Skip to main content

Hollywood Studio System

Studio System Research

During which decades was the Hollywood studio system at its most powerful?
- 1920s and 1930s

What were the major 'big five' studios?
- MGM
- Paramount
- Warner Bros
- RKO and Fox
- The Little Three 

What areas and roles in film production did the studio system have direct control over?
- By 1945, the studios owned either partially or outright 17% of the theatres in America, accounting for 45% of the film-rental revenue. So the studios had a guarantee that their movies would be distributed. They also controlled the process of making the movies, they usually had the actors, producers, directors and writers under contract, owned the film processing and laboratories and created the prints. The studio was also infamous for 'owning' their stars, a practice that is known as 'The Star System'. 

Why was the factory method of production successful?
- Because the studio pursued vertical integration through ownership or effective control over producers, artists, distributors, and movie theatres. By owning everything, the studio maximised their potential revenues.

Why did the studio system lose power and control in the 1950s and 1960s? 
- The decline of the Studio System began in 1948 with the verdict in the antitrust case. This decision outlawed the practice of block booking, blind bidding, zoning policies, long-term contracts etc and forced the studio to sell their theatre chains. A lawsuit had already been filed in 1938, but it was settled with a consent decree in 1940, which allowed the government to reinstate the lawsuit if it had not seen a satisfactory level of compliance. 
- 'The Big Five' suffered after the court decision because they didn't have the assurance that their films would be seen anymore, they had to cut back on productions and their list of stars, producers, directors and writers and made fewer films. 
- Paramounts profits dropped from 20 million to 6 million in one year.
- The end of the Studio System marked the end of Classical Hollywood. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis of Fear

Mise En Scène of Fear (1996) - Psychological Thriller/Drama A 16 year old girl called Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) falls for a charming and affectionate David, and everything is perfect until she soon realises there is a darker side to him and his love for her turns to obsession. And her love into fear. What is a genre? - a category or specific type of film or another thing i.e theatre, books. A psychological thriller is a type of genre in films or books that involve a psychological narrative in a thrilling setting, they often have elements of mystery and drama. Generic Conventions: Psychological thrillers usually include the themes of crime, morality, mental illness, substance abuse, multiple realities or a dissolving sense of reality, and unreliable narrators. The film is a psychological thriller as it meets these things. For example, there is a scene where Nicole's best-friend Margo (Alyssa Milano) is smoking 'crack' which is a substance being smoked....
Post a Comment
Read more

New Hollywood Research

New Hollywood From the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. It is sometimes also referred to as the American New Wave or the Hollywood Renaissance. Films that kick started New Hollywood is; The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969). Key Directors: - Martin Scorsese - Francis Ford Coppola - Robert Altman - Sam Peckinpah - Steven Spielberg - Arthur Penn - Dennis Hopper Francis Ford Coppola He is an American film director, producer and screenwriter and was a central figure in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement. Francis studied theatre and graduated from Hofstra University in New York, then moved to California to attend the prestigious film program at UCLA where he learned from many great instructors. He later on gained international critical attention for his screenwriting talents, earning an Academy Award for 1970's Patton. His Auteur Signature Narrative: - Anti-heroes, outsiders, cold professional men - Epic narratives - The 'American Dream' and Family -...
Post a Comment
Read more

Evaluation of 'High Maintenance'

Plot Twist - High Maintenance Not finished. The first plot twist is surprising because we don't realise that they are robots until the woman switches off her 'husband'. However there are some hints before this scene where we find out that they are inhumane, like the line 'your'e a computer analyst'. The second plot twist in the short film is when the 'wife' orders a new 'husband' but not long after he is delivered he switches the woman off, which is logical and not surprising  as we could tell that was going to happen. There are a few red herrings in the short film 'high maintenance'. The first one is that they are eating and drinking normally and even smoking at one point like humans so we don't think anything of them actually being robots which we later find out during the short film.  The lighting throughout the short film is dim and low-key lighting as there is only 3 candles on their dinner table along with two quite dim lamps by...
Post a Comment
Read more