The Warner brothers worked together distributing film entertainment long before they started the multimillion-dollar company they operate today. Albert, Sam, Harry, and Jack traveled around Pennsylvania and Ohio with their entertainment exhibit. They were essentially a traveling movie theater. In 1918, the Warner brothers purchased the California land they would use to build Warner Bros. West Coast Studios. Harry and Albert managed the logistics of the company while Sam and Jack managed productions. On April 3, 1923, Warner Bros. Studios established their permanent movie studio. The game changing film for the company, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927 as the first “talking movie.” Since then, the studio has produced hundreds of movies, television shows, talk shows and commercials. The Warner Bros. Studio quickly became one of America’s top production companies, and we had the opportunity to take a behind the scenes look at how some of our favorite movies and tv shows are made.

The Big Bang Theory and Riverdale, as well as Crazy Rich Asians and A Star is Born, were household names in 2018 as far as TV show and movie names were concerned. These shows and movies collected well over 600 million dollars for the company. Warner Bros. Studios has also produced fan favorites such as FRIENDS, The Harry Potter Series, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Ellen Show, Full House, The Vampire Diaries, Jane the Virgin, The Polar Express, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Great Gatsby, Gremlins, Collateral Beauty, and Wonder Woman. The combination of these tv shows, movies, and much more, has led the company to a net worth of around $5 billion. Another way the company brings in money is by selling tours to interested movie and television fans.

Our behind the scenes tour was led by a spunky and energetic Wisconsin native named Brooke. Brooke showed us around the outdoor film area in the back lot before taking us through the front lot to see the prop storage warehouse and an active sound stage. The back lot is home to many different types of sets. There are sets built as real houses that can be entered and walked around in, but there are also sets built as the faces of houses that cannot be entered and are instead just for decoration. The beauty of film making is that the same house used to embarrass Ross Geller in FRIENDS could be used to close out the filming career of actors such as John Wayne. The audiences at home will never be able to tell the difference with a new sheet of wallpaper, new flooring, and exchanged light fixtures. The front lot is home to thirty-six sound stages that film indoor scenes in shows such as Lethal Weapon and Lucifer as well as tv talk shows such as The Ellen Show. Brooke also took us inside the first level of the prop storage building. There are hundreds of props organized in many different ways and discoverable by barcode sitting in the warehouse waiting to be loaded up and placed on camera. Some props have even been signed by famous figures such as Lady Gaga. The tour ended with a look inside a small museum which housed the original set for Central Perk in the tv show FRIENDS. The popular tv show aired for ten seasons and continues to capture the hearts of young viewers today on streaming networks such as Netflix. The creative marketing team at Warner Bros. Studios uses the iconic setting to profit off the continued success of the show.

In the grand scheme of things, the film world is a collection of many different art medias and therefore, I would argue, one of the most important. Film studios combine the art of pictures, the art of sound, and the art of words in order to produce a larger work of art. I would define art as something that is expressed because the artist has a desire to share an impactful message with a culture. There is a message in every film that the Warner Bros. Studio releases. There are producers retelling a classic Christmas story instilling a message of belief in The Polar Express, and there are directors making creative choices of color in The Great Gatsby to symbolize the danger of greed, desire, and lust. Many people tend to focus on the evils of the film industry. The idea that nothing is real, so the movies released are brainwashing our society. Another evil often highlighted is the detail that actors playing certain roles will never truly know what it is like to be in the shoes of someone like the character they are portraying. However, I stand by the idea that society can read too much into something. The Warner brothers never set out to corrupt society. Instead, the four brothers created a studio that would share films with the public and make themselves rich. The films the studio release are not propaganda aimed to change or corrupt society, but they do all have messages if one cares to look. Films, and other art medias, are made to be enjoyed, but they are often criticized for portraying the “wrong message” to society. I learned a lot from the Warner Bros. Studio tour, but one of the most important lessons I learned is that art comes in many different forms because people are into a lot of different ideas. Everyone likes something a little different, so Warner Bros. Studios produces a little bit of something for everyone. They have made film an art for the public, by the public, and about the public. I recommend everyone takes the time to look behind the scenes at the multimillion dollar business that brings accessible art straight into our homes and daily lives.