Anaconda is a 1997, adventure-horror film, directed by Luis Llosa, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Owen Wilson, and Eric Stoltz. It centers around a film crew for National Geographic who are kidnapped by a hunter who is going after the world's largest giant anaconda, which is discovered in the Amazon Rainforest. Though the film received negative reviews from critics, it was a box office hit. It was followed by the sequel Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.

Plot[link]

Shooting a documentary about a long-lost Indian tribe on the Amazon River known as the Shirishama tribe, director Terri Flores (Jennifer Lopez) and members of her crew, including cameraman Danny Rich (Ice Cube), production manager Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer), sound engineer Gary Dixon (Owen Wilson), visionary Warren Westridge (Jonathan Hyde), anthropologist Professor Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz) and captain of the boat Mateo (Vincent Castellanos), comes across stranded Paraguayan snake hunter Paul Sarone (Jon Voight) and helps him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for, but Sarone acts strangely and the crew suspects something.

While trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp, which got in his scuba gear and leaves him unconscious. With that, Sarone takes command of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true objective — hunting down and capturing a record-breaking Green Anaconda he had been tracking.

Mateo is the first of the crew to be killed by the anaconda, that strangles him to death outside a boat where a poacher (Danny Trejo) was killed at the beginning of the film. The rest tries to find him while Gary sides with Sarone, saying if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive. Ironically, Gary is killed next when they attempt to capture the anaconda. The survivors knock out and then tie up Sarone. When Denise attempts to kill Sarone, he gets the edge and chokes her before dumping her body in the river where she drowns. The anaconda returns and kills Westridge before the snake itself is shot dead and Sarone incapacitated by the newly awakened Cale (Who later falls unconscious again). Danny punches Sarone, knocking Sarone into the river.

Later on, Terri and Danny, two of the surviving members of the crew, are captured when Sarone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and then uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, larger anaconda. The anaconda wraps around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Sarone, but the snake breaks free. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and break free as Sarone himself is killed by the snake. Terri finds a nest of baby anacondas in the building, but the snake arrives and after vomiting up Sarone, chases her up a smoke stack. The snake becomes trapped in the smoke stack, which Danny ignites and burns the snake alive. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the snake appears one final time. Danny beats the anaconda with an axe until it is finally dead.

Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive, on the boat. As they float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Sarone was right and begin filming their documentary as the movie ends.

Cast[link]

• Jennifer Lopez as Terri Flores
• Ice Cube as Danny Rich
• Jon Voight as Paul Sarone
• Eric Stoltz as Dr. Steven Cale
• Jonathan Hyde as Warren Westridge
• Owen Wilson as Gary Dixon
• Kari Wuhrer as Denise Kalberg
• Vincent Castellanos as Mateo
• Danny Trejo as Poacher
• Frank Welker as the Anaconda (voice)

Box office[link]

The film grossed over $136,000,000 at the international box office.

Reception[link]

Anaconda received negative reviews when it was released. Some praised the film's effects, scenery, and tongue-in-cheek humor, while others criticized the acting, "forgettable" or "cardboard" characters, inaccuracies, and "boring" start. The film maintains a 39% "rotten" rating according to Rotten Tomatoes. It was also nominated for six Razzie Awards at the 18th Golden Raspberry Awards: Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Jon Voight), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst New Star ("the animatronic anaconda") and Worst Screen Couple (Voight and "the animatronic anaconda"). However, Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars calling it a "...slick, scary, funny Creature Feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."^[1] Despite the initial negative reception, Anaconda has since become a cult classic, often viewed as so-bad-it's-good.

Sequels[link]

The film was followed by three sequels, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid in 2004, which was released to theaters, two made-for-television movies, Anaconda 3: Offspring and Anacondas: Trail of Blood, both produced in 2008. Even though no characters from the first film appear in the sequels, they are referenced by the character, Cole, in Hunt for the Blood Orchid when he says he knows a friend who knows a friend that took a crew down to the jungle and they were all eaten by snakes.

See also[link]

• List of killer snake films

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anaconda at the Internet Movie Database
• Anaconda at AllRovi
• Anaconda at Rotten Tomatoes
• Anaconda at Metacritic
• Anaconda at Box Office Mojo

"Anaconda" is often used to refer only to the green or common anaconda, Eunectes murinus.

An anaconda is a large, nonvenomous snake found in tropical South America. Although the name actually applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species in particular, the common or green anaconda, Eunectes murinus, which is one of the largest snakes in the world.

Anaconda may refer to:

• Any member of the genus Eunectes, a group of large, aquatic snakes found in South America
  • Eunectes murinus, the green anaconda, the largest species, is found east of the Andes in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and on the island of Trinidad.
  • Eunectes notaeus, the yellow anaconda, a smaller species, is found in eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
  • Eunectes deschauenseei, the dark-spotted anaconda, is a rare species found in northeastern Brazil and coastal French Guiana.
  • Eunectes beniensis, the Bolivian anaconda, the most recently defined species, is found in the Departments of Beni and Pando in Bolivia.
• The giant anaconda is a mythical snake of enormous proportions said to be found in South America.
• Any large snake that "crushes" its prey (see Constriction), if applied loosely, could be called anaconda.^[1]

Etymology[link]

Per National Geographic, the word anaconda comes from the Tamil word anaikolra, which means elephant killer.^[2]

The name was first used in the English language in 1768 by R. Edwin in a colorful description of a large snake found in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), most likely a reticulated python, Python reticulatus. The account, which explains how the snake crushes and devours tigers, is full of popular misconceptions, but was much read at the time, and so gave rise to the myth of the anaconda of Ceylon.^[3]

Various theories exist regarding the origin of the name itself. One suggests it was derived from the Sinhala henakandaya. However, this name is used to refer to the brown vine snake, Ahaetulla pulverulenta, a slender, arboreal species that grows to five feet (152 cm) at most and feeds only on small vertebrates.^[3] Another theory by Yule and Burnell (1886) is based on an entry in the Catalogue of Indian Serpents from the Leyden Museum (Ray, 1693) that reads: Anacondaia Zeylonensibus, id est Bubalorum aliorumque jumentorum membra conterens, meaning "the anacondaia of the Ceylonese, i.e. he that crushes the limbs of buffaloes and yoke beasts." Without a clear Sinhala connection, they suggest one from the Tamil language instead: anai-kondra (anaik-konda), meaning "which killed an elephant.”^[1][3]

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eunectes

Look up anaconda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Further reading[link]

This article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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This 16 mm spring-wound Bolex "H16" Reflex camera is a popular entry level camera used in film schools.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

The origin of the name "film" comes from the fact that photographic film (also called film stock) has historically been the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for an individual motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photo-play and flick. A common name for film in the United States is movie, while in Europe the term film is preferred. Additional terms for the field in general include the big screen, the silver screen, the cinema and the movies.

History[link]

A clip from the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Bond (1918)

Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film: scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, and scores. Much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scene (roughly, the entire visual picture at any one time). Owing to an absence of technology for doing so, moving visual and aural images were not recorded for replaying as in film.

In the 1860s, mechanisms for producing two-dimensional drawings in motion were demonstrated with devices such as the zoetrope, mutoscope and praxinoscope. These machines were outgrowths of simple optical devices (such as magic lanterns) and would display sequences of still pictures at sufficient speed for the images on the pictures to appear to be moving, a phenomenon called persistence of vision. Naturally the images needed to be carefully designed to achieve the desired effect, and the underlying principle became the basis for the development of film animation.

With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in real time. An 1878 experiment by English photographer Eadweard Muybridge in the United States using 24 cameras produced a series of stereoscopic images of a galloping horse, is arguably the first "motion picture", though it was not called by this name.^[1] This technology required a person to look into a viewing machine to see the pictures which were separate paper prints attached to a drum turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second, depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Commercial versions of these machines were coin operated.

A frame from Roundhay Garden Scene, the world's earliest film produced using a motion picture camera, by Louis Le Prince, 1888

By the 1880s the development of the motion picture camera allowed the individual component images to be captured and stored on a single reel, and led quickly to the development of a motion picture projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these "moving picture shows" onto a screen for an entire audience. These reels, so exhibited, came to be known as "motion pictures". Early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. The first public exhibition of projected motion pictures in America was shown at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City on the 23rd of April 1896.

Ignoring W. K. L. Dickson's early sound experiments (1894), commercial motion pictures were purely visual art through the late 19th century, but these innovative silent films had gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the 20th century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell a story. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes and angles. Other techniques such as camera movement were realized as effective ways to portray a story on film. Rather than leave the audience with noise of early cinema projectors, theater owners would hire a pianist or organist or a full orchestra to play music that would cover noises of projector. Eventually, musicians would start to fit the mood of the film at any given moment. By the early 1920s, most films came with a prepared list of sheet music for this purpose, with complete film scores being composed for major productions.

A shot from Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902), an early narrative film.

The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I when the film industry in United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood, typified most prominently by the great innovative work of D. W. Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1914) and Intolerance (1916). However in the 1920s, European filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang, in many ways inspired by the meteoric war-time progress of film through Griffith, along with the contributions of Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton and others, quickly caught up with American film-making and continued to further advance the medium. In the 1920s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music and sound effects synchronized with the action on the screen. These sound films were initially distinguished by calling them "talking pictures", or talkies.

The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of so-called "natural color", which meant color that was photographically recorded from nature rather than being added to black-and-white prints by hand-coloring, stencil-coloring or other arbitrary procedures, although the earliest processes typically yielded colors which were far from "natural" in appearance. While the addition of sound quickly eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color replaced black-and-white much more gradually. The pivotal innovation was the introduction of the three-strip version of the Technicolor process, which was first used for short subjects and for isolated sequences in a few feature films released in 1934, then for an entire feature film, Becky Sharp, in 1935. The expense of the process was daunting, but continued favorable public response and enhanced box-office receipts increasingly justified the added cost. The number of films made in color slowly increased year after year.

In the early 1950s, as the proliferation of black-and-white television started seriously depressing theater attendance in the US, the use of color was seen as one way of winning back audiences. It soon became the rule rather than the exception. Some important mainstream Hollywood films were still being made in black-and-white as late as the mid-1960s, but they marked the end of an era. Color television receivers had been available in the US since the mid-1950s, but at first they were very expensive and few broadcasts were in color. During the 1960s, prices gradually came down, color broadcasts became common, and the sale of color television sets boomed. The strong preference of the general public for color was obvious. After the final flurry of black-and-white film releases in mid-decade, all major Hollywood studio film production was exclusively in color, with rare exceptions reluctantly made only at the insistence of "star" directors such as Peter Bogdanovich and Martin Scorsese.

Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. Various New Wave movements (including the French New Wave, Indian New Wave, Japanese New Wave and New Hollywood) and the rise of film school educated independent filmmakers were all part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century. Digital technology has been the driving force in change throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. 3D technology increased in usage and has become more popular since the early 2010s.

Theory[link]

Film theory seeks to develop concise and systematic concepts that apply to the study of film as art. It was started by Ricciotto Canudo's The Birth of the Sixth Art. Formalist film theory, led by Rudolf Arnheim, Béla Balázs, and Siegfried Kracauer, emphasized how film differed from reality, and thus could be considered a valid fine art. André Bazin reacted against this theory by arguing that film's artistic essence lay in its ability to mechanically reproduce reality not in its differences from reality, and this gave rise to realist theory. More recent analysis spurred by Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis and Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotics among other things has given rise to psychoanalytical film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory and others. On the other hand, critics from the analytical philosophy tradition, influenced by Wittgenstein, try to clarify misconceptions used in theoretical studies and produce analysis of a film's vocabulary and its link to a form of life.

Language[link]

Film is considered to have its own language. James Monaco wrote a classic text on film theory titled "How to Read a Film". Director Ingmar Bergman famously said, "[Andrei] Tarkovsky for me is the greatest [director], the one who invented a new language, true to the nature of film, as it captures life as a reflection, life as a dream." Examples of the language are a sequence of back and forth images of one actor's left profile speaking, followed by another actor's right profile speaking, then a repetition of this, which is a language understood by the audience to indicate a conversation. Another example is zooming in on the forehead of an actor with an expression of silent reflection, then changing to a scene of a younger actor who vaguely resembles the first actor, indicating the first actor is having a memory of their own past.

Montage[link]

Parallels to musical counterpoint have been developed into a theory of montage, extended from the complex superimposition of images in early silent film^{[citation needed]} to even more complex incorporation of musical counterpoint together with visual counterpoint through mise en scene and editing, as in a ballet or opera; e.g., as illustrated in the gang fight scene of director Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Rumble Fish.

Criticism[link]

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. In general, these works can be divided into two categories: academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media.

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media mainly review new releases. Normally they only see any given film once and have only a day or two to formulate opinions. Despite this, critics have an important impact on films, especially those of certain genres. Mass marketed action, horror, and comedy films tend not to be greatly affected by a critic's overall judgment of a film. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of any film review can still have an important impact on whether people decide to see a film. For prestige films such as most dramas, the influence of reviews is extremely important. Poor reviews will often doom a film to obscurity and financial loss.

The impact of a reviewer on a given film's box office performance is a matter of debate. Some claim that movie marketing is now so intense and well financed that reviewers cannot make an impact against it. However, the cataclysmic failure of some heavily promoted movies which were harshly reviewed, as well as the unexpected success of critically praised independent movies indicates that extreme critical reactions can have considerable influence. Others note that positive film reviews have been shown to spark interest in little-known films. Conversely, there have been several films in which film companies have so little confidence that they refuse to give reviewers an advanced viewing to avoid widespread panning of the film. However, this usually backfires as reviewers are wise to the tactic and warn the public that the film may not be worth seeing and the films often do poorly as a result.

It is argued that journalist film critics should only be known as film reviewers, and true film critics are those who take a more academic approach to films. This line of work is more often known as film theory or film studies. These film critics attempt to come to understand how film and filming techniques work, and what effect they have on people. Rather than having their works published in newspapers or appear on television, their articles are published in scholarly journals, or sometimes in up-market magazines. They also tend to be affiliated with colleges or universities.

Industry[link]

Cate Blanchett at the Berlin International Film Festival. Around 20,000 professionals from over 130 countries attend the event in Berlin.

The making and showing of motion pictures became a source of profit almost as soon as the process was invented. Upon seeing how successful their new invention, and its product, was in their native France, the Lumières quickly set about touring the Continent to exhibit the first films privately to royalty and publicly to the masses. In each country, they would normally add new, local scenes to their catalogue and, quickly enough, found local entrepreneurs in the various countries of Europe to buy their equipment and photograph, export, import and screen additional product commercially. The Oberammergau Passion Play of 1898^{[citation needed]} was the first commercial motion picture ever produced. Other pictures soon followed, and motion pictures became a separate industry that overshadowed the vaudeville world. Dedicated theaters and companies formed specifically to produce and distribute films, while motion picture actors became major celebrities and commanded huge fees for their performances. By 1917 Charlie Chaplin had a contract that called for an annual salary of one million dollars.

From 1931 to 1956, film was also the only image storage and playback system for television programming until the introduction of videotape recorders.

In the United States today, much of the film industry is centered around Hollywood. Other regional centers exist in many parts of the world, such as Mumbai-centered Bollywood, the Indian film industry's Hindi cinema which produces the largest number of films in the world.^[2] Whether the ten thousand-plus feature length films a year produced by the Valley pornographic film industry should qualify for this title is the source of some debate.^{[citation needed]} Though the expense involved in making movies has led cinema production to concentrate under the auspices of movie studios, recent advances in affordable film making equipment have allowed independent film productions to flourish.

Profit is a key force in the industry, due to the costly and risky nature of filmmaking; many films have large cost overruns, a notorious example being Kevin Costner's Waterworld. Yet many filmmakers strive to create works of lasting social significance. The Academy Awards (also known as "the Oscars") are the most prominent film awards in the United States, providing recognition each year to films, ostensibly based on their artistic merits.

There is also a large industry for educational and instructional films made in lieu of or in addition to lectures and texts.

Associated fields[link]

Derivative academic Fields of study may both interact with and develop independently of filmmaking, as in film theory and analysis. Fields of academic study have been created that are derivative or dependent on the existence of film, such as film criticism, film history, divisions of film propaganda in authoritarian governments, or psychological on subliminal effects of a flashing soda can during a screening. These fields may further create derivative fields, such as a movie review section in a newspaper or a television guide. Sub-industries can spin off from film, such as popcorn makers, and toys. Sub- industries of pre-existing industries may deal specifically with film, such as product placement in advertising.

Terminology used[link]

Although the words "film" and "movie" are sometimes used interchangeably, "film" is more often used when considering artistic, theoretical, or technical aspects, as studies in a university class and "movies" more often refers to entertainment or commercial aspects, as where to go for fun on a date. For example, a book titled "How to Read a Film" would be about the aesthetics or theory of film, while "Lets Go to the Movies" would be about the history of entertaining movies. "Motion pictures" or "Moving pictures" are films and movies. A "DVD" is a digital format which may be used to reproduce an analog film, while "videotape" ("video") was for many decades a solely analog medium onto which moving images could be recorded and electronically (rather than optically) reproduced. Strictly speaking, "Film" refers to the media onto which a visual image is shot, and to this end it may seem improper for work in other "moving image" media to be referred to as a "film" and the action of shooting as "filming", though these terms are still in general use. "Silent films" need not be silent, but are films and movies without an audible dialogue, though they may have a musical soundtrack. "Talkies" refers to early movies or films having audible dialogue or analog sound, not just a musical accompaniment. "Cinema" either broadly encompasses both films and movies, or is roughly synonymous with "Film", both capitalized when referring to a category of art. The "silver screen" refers to classic black-and-white films before color, not to contemporary films without color.

The expression "Sight and Sound", as in the film journal of the same name, means "film". The following icons mean film: a "candle and bell", as in the films Tarkovsky, of a segment of film stock, or a two faced Janus image, and an image of a movie camera in profile.

"Widescreen" and "Cinemascope" refers to a larger width to height in the frame, compared to an earlier historic aspect ratios.^[3] A "feature length film", or "feature film", is of a conventional full length, usually 60 minutes or more, and can commercially stand by itself without other films in a ticketed screening.^[4] A "short" is a film that is not as long as a feature length film, usually screened with other shorts, or preceding a feature length film. An "independent" is a film made outside of the conventional film industry.

A "screening" or "projection" is the projection of a film or video on a screen at a public or private theater, usually but not always of a film, but of a video or DVD when of sufficient projection quality. A "double feature" is a screening of two independent, stand-alone, feature films. A "viewing" is a watching of a film. A "showing" is a screening or viewing on an electronic monitor. "Sales" refers to tickets sold at a theater, or more currently, rights sold for individual showings. A "release" is the distribution and often simultaneous screening of a film. A "preview" is a screening in advance of the main release.

"Hollywood" may be used either as a pejorative adjective, shorthand for asserting an overly commercial rather than artistic intent or outcome, as in "too Hollywood", or as a descriptive adjective to refer to a film originating with people who ordinarily work near Los Angeles.

Expressions for Genres of film are sometimes used interchangeably for "film" in a specific context, such as a "porn" for a film with explicit sexual content, or "cheese" for films that are light, entertaining and not highbrow.

Any film may also have a "sequel", which portrays events following those in the film. Bride of Frankenstein is an early example. When there are a number of films with the same characters, we have a "series", such as the James Bond series. A film which portrays events that occur earlier than those in another film, but is released after that film, is sometimes called a "prequel", an example being Butch and Sundance: The Early Days.

Credits is a list of the people involved in making the film. Before the 1970s, credits were usually at the beginning of a film. Since then, the credits roll at the end of most films.

A Post-credits scene is a scene shown after the end of the credits. Ferris Bueller's Day Off has a post-credit scene in which Ferris tells the audience that the movie is over and they should go home.

Preview[link]

A preview performance refers to a showing of a movie to a select audience, usually for the purposes of corporate promotions, before the public film premiere itself. Previews are sometimes used to judge audience reaction, which if unexpectedly negative, may result in recutting or even refilming certain sections (Audience response).

Trailer[link]

Trailers or previews are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the theater after the films ended, but the name has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature program) begins.

Film, or other art form?[link]

Film may be combined with performance art and still be considered or referred to as a "film", for instance, when there is a live musical accompaniment to a silent film. Another example is audience participation films, as at a midnight movies screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the audience dresses up in costume from the film and loudly does a karaoke-like reenactment along with the film. Performance art where film is incorporated as a component is usually not called film, but a film, which could stand-alone but is accompanied by a performance may still be referred to as a film.

The act of making a film can, in and of itself, be considered a work of art, on a different level from the film itself, as in the films of Werner Herzog.

Similarly, the playing of a film can be considered to fall within the realm of political protest art, as in the subtleties within the films of Tarkovsky. A "road movie" can refer to a film put together from footage from a long road trip or vacation.

Education and propaganda[link]

Film is used for education and propaganda. When the purpose is primarily educational, a film is called an "educational film". Examples are recordings of lectures and experiments, or more marginally, a film based on a classic novel.

Film may be propaganda, in whole or in part, such as the films made by Leni Riefenstahl in Nazi Germany, US war film trailers during World War II, or artistic films made under Stalin by Eisenstein. They may also be works of political protest, as in the films of Wajda, or more subtly, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky.

The same film may be considered educational by some, and propaganda by others, such as some of the films of Michael Moore.

Production[link]

At its core, the means to produce a film depend on the content the filmmaker wishes to show, and the apparatus for displaying it: the zoetrope merely requires a series of images on a strip of paper. Film production can therefore take as little as one person with a camera (or without it, such as Stan Brakhage's 1963 film Mothlight), or thousands of actors, extras and crewmembers for a live-action, feature-length epic.

The necessary steps for almost any film can be boiled down to conception, planning, execution, revision, and distribution. The more involved the production, the more significant each of the steps becomes. In a typical production cycle of a Hollywood-style film, these main stages are defined as:

1. Development
2. Pre-production
3. Production
4. Post-production
5. Distribution

This production cycle usually takes three years. The first year is taken up with development. The second year comprises preproduction and production. The third year, post-production and distribution.

The bigger the production, the more resources it takes, and the more important financing becomes; most feature films are not only artistic works, but for-profit business entities.

Crew[link]

A film crew is a group of people hired by a film company, employed during the "production" or "photography" phase, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew interacts with but is also distinct from the production staff, consisting of producers, managers, company representatives, their assistants, and those whose primary responsibility falls in pre-production or post-production phases, such as writers and editors. Communication between production and crew generally passes through the director and his/her staff of assistants. Medium-to-large crews are generally divided into departments with well defined hierarchies and standards for interaction and cooperation between the departments. Other than acting, the crew handles everything in the photography phase: props and costumes, shooting, sound, electrics (i.e., lights), sets, and production special effects. Caterers (known in the film industry as "craft services") are usually not considered part of the crew.

Technology[link]

Film stock consists of transparent celluloid, acetate, or polyester base coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive chemicals. Cellulose nitrate was the first type of film base used to record motion pictures, but due to its flammability was eventually replaced by safer materials. Stock widths and the film format for images on the reel have had a rich history, though most large commercial films are still shot on (and distributed to theaters) as 35 mm prints.

Originally moving picture film was shot and projected at various speeds using hand-cranked cameras and projectors; though 1000 frames per minute (16⅔ frame/s) is generally cited as a standard silent speed, research indicates most films were shot between 16 frame/s and 23 frame/s and projected from 18 frame/s on up (often reels included instructions on how fast each scene should be shown).^[5] When sound film was introduced in the late 1920s, a constant speed was required for the sound head. 24 frames per second was chosen because it was the slowest (and thus cheapest) speed which allowed for sufficient sound quality. Improvements since the late 19th century include the mechanization of cameras – allowing them to record at a consistent speed, quiet camera design – allowing sound recorded on-set to be usable without requiring large "blimps" to encase the camera, the invention of more sophisticated filmstocks and lenses, allowing directors to film in increasingly dim conditions, and the development of synchronized sound, allowing sound to be recorded at exactly the same speed as its corresponding action. The soundtrack can be recorded separately from shooting the film, but for live-action pictures many parts of the soundtrack are usually recorded simultaneously.

As a medium, film is not limited to motion pictures, since the technology developed as the basis for photography. It can be used to present a progressive sequence of still images in the form of a slideshow. Film has also been incorporated into multimedia presentations, and often has importance as primary historical documentation. However, historic films have problems in terms of preservation and storage, and the motion picture industry is exploring many alternatives. Most movies on cellulose nitrate base have been copied onto modern safety films. Some studios save color films through the use of separation masters: three B&W negatives each exposed through red, green, or blue filters (essentially a reverse of the Technicolor process). Digital methods have also been used to restore films, although their continued obsolescence cycle makes them (as of 2006) a poor choice for long-term preservation. Film preservation of decaying film stock is a matter of concern to both film historians and archivists, and to companies interested in preserving their existing products in order to make them available to future generations (and thereby increase revenue). Preservation is generally a higher concern for nitrate and single-strip color films, due to their high decay rates; black-and-white films on safety bases and color films preserved on Technicolor imbibition prints tend to keep up much better, assuming proper handling and storage.

Some films in recent decades have been recorded using analog video technology similar to that used in television production. Modern digital video cameras and digital projectors are gaining ground as well. These approaches are preferred by some moviemakers, especially because footage shot with digital cinema can be evaluated and edited with non-linear editing systems (NLE) without waiting for the film stock to be processed. Yet the migration is gradual, and as of 2005 most major motion pictures are still shot on film.

Independent[link]

Independent filmmaking often takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems. An independent film (or indie film) is a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. Creative, business, and technological reasons have all contributed to the growth of the indie film scene in the late 20th and early 21st century.

The Lumière Brothers

On the business side, the costs of big-budget studio films also leads to conservative choices in cast and crew. There is a trend in Hollywood towards co-financing (over two-thirds of the films put out by Warner Bros. in 2000 were joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987).^[6] A hopeful director is almost never given the opportunity to get a job on a big-budget studio film unless he or she has significant industry experience in film or television. Also, the studios rarely produce films with unknown actors, particularly in lead roles.

Before the advent of digital alternatives, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was also a hurdle to being able to produce, direct, or star in a traditional studio film.

But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of high-resolution digital video in the early 1990s, have lowered the technology barrier to movie production significantly. Both production and post-production costs have been significantly lowered; today, the hardware and software for post-production can be installed in a commodity-based personal computer. Technologies such as DVDs, FireWire connections and non-linear editing system pro-level software like Adobe Premiere Pro, Sony Vegas and Apple's Final Cut Pro, and consumer level software such as Apple's Final Cut Express and iMovie, and Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker make movie-making relatively inexpensive.

Since the introduction of DV technology, the means of production have become more democratized. Filmmakers can conceivably shoot and edit a movie, create and edit the sound and music, and mix the final cut on a home computer. However, while the means of production may be democratized, financing, distribution, and marketing remain difficult to accomplish outside the traditional system. Most independent filmmakers rely on film festivals to get their films noticed and sold for distribution. The arrival of internet-based video outlets such as YouTube and Veoh has further changed the film making landscape in ways that are still to be determined.

Open content film[link]

An open content film is much like an independent film, but it is produced through open collaborations; its source material is available under a license which is permissive enough to allow other parties to create fan fiction or derivative works, than a traditional copyright. Like independent filmmaking, open source filmmaking takes place outside of Hollywood, or other major studio systems.

Fan film[link]

A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book or a similar source, created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more notable films have actually been produced by professional filmmakers as film school class projects or as demonstration reels. Fan films vary tremendously in length, from short faux-teaser trailers for non-existent motion pictures to rarer full-length motion pictures.

Distribution[link]

When it is initially produced, a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theater or cinema. The identity of the first theater designed specifically for cinema is a matter of debate; candidates include Tally's Electric Theatre, established 1902 in Los Angeles,^[7] and Pittsburgh's Nickelodeon, established 1905.^[8] Thousands of such theaters were built or converted from existing facilities within a few years.^[9] In the United States, these theaters came to be known as nickelodeons, because admission typically cost a nickel (five cents).

Typically, one film is the featured presentation (or feature film). Before the 1970s, there were "double features"; typically, a high quality "A picture" rented by an independent theater for a lump sum, and a "B picture" of lower quality rented for a percentage of the gross receipts. Today, the bulk of the material shown before the feature film consists of previews for upcoming movies and paid advertisements (also known as trailers or "The Twenty").

Historically, all mass marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters.^{[citation needed]} In 1967, videocassettes of movies became available to consumers to watch in their own homes.^[10] Recording technology has since enabled consumers to rent or buy copies of films on VHS or DVD (and the older formats of laserdisc, VCD and SelectaVision – see also videodisc), and Internet downloads may be available and have started to become revenue sources for the film companies. Some films are now made specifically for these other venues, being released as a television movie or direct-to-video movies. The production values on these films are often considered to be of inferior quality compared to theatrical releases in similar genres, and indeed, some films that are rejected by their own movie studios upon completion are distributed through these markets.

The movie theater pays an average of about 50-55% of its ticket sales to the movie studio, as film rental fees.^[11] The actual percentage starts with a number higher than that, and decreases as the duration of a film's showing continues, as an incentive to theaters to keep movies in the theater longer. However, today's barrage of highly marketed movies ensures that most movies are shown in first-run theaters for less than 8 weeks. There are a few movies every year that defy this rule, often limited-release movies that start in only a few theaters and actually grow their theater count through good word-of-mouth and reviews. According to a 2000 study by ABN AMRO, about 26% of Hollywood movie studios' worldwide income came from box office ticket sales; 46% came from VHS and DVD sales to consumers; and 28% came from television (broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view).^[11]

This section requires expansion with: optical disc distribution.

Animation[link]

Animation is the technique in which each frame of a film is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model unit (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result with a special animation camera. When the frames are strung together and the resulting film is viewed at a speed of 16 or more frames per second, there is an illusion of continuous movement (due to the persistence of vision). Generating such a film is very labor intensive and tedious, though the development of computer animation has greatly sped up the process.

Because animation is very time-consuming and often very expensive to produce, the majority of animation for TV and movies comes from professional animation studios. However, the field of independent animation has existed at least since the 1950s, with animation being produced by independent studios (and sometimes by a single person). Several independent animation producers have gone on to enter the professional animation industry.

Limited animation is a way of increasing production and decreasing costs of animation by using "short cuts" in the animation process. This method was pioneered by UPA and popularized by Hanna-Barbera, and adapted by other studios as cartoons moved from movie theaters to television.^[12]

Although most animation studios are now using digital technologies in their productions, there is a specific style of animation that depends on film. Cameraless animation, made famous by moviemakers like Norman McLaren, Len Lye and Stan Brakhage, is painted and drawn directly onto pieces of film, and then run through a projector.

Future state[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

While motion picture films have been around for more than a century, film is still a relative newcomer in the pantheon^{[clarification needed]} of fine arts. In the 1950s, when television became widely available, industry analysts^[who?] predicted the demise of local movie theaters.^{[citation needed]} Despite competition from television's increasing technological sophistication over the 1960s and 1970s^{[citation needed]} such as the development of color television and large screens, motion picture cinemas continued. In fact with the rise of television's predominance, film began to become more respected as an artistic medium by contrast due the low general opinion of the quality of average television content.^{[citation needed]} In the 1980s, when the widespread availability of inexpensive videocassette recorders enabled people to select films for home viewing, industry analysts again wrongly predicted the death of the local cinemas.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1990s and 2000s, the development of DVD players, home theater amplification systems with surround sound and subwoofers, and large LCD or plasma screens enabled people to select and view films at home with greatly improved audio and visual reproduction.^{[citation needed]} These new technologies provided audio and visual that in the past only local cinemas had been able to provide: a large, clear widescreen presentation of a film with a full-range, high-quality multi-speaker sound system. Once again industry analysts predicted the demise of the local cinema. Local cinemas will be changing in the 21st century and moving towards digital screens, a new approach which will allow for easier and quicker distribution of films (via satellite or hard disks), a development which may give local theaters a reprieve from their predicted demise.^{[citation needed]} The cinema now faces a new challenge from home video by the likes of a new high definition (HD) format, Blu-ray, which can provide full HD 1080p video playback at near cinema quality.^{[citation needed]} Video formats are gradually catching up with the resolutions and quality that film offers; 1080p in Blu-ray offers a pixel resolution of 1920×1080, a leap from the DVD offering of 720×480 and the 330×480 offered by the first home video standard, VHS.^{[citation needed]} Ultra HD, a future digital video format, will offer a resolution of 7680×4320. However, the nature and structure of film prevents an apples-to-apples comparison with regard to resolution.^[13] The resolving power of film, and its ability to capture an image which can later be scanned to a digital format, will ensure that film remains a viable medium for some time to come.^{[citation needed]} Currently the super-16 format is seeing use as a capture medium, with digital scanning and post-production providing good results.^[14][15] Despite advances in digital capture, film still offers unsurpassed ability to capture fine detail beyond what is possible with digital image sensors. A 35 mm film frame, with proper exposure and processing, still offers an equivalent resolution in the range of 500 mega pixels.^[13]

Despite the rise of all-new technologies, the development of the home video market and a surge of online copyright infringement, 2007 was a record year in film that showed the highest ever box-office grosses. Many^[who?] expected film to suffer as a result of the effects listed above but it has flourished, strengthening film studio expectations for the future.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Genre
• Fiction film basic genre
• Documentary basic genre
• Docufiction hybrid genre

• Lists

Film portal

• List of film awards
• List of film festivals
• List of film journals and magazines
• List of film topics
• List of video-related topics
• List of years in film
• Lists of films

Related topics

• Cinematic techniques
• Digital cinema
• Lost film
• Web film

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Film on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

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• Allmovie – Information on films: actors, directors, biographies, reviews, cast and production credits, box office sales, and other movie data.
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Jennifer Lopez
Lopez arriving at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards in August 2004
Born	Jennifer Lynn Lopez (1969-07-24) July 24, 1969 (age 42) The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, businesswoman, dancer, recording artist
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Ojani Noa (1997–98) Cris Judd (2001–03) Marc Anthony (2004–present, divorce filed)
Partner	David Cruz (1984–94)
Children	2
Relatives	Lynda Lopez (sister)
Signature
Website
www.jenniferlopez.com www.jenniferlopezonline.com

Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969) is an American actress, businesswoman, dancer and recording artist. Often referred to as J.Lo, she is reportedly the highest earning actress of Latin descent.^[1][2] Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, she enrolled in singing and dancing classes as a child and grew up in a musically influenced household. She started her career as a fly girl on the television comedy program In Living Color and a back-up dancer for Janet Jackson. Lopez gained recognition in the action-thriller Money Train (1995). Her first leading role was in the biographical film Selena (1997), which was her breakthrough role, earning her an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress and Golden Globe nomination. She earned her second ALMA Award for her performance in Out of Sight (1998), which made her the highest-paid Latin actress. She has since appeared in various films including The Cell (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Back-up Plan (2010) and What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012).

In 1998, Lopez began recording her debut album and released On the 6 (1999), which spawned the hit singles "If You Had My Love" and "Waiting for Tonight". Her second album J.Lo (2001) reached number one on the Billboard 200 the same week her film The Wedding Planner led the box office, becoming the first person to achieve a number one film and album in the same week. It spawned the number-one single "I'm Real" which spent five weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and "Love Don't Cost a Thing". She released J to tha L–O! The Remixes (2002), which became the first number-one remix album in the United States. Her third and fourth studio albums, This Is Me... Then (2002) and Rebirth (2005) reached number two. In 2007 she released her first full Spanish album Como ama una Mujer. Returning to music in 2011, she released her seventh album Love?, which spawned her most successful single "On the Floor", one of the best-selling singles of all time.

By 2010, Lopez had amassed estimated sales of over 55 million records worldwide,^[3] Billboard ranked her as the 27th Artist of the 2000s decade.^[4] In 2010, Lopez became a member of the judging panel for the American reality television competition American Idol.^[5] She was selected for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.^[6] She led People en Español's list of "100 Most Influential Hispanics" in February 2007.^[7] That year, Lopez made the Forbes magazine's list of "The 20 Richest Women In Entertainment," ranking ninth.^[8] In 2012, Forbes placed her number one on their list of "100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the World".^[9] She has appeared multiple times on The Hollywood Reporter's Annual Actress Salary List, and is the highest-paid Latin actress in Hollywood.^[10]

Lopez also has a fashion line and various perfumes with her celebrity endorsement.^[11] She has worked with L'Oreal since 1999.^[12] A fashion icon, several of her dresses have received considerable media attention, most notably the Jungle green Versace dress which she wore at the 43rd Grammy Awards in 2000—voted the fifth most iconic red carpet dress of all time.^[13][14] Lopez advocates for human rights and vaccinations, and is a supporter of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. In 2011 she was named the most "Beautiful Person" by People magazine in its annual issue.^[15] As of 2012, her net worth is estimated to be $250 million—she has been named one of the wealthiest and most influential Hispanics in the United States.^[16] Lopez's personal life has also garnered media attention, particularly her high profiled relationships.

Life and career[link]

1969–94: Childhood and early work[link]

Castle Hill, The Bronx: the neighborhood in which Lopez was born and raised.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born on July 24, 1969^[17] in the Castle Hill neighborhood of The Bronx, New York. The middle child of Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodriguez and David Lopez,^[18] she has an elder sister, Leslie, and a younger sister, Lynda (born June 14, 1971). David worked the night shift at the Guardian Insurance Company, before becoming a computer technician at the firm, while Guadalupe was a homemaker. When Jennifer was born, the Lopez family was living in a small apartment. A few years later, her parents had saved up enough money to be able to purchase a two-story house, which was considered a big deal for the relatively poor family.

By the age of five, Lopez began taking singing and dancing lessons. She toured New York with her school when she was seven years old.^[19] Her parents stressed the importance of work ethic and being able to speak English. They encouraged their three daughters to put on performances at home, singing and dancing in front of each other and their friends so that they would stay "out of trouble".^[19] Raised as a Roman Catholic;^[20][21][22] Lopez spent her entire academic career in Catholic schools, finishing at the all-girls Preston High School.^[23] In school, Lopez did gymnastics, ran track on a national level and was a member of the school's softball team.^[24] She excelled athletically rather than academically, competing in national track championships.^[19] In 1984, at age fifteen she began dating David Cruz, her first boyfriend.

While attending her final year of high school, Lopez learned about a film casting that was seeking several teenage girls for small roles. She auditioned and was cast in My Little Girl (1986), an low-budget film co-written and directed by Connie Kaiserman.^[25] Lopez acted as Myra, a young woman at a center for troubled girls. After she finished filming her role in the film, Lopez knew that she wanted to become a famous movie star. To please her parents, though, she enrolled in Baruch College, only to drop out after one semester. She told her parents her dream of becoming a movie star, but they ensisted that it was a "really stupid" idea and that "no Latinos did that". The differences in opinions led Lopez to move out of their family home and into an apartment in Manhattan. During this period, Lopez performed in regional productions of the musicals: Jesus Christ, Superstar! and Oklahoma. From there, she was hired for the chorus in a Golden Musicals of Broadway, which toured Europe for a period of five months. She was unhappy with the role, as she was the only member of the chorus not to have a solo. She later got a job on the show Synchronicity in Japan, where she acted as a dancer, singer and a choreographer.^[26]

Lopez gained her first regular high-profile job as a Fly Girl dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color in 1991. She applied for the job after one of the cast members was unavailable to continue with the show. Out of two thousand applicants, Lopez made it to the finals. She became the runner-up, but eventually received the role when the winner was unable to accept the job. She moved with Cruz to Los Angeles to film the series and remained a regular cast member until 1993 when she decided to pursue an acting career. After her departure from the show, Lopez became a backup dancer for Janet Jackson; also making an appearance in her 1993 video "That's the Way Love Goes".^[27][28][29] Lopez received her first professional acting gig in the direct-to-video drama film Lost in the Wild (1993), co-starring alongside Lindsay Wagner and Robert Loggia.^[30] In 1993 and 1994 Lopez starred as Melinda Lopez in the CBS television series Second Chances and its spin-off Hotel Malibu. Both shows ran for only a brief period, receiving negative reviews.^{[31][32][33][34]}

[edit] 1995–98: Selena and first marriage

Lopez's received her first high-budget film role in Gregory Nava's 1995 drama My Family, playing the character of Young Maria in the 1920s.^[35] After starring alongside Jimmy Smits and Edward James Olmos in My Family, which earned her a Independent Spirit Award nomination, Lopez starred in the action film Money Train, opposite Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.^[36][37][38] In 1996, she reportedly beat out Ashley Judd and Lauren Holly for the supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1996 comedy Jack starring Robin Williams.^[39] She then starred opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's well-received noir thriller Blood and Wine (1996).^[23]

Lopez's first big break came in 1996, when she was chosen to play the title role in Selena, a biopic of the Tejano pop singer Selena.^[23] Despite having previously worked with the film's director on My Family, Lopez was subjected to an intense auditioning process before she was cast in the film.^[41] Lopez played Selena in her twenties, while Rebecca Lee Maza played Selena in her younger years.^[42] During pre-production, Mexican-American activists were highly critical that Jennifer Lopez, a New York City native born to Puerto Rican parents, was selected to play Selena. They preferred an actress with Mexican roots. However, after seeing Lopez's portrayal of Selena, they revised their opinions and were more accepting of Nava's decision.^[43] Lopez earned widespread outstanding reviews and praise from critics for her portrayal of Selena. Kenneth Turan from Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan while giving the film a mixed review, he wrote that Selena was not just a celebration of Selena's life, but the actress who played her.^[44] Joe Baltake said that Lopez was "is sensational in the title role" and complimented her for pulling off lip-syncing to Selena's original tracks as her own, as she was not a trained singer at the time.^[45] She garnered multiple awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award nomination for "Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy".^{[citation needed]}

On February 22, 1997, Lopez married Cuban-born Ojani Noa, who she met while he worked as a waiter in a Miami restaurant; they were divorced by January 1998.^[46] Later that year, Lopez appeared in two major films. She starred in the horror film Anaconda alongside Ice Cube and Jon Voight, playing the role of Terri Flores, a director who is shooting a documentary while traveling through the Amazon River.^[47] Despite being a modest box office hit, the film was critically panned.^[48] Lopez then starred as the leading actress in the neo-noir film U Turn, which is based on the book Stray Dogs, starring alongside Sean Penn and Billy Bob Thornton.^[23] In 1998, she had one of her most acclaimed roles, starring opposite George Clooney in Out of Sight, Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel.^[23][49] Cast as a deputy federal marshal who falls for a charming criminal, Lopez won rave reviews for her performance and in the process she became the first Latina actress to earn over $1 million for a role.^[50][51] That same year, she provided the voice for Azteca on the computer-animated film Antz.^[52][53] Around this time, Lopez started dating rap mogul Sean Combs. Combs allegedly showered Lopez with diamonds and jewelry, the inspiration for her 2000 hit, "Love Don't Cost a Thing".^[54]

[edit] 1999–2001: On the 6, J.Lo, The Wedding Planner and second marriage

	"If You Had My Love" noicon a 22-second sample of Lopez's debut single—"If You Had My Love"—which shot to number one in the United States, commencing Lopez's musical career
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

By May 1999, publicity for Lopez's debut album had begun and the news spread fast.^[55] Lopez's debut album On the 6, a reference to the 6 subway line she used to take growing up in Castle Hill,^[23] was released on June 1, 1999, and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. Her debut single, "If You Had My Love" was released on May 21, 1999, and reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of June 12, 1999.^[56][57] The song stayed on the chart for a total of 25 weeks.^[57] It was proceeded by the release of "Waiting for Tonight", which peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was a dance club hit.^[58] Prior to the release of "Waiting For Tonight" as a single, a Spanish language Latin-flavored ballad with Marc Anthony "No Me Ames" was released and failed to chart on major charts.^[55][56] On the 6 featured guest artists such as Big Pun and Fat Joe on the track "Feelin' So Good", which had moderate success on the Billboard Hot 100, however failed to reach the top 50. "Let's Get Loud", the final single, earned Lopez a Grammy Award nomination in the "Best Dance Recording" category of the 2001 Grammy Awards.^[59] "Waiting for Tonight" was nominated for the same category the previous year.^[60] "No Me Ames" received two nominations at the 2000 Latin Grammy Awards – "Best Pop Duo/Group with Vocal Performance" and "Best Music Video". In addition, Lopez was nominated for more awards then any other at the 1999 The Billboard Music Video Awards, scoring seven nominations in total, leading the likes of Christina Aguilera.^[61]

On February 23, 2000, Lopez showed up to the 42nd Grammy Awards with Combs wearing a plunging exotic green Versace silk chiffon dress, which became known as the "Green Versace Jungle Dress" by Lopez. The dress, known for its low cut neck that extended before her navel and its open back, caused much controversy and garnered media attention. Images of Lopez in the green dress were downloaded from the Grammy website 642,917 times in just 24 hours after the event.^[62] Lopez was surprised by the enormous media coverage, declaring in an interview: "It was a nice dress. I had no idea it was going to become such a big deal."^[63] Versace later revealed that the dress was the turning point of her career, saying that the media now had confidence in her own work, after the death of Gianni Versace.^[63] With the release and promotion of On The 6 over, Lopez had successfully converted herself from film star to pop star within 12 months.^[64] Around this time, Lopez's fans started to dub her as "J.Lo". Lopez then starred opposite Vincent D'Onofrio, in the psychological thriller film The Cell, released on August 18, 2000.^[65] She portrayed Catherine Deane, a child psychologist who uses virtual reality to enter into the minds of her patients to coax them out of their comas. The film was released in August 2000 and became a box-office success, opening at number one.^[49][66]

By August 2000, Lopez had begun work on her sophomore album.^[67][68] J.Lo was released on January 23, 2001, and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, exceeding sales of 270,000 copies in its first week.^[69][70] In addition, the album dethroned The Beatles from the top spot.^[70] At the same time, her romantic comedy film, The Wedding Planner, which she starred in alongside Matthew McConaughey led box office receipts,^[71][72] making Lopez the first female to have a film and an album at number one in the same week.^[23][69][71] J.Lo was more urban oriented than On the 6. The lead single, "Love Don't Cost a Thing", was her first number-one single in the United Kingdom and took her into the top five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.^[73] She followed it up with "Play" which gave her another top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number three in the UK.^[74] The album's third single "I'm Real" reached number one on the Hot 100, as well as spending over a year on the chart, with a total of 62 weeks.^[74] "I'm Real" was controversial for using a sample of the song "Firecraker"; which singer Mariah Carey had wanted to sample first. It was later shockingly announced that Carey's ex husband, Tommy Mottola had instructed record executive Irv Gotti to give Lopez the sample before Carey, and Lopez was unaware of this.^[75] "Ain't It Funny" was released; however it did not receive proper commercial promotion in the United States therefore ineligible for charting on the Hot 100. To capitalize on this, Lopez asked The Inc. Records (then known as Murder Inc.) to remix both songs ("I'm Real" and "Ain't It Funny), which featured rap artists Ja Rule (on both) and Cadillac Tah (on the "Ain't It Funny" remix). "Ain't It Funny (murder remix)" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for several weeks, and led Radio Airplay and Pop Songs charts.^[74] On July 24, 2001, She re-released J. Lo on her 32nd birthday with the remix of "I'm Real" as a bonus track. Also, "Si Ya Se Acabó" was released in Spain, due to the success "Que Ironia." In 2001, Lopez performed on tour on the Let's Get Loud "Live in Puerto Rico" Concert. J.Lo has sold 4 million copies in the United States alone. On September 27, 2004, a box set was released by Epic Records featuring On The 6 and J.Lo combined.^[76]

Lopez next role was in a supernatural romance film, Angel Eyes which disappointed at the box office and garnered mixed reviews.^[77] Lopez's boyfriend, former back-up dancer Cris Judd—who she met on the set of the video for "Love Don't Cost a Thing"—proposed to her at a barbecue^[78] and they were married on September 29, 2001.^[79] They traveled to Italy for their honeymoon, and later stayed at the home of designer and a longtime friend of Lopez's, Donatella Versace.^[78]

[edit] 2002–03: J to tha L-O! The Remixes, This Is Me... Then and Bennifer

Following the success of the re-release of J.Lo, Lopez decided to devote an entire album to the remix effort, releasing J to tha L–O! The Remixes, on February 5, 2002. This album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the first remix album in history to debut at the top on the chart, selling over 150,000 copies in its opening week.^[80][81] Featured artists on J to tha L–O! The Remixes include P. Diddy, Fat Joe, and Nas, and the album included rare dance and hip hop remixes of past singles. It is the third all-time biggest-selling remix album in history, after Michael Jackson's Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, The Beatles' Love and Madonna's You Can Dance, having sold a total of 1.5 million copies as of October 2010.^[82] In addition, it dethroned Alan Jackson's Drive from 3 consecutive weeks at the number-one spot on the chart.^[83][84] J to tha L-O: The Remixes sold 624,000 copies within its first month, and stayed in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for a month, too.^[85] It remained the only album to debut at number one in the United States for nearly 10 years, until Justin Bieber's remix effort in 2011 debuted at the top spot with similar opening sales.^[86] "I'm Gonna Be Alright" which was previously on her J.Lo album was released as a single; impacting the charts by July 2002 and reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.^[74][87] "I'm Gonna Be Alright" spent 23 weeks on the chart.^[74] The track "Alive" written by Jennifer and Cris Judd was released as a single from the remix album.^[88]

In May 2002, she starred in the thriller film Enough as Slim, a woman abused by her husband and on the run from him. The film garnered negative reviews;^[89] however the fight scene at the finale of the movie was praised.^[90] In addition, the film was considered a "kick-butt, female empowerment" movie.^[91]

In June 2002, Lopez filed for divorce from her husband Cris Judd when she began publicly dating actor Ben Affleck.^[92] Judd's father, Larry Judd blamed Affleck for the break up of his son's marriage. He told New York Daily News that Judd was the "best thing that happened to [Lopez]" and thought that "Mr. Affleck would honor a married women. [They'd] be happier if they just told the truth."^[93] Lopez and Affleck announced their relationship at her thirty-second birthday.^[94] They were engaged months later.^[95][96] The media dubbed them "Bennifer" during their relationship, and became a prominent supercouple in the media.

Lopez released her third studio album, This Is Me... Then, on November 26, 2002. Unlike previous albums, it was more R&B oriented and much of its lyrical structure were about her relationship with her fiancé, Affleck.^[97] The songs from the album, in particular the fifth track, "Dear Ben" detailed her romantic relationship with Affleck.^[97] The album sold over 310,000 copies in its first week, Lopez's highest first-week sales to date, and reached two on the charts in the United States, and was on the charts for a total of forty weeks.^[98] Prior to its release, the album's lead single "Jenny from the Block" was released. It reached 3 on the Hot 100, and was known for its controversial music video featuring Affleck. The song is about Lopez remaining modest and intoning her childhood roots vowing she wishes to remain simple despite her diamonds.^[97] "All I Have", a duet with LL Cool J served as the third single from This Is Me... Then. It became Lopez's fifth song to top the Hot 100 charts.^[74] "I'm Glad" and "Baby I Love U!" were released as the final singles from This Is Me... Then, both commercial disappointing, failing to match the success of her previous singles; however the music video for "I'm Glad" received four nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards the following year. The video recreated scenes from the 1983 film Flashdance, leading to a lawsuit over copyright infringement, which was later dismissed.^[99][100] This Is Me... Then has sold over 2.5 million copies to date in the United States, her last album to reach over a million copies in sales in that country.^[82]

After the release of This Is Me... Then, Lopez took time away from music to focus on films. After two consecutive critical and commercial failures in the films Enough and Angel Eyes, Lopez bounced back with the box office hit Maid in Manhattan, released on December 13, 2002. Her character, Marisa Ventura, is a struggling single mother who lives in the Bronx and makes her living cleaning rooms in a super-luxurious Manhattan hotel, and gets mistaken for a socialite by a princely politician, who she falls in love with.^[101] Maid in Manhattan was a box-office hit, opening at number one. The New York Times compared the film's storyline to her 2002 song, "Jenny from the Block", commenting, "In her new single, 'Jenny From the Block', Jennifer Lopez declares that despite her enormous wealth and global fame, she has not lost touch with her roots."^[102]

Lopez and Ben Affleck eventually succumbed to overexposure from the media, however, which caused public interest in their romance to result in less admiration and negatively affected their careers.^[103][104] Gigli, a film which Lopez starred as a lesbian opposite Affleck, was released on August 1, 2003. The film was considered a box office failure, and is often considered one of the worst films ever made.^[105][106] Once again she starred in another movie with Affleck, Jersey Girl, but only grossed $36 million at the box office and received poor reviews.

Lopez and Affleck canceled their wedding, which had been scheduled for September 14, 2003 on the Californian Coast, citing the media's interference with the event as the reason.^{[107][108][109]} Months later their wedding was canceled once again, four days before the event. Lopez was seen without her ring,^[110] and it was later confirmed that the 18-month romance ended on January 20, 2004, just three days after Affleck returned to Los Angeles from the Sundance Film Festival.^[111]

[edit] 2004–05: Shall We Dance?, third marriage and Rebirth

In August 2003, (after the international flub of "Gigli") it was announced that Lopez was star in Shall We Dance?.^[112] The move was released in 2004, in which Lopez starred as Paulina alongside Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon; it reached the third spot at the Box Office. Shall We Dance?, grossed $112,238,000, at the international box office. Domestically, Shall We Dance? grossed $57,890,460 and a total of $170,128,460 worldwide.^[113] By this time, Lopez was well established as one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and the highest-paid Latin actress in Hollywood history, though she's never had a film grossing over $100 million in the USA. She was on The Hollywood Reporter's list of the top ten actress salaries in 2002, 2003, and 2004.^[10]

Lopez and Marc Anthony at the Time 100 gala event on May 8, 2006

Two months after her break up with Affleck, Lopez was publicly seen dating Marc Anthony, they were married secretly on June 5, 2004 at her Beverly Hills Mansion and maintained a quiet relationship away from the media unlike her previous.^[114][115] Two men attempted to ransom a private wedding video which was stolen from the couple for $1 million dollars, and they were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of conspiracy, attempted grand larceny and possession of stolen property.^[116]

Lopez released her fourth studio album, Rebirth, on March 1, 2005.^[117] The lead single was "Get Right",^[117] reaching 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a dance club hit.^[118] The song reached number one in the United Kingdom. The video for "Get Right" has Lopez portraying many different characters in a nightclub and sporting several different looks and occupations.^[119] Following the release of "Get Right", the album debuted (and peaked) at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 261,000 copies in its opening week.^[120] It quickly fell off the charts, and produced one more single, "Hold You Down", which featured Fat Joe, reached number 64 on the Hot 100 while it peaked at number six in the UK and ascended to the top 20 in Australia.^[74] The song "Cherry Pie" was intended to be released as a single, however due to low sales (despite a high start) of Rebirth these plants were scrapped. Rebirth was certified Platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA; selling over 700,000 copies so far in the United States,^[82] and has enjoyed international success. In May 2005, the film Monster-in-Law was released. It was Jane Fonda's first movie in several years.^[121] It featured Lopez as Charlie, an artist who is pitted against her fiance's conniving mother when she does not accept her as her son's girlfriend (or soon-to-be wife).^{[121][122][123]} However, the $43-million film became a box-office smash debuting at number one, earning $83 million ($154.7 worldwide)^[124] during its theatrical run in summer 2005. Lopez received $15 million for her role in Monster-in-Law, remaining one of her highest paychecks for a movie yet.^[125] Later, she starred in a film entitled An Unfinished Life, which did not do well; only reaching 11 at the Box office.

[edit] 2006–08: Como Ama una Mujer, Brave and motherhood

In 2006, Lopez was featured in LL Cool J's single "Control Myself", which was released on February 1, 2006. It reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart, Lopez's first collaborative Top 10 Hit in the U.S. since 2003. Also that year, she was in the movie Bodertown; The movie is based on a series of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a maquiladora border city across the Río Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande) from El Paso, Texas. Estimates of the murders conflict, yet, conservatively speaking over four hundred women, maybe many more, have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered since 1993 in and around Ciudad Juárez.^[126] Lopez garnered a few awards and recognition for this part. The film was not a large success, though. Jennifer was one of the recipients of the Women in Film Crystal Award, after her appearance in Bordertown.^[127]

It was reported that Lopez was to release a full Spanish language album.^[128] Contactmusic.com said that Lopez would "prove critics wrong" and prove that she actually has a voice, through this new project.^[128] Upon the eve of the album's release, Lopez explained that she had previously aimed to sing in Spanish, however her career took a different path.^[129] Her first full Spanish album, Como Ama una Mujer was released on March 23, 2007. It debuted at 10 on the Billboard 200, making her one of few to reach the top ten with a Spanish album.^[130] The album was a natural and large success within the Latin community, reaching number one on Billboard Top Latin Albums, where it remained for seven weeks.^[130] Worldwide, it was a moderate success, reaching the top ten in several countries such as Italy and Germany.

Lopez with husband Marc Anthony (right) and Greek singer Kostas Martakis (left), who opened her September 2008 concert in Athens.

Como Ama una Mujer marks the highest debut sales in the United States for a Spanish album and the highest digital sales for a Spanish album.^[131] The York Press, on the album, stated that "Lopez stunned many with her Spanish-language Como Ama una Mujer, which at last proved that she is a major musical force."^[132] For promotion of Como Ama Una Mujer, Lopez traveled back to the Bronx, to meet fans and sign copies of her album in her old neighborhood.^[133] Over 500 people attended.^[133] In an interview, Lopez stated "It touches my heart to be able to bring this album back to my neighborhood, back to my home."^[134] Como ama una Mujer produced a single, "Qué Hiciste" (Spanish for "What Did You Do") which peaked at 86 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Latin Songs and the Hot Dance Club Play.^[74] She performed the song on American Idol, in the same week she was a mentor; she is the first person to perform a Latin song on the hit show.^[131] On July 24, 2007 (Lopez's birthday) Billboard magazine reported that Lopez and husband Marc Anthony would "co-headline" a worldwide tour called "Juntos en Concierto" starting in New Jersey on September 29.^[135] The tour launched September 28, 2007 at the Mark G. Etess Arena and ended on November 7, 2007 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. On the finale date of their tour, Lopez and Anthony announced that they were expecting a child, her first and his fourth.^[136][137] Later that same month, it was reported that Lopez was having difficulties with her pregnancy. These reports were deemed false by per rep, stating that "she is very healthy and continuing with her schedule as planned."^[138] In August 2007, Lopez collaborated on the feature film, El Cantante, with Anthony. Lopez, who also co-produced the film, "does enough acting for the two of them in her role as Puchi, Héctor's wife" while creating a very interesting and edgy performance.^[139] The film is in English, with creative use of subtitles for songs with Spanish lyrics.

In August 2007 Lopez began work on a new English studio album, titled Brave^[140][141] For Brave, she collaborated with producers Midi Mafia, J. R. Rotem, Lynn and Wade and Ryan Tedder, with Rotem working on some tracks with writing partner Evan "Kidd" Bogart.^[142] Released on October 9, 2007, it debuted at 12 on the Billboard 200; commercially, it is her least successful album to date.^[143] It spawned two singles "Do It Well" and "Hold It, Don't Drop It", which both reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart, but failed to make further impact.^[74] It was her first album to fail to produce a top twenty song. Brave earned mostly mixed to negative reviews, Rashod D. Ollison from The Sun said that "Brave – was not to daring".^[144] However, there were a few positive reviews. The York Press compared Brave to Britney Spears' album due for release around the same time.^[132] Praising Lopez for not needing digital enhancement of her voice in "Brave" compared to Spears, they turned their favor to Brave instead of Blackout despite praising Spears' for delivering a "decent album".^[132] Brave has sold over 160,000 copies (which sales are comparable to that of Lopez' previous first week sales of her first four albums).^[82]

On February 5, 2008, Lopez confirmed that she was having twins.^[145] On February 22, Lopez gave birth to a son Maximilian David Muñiz and a daughter Emme Maribel in Long Island, New York.^[146][147] The twins were introduced in the March 11, 2008 issue of People magazine, for which the magazine paid a reported $6 million for—the photographs of the twins became the most expensive celebrity picture ever taken.^[148] Following the birth of her twins, Lopez took a break from her career in 2008.

Lopez and Anthony performing in concert, January 20, 2009.

[edit] 2009–11: American Idol and Love?

While pregnant with twins Max and Emme, Lopez had been writing material for her seventh studio album Love?, with a planned release for the summer of 2010.^[149] On what to expect of the album, she said "Once you get past the party on the album, and you listen to some of the words, you will see that I really talk about the power of love but also the devastation of it and everything in between."^[150] A song titled "Fresh Out the Oven" featuring Miami rapper Pitbull surfaced online in October 2009 but her record label said that it was simply a buzz single.^[151] It topped the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The project's official lead single, "Louboutins", had its radio debut on November 23, 2009, following the song's premiere and performance at the 2009 American Music Awards. The song only managed to enter the Hot Dance Club Play chart six weeks after release and reaching number 1, however, it failed to enter any other chart, including the Billboard Hot 100. On January 27, 2010, it was announced that Lopez would guest-star on an episode of How I Met Your Mother as Anita Appleby, a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach women how to mold men into "relationship machines" through the power of denial.^[152] In February 2010 Lopez and her record label of ten years, Epic Records, parted ways.^[153][154] Lopez's manager, Benny Medina, confirmed the news, saying "Jennifer had a wonderful relationship with the Sony Music Group, and they have shared many successes together, but the time was right to make a change that best serves the direction of her career as an actress and recording artist... She is grateful and appreciative to everyone at Sony for all that they accomplished together."^[155] Lopez later released a statement to the media where she said that she had already completed her contractual obligations with Sony Music Entertainment and Epic Records and decided it was for the best to end the partnership on amicable terms. She added that she found a new "home" [record label] for the album 'Love?'.^[156] Shortly after being spotted talking to Island Def Jam's chairman and CEO L.A. Reid,^[157] it was confirmed on March 19, 2010 that Lopez signed with Island Def Jam, and was working on new material for Love? with RedZone Entertainment (Kuk Harrell, The-Dream and Tricky Stewart).^[158][159] In April 2010, she appeared in the romantic comedy The Back-up Plan.^[160] The film debuted at the top spot at the Box Office.^[161][162] While the film didn't meet positive reviews, Lopez's performance as "Zoe" was praised and called a "winning performance".^[163][164]

In June 2010, following the departure of Ellen DeGeneres from American Idol, it was reported that Lopez was in talks to join season ten's judging panel.^{[165][166][167]} However, it was then reported that Lopez was out of the running due to "outrageous demands",^[168][169] something which returning Idol producer, Nigel Lythgoe responded to by saying "[Jennifer] is in no way a diva, I've worked with her on quite a few occasions and I have never yet seen her be a diva." He did not confirm or deny reports of the contract negotiations between Lopez and the other Idol producers.^[170] Both Lopez and husband, Marc Anthony, were being considered for a role on The X Factor for their appeal to 'Latin' and 'International' markets.^[171] Lopez's involvement in The X Factor was ruled out when the media reported that she had accepted an offer to become a judge on season ten of Idol, despite being offered roles on both shows.^[172] The announcement was made official on September 22, 2010. MTV said "the deal was mutually beneficial to all those involved" whilst CNN reported that Lopez was viewing it as a decision to revive her career while Idol producers believe Lopez and Steven Tyler's appointments will strengthen viewing figures.^[173] The public agreed that Lopez was a more suitable judge replacement for Ellen, as she had experience within the music industry, which DeGeneres lacked.^[174]

In January 2011, Lopez's new single "On the Floor" featuring Pitbull (their second collaboration) surfaced online^[175] and it was later announced as the lead single from Love?, produced by RedOne, who predicted that it was going to be a "big hit".^[176] "On The Floor" was a commercial success, debuting at nine on the Hot 100 and peaking at three, her highest-charting song in eight years.^[177] It's accompanying music video premiered on an episode of American Idol on March 3, and has since become the highest viewed video by a female artist on YouTube, with over 510 million views.^[178] The song sold 8.4 million copies, becoming the fourth best-selling digital single of the year.^[179] Love? produced two more singles, the Taio Cruz produced "I'm Into You" featuring Lil Wayne, and "Papi", which became her 10th and 11th chart-toppers on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.^[180] Love? was finally released on May 3, 2011 and reached the fifth position on the Billboard 200.^[181][182] It was a moderate success, and viewed as a humble comeback from Lopez, as many had considered her recording career over.^[143]

On July 15, days before Lopez's forty-second birthday, following seven years of marriage to Marc Anthony, the couple's representative announced that they were separating^[183][184] and Anthony later filed for divorce on April 9, 2012, citing irreconcilable differences.^[185] In November, she was named "Women of the year" by Glamour Magazine.^[186] Lopez was featured on will.i.am's single "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)". On December 13, 2011, Los Angeles Times named her the "World's greatest musical comeback act", a ranking from an accuracast, a digital search that analyzed over a billion Google searches since 2004.^[187] Lopez ranked ahead of comebacks from artists such as Mariah Carey and Ricky Martin.^[187] She was also named "Best Comeback" act by Billboard.com Reader's Poll, leading with 47% of votes for the title, beating out Kelly Clarkson (17%) and Evanescence (12%).^[188]