it had suffered difficult times since the years inclusive of the fact that it had no other way than to shut down for a few years due to the notorious killing of its owner during 1996, it has never stopped to pay reverence to the films which built the entertainment bastion of the world. Following the change in the ownership to its present owner, it was completely revamped, and currently it beautifully captures the look and feel of the old time movie theatres. (Cinema Treasures)

It is greatly anticipated that over the next five years the video and computer game business will pull-off more than $10 billion sales in U.S.A. itself, becoming the type of entertainment which will be most preferred for teeming millions of kids and adult's alike who are living in this interactive age. As a response to this Cultural Revolution, the University of Southern California's Annenberg Centre for Communication and the Interactive Digital Software Association - IDSA had hosted a seminar "Entertainment in the Interactive Age." The two-day Seminar found out the varying content and technology of interactive video and computer games as also the impact these games put on entertainment, media and culture. The USC Annenberg Centre for Communication focuses on projects that find out as well as influence communications technology in our society. With the convergence between entertainment and interactive, it is vital to recognize the progression as a compelling cultural and creative force for the 21st century. (Game Experts, Technologists, Artists and Scholars Explore the Rise of Digital Games and their Impact on Entertainment in the 21st Century)

The conference brought together some of the brilliant minds available in the industry for a candid discussion of the future of this new form of entertainment. Entertainment in the Interactive Age will initiate an important discourse discovering the several features of the computer and video game industry, which, taken together, will put an immense impact on the future of entertainment and technology - according to Douglas Lowenstein, President of the IDSA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. USC Annenberg Centre for Communication was set up in 1993 by a $100 million endowment to the University of Southern California by Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg. The Centre encourages active research that deals with practical problems in the convergence of technology and communications. The Centre is directed by a group of respected leaders from arts and entertainment, as also science, technology and business, all of whom support the cross-disciplinary approach sought for in its projects.

The Interactive Digital Software Association solely dedicated to catering to the business and public affairs needs of the companies who publish video and computer game consoles, personal computers and the Internet. IDSA members jointly accounted for in excess of 90% of the $6.1 billion in the entertainment software sales in the U.S. during 1999 and billions more in export sales of entertainment software made in America. The IDSA caters its services to interactive entertainment software publishers together with an international anti-piracy program, government relations and First Amendment and intellectual property protection efforts, business and consumer research, and is the owner and founder of Electronic Entertainment Expo Trade show as well as the founder of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. (Game Experts, Technologists, Artists and Scholars Explore the Rise of Digital Games and their Impact on Entertainment in the 21st Century)

California is also home to the 55-acre Disney California Adventure which spreads out immediately next to Disneyland and pays tribute to the Golden State with four theme areas. Paradise Piers recreates the brilliant days of California's seaside piers. For those who like the thrills there is the California Screaming roller coaster that takes riders from 0 to 55 mph in nearly 4 seconds and races ahead through scream tunnels, drops which are steeply angled and a 360 degree loop. The Sun Wheel, a giant Ferris wheel gives a good panoramic view of the grounds at an increasingly relaxed speed. In the Hollywood Pictures Backlot one can take part in an "I want to be in pictures" moment. The Disney Animation attraction provides an insider's view exhibiting the number of Disney's animated movies and characters were created. The Hyperion theatre hosts Aladdin -A Musical Spectacular that is a 45-minute live performance with brilliant visual effects for which one has to wait for nearly an hour. The latest attraction of the park is the Tower of Terror after a 1930s hotel which was shown in The Twillight Zone. The most frightening part of this attraction is the service elevator ride which transports one from the basement of the Hollywood Tower Hotel to the 13th Floor and returns back once again at speeds where people scream loudly. (Sights and Activities: Disney's California Adventure)

Bug's Land, which comes inspired from the film A Bug's Life shows an insect's point-of-view. At the Princess Dot Puzzle one has the choice of cooling off or getting soaked by a huge garden hose pipe and can also ride in pill-bug shaped bumper cars. The short show it's tough to be a Bug gives one a 3-D look at the life of an insect. The Golden State celebrates California's history and natural beauty with several regions inclusive of the Bay Area, Pacific Wharf, and Condor Flats where one gets the opportunity to soar over California, a breathtaking simulated hang-glider ride over the Californian terrain. Grizzly River Run is a white-water raft ride that ends in a drop down from a 22-feet waterfall. The film Golden Dreams is a sappy rush through the history, which is hosted by the legendary Whoopi Goldberg. Present also is a 1-acre farm and winery, a nature trail, as well as a tortilla factory. And not to be missed in the night is the Disney's Electrical Parade which is a procession in which all the floats and characters are festooned with numerous tiny lights. (Sights and Activities: Disney's California Adventure)

Entertainment History from another foreign country: Japan

The Walt Disney release of the Japanese blockbuster 'Spirited Away' introduced in the United States. Till date the animated film that surpassed even Titanic in Japan, is a tremendous success in foreign shores. Film reviewers from the New York Times, Chicago Sun Times and Miami Herald had accolades reserved for director Hayao Miyazaki for his attention to detail and craft. However hard core animation fans are not scared by the success of the film. They have grown on TV shows like Voltron and Power Rangers, therefore the magnificence of Miyazaki and other animation directors are not new. Japanese animation, a variety which was once reserved for the TV dens of Star Trek categories and solitary teenagers, presently enjoys hit status in the U.S. Ten years ago, just two animation videos are available in the U.S. And the industry was calculated to be thousands of dollars. However, as per the Society for the promotion of Japanese Animation -- SPJA by the year 2000, the industry here has seen the growth of $100 million. (Anime in America: Japan's animated movies have risen from cult status to cultural force in U.S. Next up for the moviemakers: wining approval from Mom and Dad)

Moreover, this is just the fund generated by the largest 'pure' animation companies like Pioneer, Bandai, AD Vision and manga publisher Viz Communication. Animation films and programs produced by the mainstream companies such as Walt Disney and Fox TV Network are worth an extra $2 billion. This may appear like marked change compared with the profits in Japan, where in 2000, Pokeman in itself produced $4 billion, however the growth in the U.S. particularly in the past three years has been immense, according to Tatsugawa, the founder and CEO of SPJA. Whereas ten years back, there was merely a few animated TV shows, presently every children's channel is flooded with Japanese cartoons which is rising in popularity among the youth.