This comprehensive introduction to the film industry focuses on three topics: how movies express meanings, how viewers understand those meanings, and how cinema functions globally as both an art and a business. This is the only introductory film text to examine the elements of film style and the viewer's contribution to the cinema experience. Includes case studies of prominent films, Sidebar material extends major topics of discussion and to profiles major directors, Coverage of new technologies and their impact on filmmaking. The contemporary film industry, the major studios, and the interplay between business and aesthetics well as blockbusters, new technologies, the film industry, and current box office trends. Anyone interested in film (movie buffs); anyone who wants to go into the film industry.

斯蒂芬·普林斯（Stephen Prince），美國著名電影學者、弗吉尼亞理工大學教授、哥本哈根大學榮譽教授，從事電影史教學20餘年。擔任權威電影學術期刊《投影》（Projections）主編，曾任《電影季刊》（Film Quarterly）書評編輯11年。研究興趣為電影理論、電影批評、電影史，著作涉及好萊塢電影史、電影的暴力美學、黑澤明作品分析等領域，著有《電影數字特效》《恐怖主義時代的美國電影》《經典電影暴力》《武者的影跡：黑澤明電影》《類型電影讀本》等。普林斯還為知名DVD發行商CC的大師經典收藏版（如黑澤明、薩姆·佩金帕）做配音評論解說。

王彤，美國哥倫比亞大學電影研究方嚮碩士，電影策展人。文章曾收錄於論文集《拍攝每一天：21 世紀中國的獨立紀錄片》（Filming the Everyday: Independent Documentaries in Twenty-First-Century China）以及《電影研究》等學術期刊。