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HOLLYWOODHOLLYWOOD
Stars & Studios
PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM
• 1931, industry moved away from Central Producer system to PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM
• Lasted from around 1931 to around 1955
PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM• Specialization increased under Central
Producer system– Different directors under central
producer specialized in various genres of films
– Difficult for central producer to keep tabs on growing number of films
– Also difficult for central producer to be an “expert” in every genre
PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM– Various studios’ central producers began
assigning assistants to take over a degree of control over smaller groups of films
– Central producer still maintained high degree of control over all of the film production at a given studio
– Films of a particular studio beginning to all “look alike”, influence of central producer decreasing the individuality of the films
PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM• Specialization continued & intensified with
Producer-Unit system– Central producer replaced by a number of
producers ( “associate producers”)– Desire to decrease costs; with a smaller
number of films for each producer to supervise, he could keeper tighter control over costs
– More different kinds of movies produced; producers made movies within their specializations
– Individuality & creativity increased
PRODUCER-UNIT SYSTEM• Producer-Unit system adopted by all Big 5 studios• Allowed them to make even more films, more
efficiently, than during the silent era• Part of general increase in specialization &
departmentalization at the studios– Increased the division of labor– Jobs in other departments also became more
specialized– New jobs created by new technologies of sound &
color (technicians, dialogue writers, voice coaches)– Required new jobs in other departments (make-up,
costume, prop, etc.)
• Owned largest chain of theaters, esp. in the South & Midwest
– In 1930s, during Depression, mortgages on these properties almost sank the company
– When industry (& US) recovered in WW II, these theaters source of huge profits
– In 1940s-50s, Paramount by far most profitable & powerful of Big 5
• During these years, Paramount made many of the films we value most from the Studio Era
Marlene Dietrich
Paramount Stars
Paramount Stars
The Marx Bros
Mae West
Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour & Bob Hope
Paramount Stars
Fleischer Bros. Studio
Popeye
Fleischer Bros. Studio
Superman
Fleischer Bros. Studio
Betty Boop
Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer
• MGM production branch of Loew’s, Inc.
• Loew’s theater chain concentrated in NYC
• Company survived Depression in good shape (premiere film company of 1930s)
• In the post-Depression boom, however, lack of theaters hurt Loew’s
MGM Stars
Greta Garbo
MGM Stars
Clark Gable Spencer Tracy
MGM Movies
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
MGM Movies
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
Hal Roach Studio
Laurel & Hardy
Hal Roach Studio
Our Gang
MGM Animation
MGM Animation
Tex Avery’s Wolfie and Red
20th Century-Fox
• 1935, Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures
• Best remembered for its Technicolor musicals & its “socially-conscious” films
20th Century-Fox Stars
Sonja Henie Shirley Temple
20th Century-Fox Stars
Betty Grable Tyrone Power
20th-Century Fox Movies
Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
Warner Bros.
• From profits from innovation of sound movies, Warner bought First National in 1928, making it a major player in the Big 5
• Remembered for social expose films, gangster films & backstage musicals
• Most of these films were box office losers• Biggest profits from moderately-budgeted
mainstream comedies & biographies; specialized in contemporary genre films
• Warner also distributed Vitagraph musical shorts
Warner Bros. Stars
Humphrey
Bogart
Warner Bros. Stars
Bette Davis
Warner Bros. Animation
RKO
• Result of RCA’s purchase of Film Booking Office, Keith & Orpheum chains
• Output was erratic
• Few of RKO’s films were successful at the box office
RKO Movies
Disney Animation
Mickey Mouse Donald Duck
Disney Animation
Snow White (1937)
Universal
• Important in silent era, but fell on hard times in 1930s-40s
• It specialized in:
• Abbott & Costello features
• Horror films (the best!)
• Cheap serials (Jungle Jim, Flash Gordon)
• Cheap newsreels
• Cheap cartoons
Universal Movies
Abbott & Costello
Universal Horror Movies
Universal Horror Movies
Universal Serials
Walter Lantz Studio
Woody Woodpecker Chilly Willy
Columbia
• Small, cut-rate studio
• Remembered especially for its Frank Capra films
• Most of its output consisted of B films
– Westerns
– Series based on comic strip & comic book characters
– Shorts starring the 3 Stooges (very popular)
Columbia Movies
Claudette Colbert Clark Gable
Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934)
Columbia Movies
Batman & Robin
Columbia Shorts
The Three Stooges
United Artists
Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin & DW Griffith
• Created by Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, & Douglas Fairbanks to distribute their films
• When they decreased or stopped production, could not distribute enough independent product to show a profit
• Until 1950s, operated on the margins of the industry
Monogram Movies
Federal Bullets (1937)
Monogram Stars
The Bowery Boys
Republic
Republic Movies
THE FILMS• New technologies increased possibilities with
which filmmakers could work• Concentration of industry led to increased
standardization of production• Despite the changes, much continuity from the
silent era to the sound era• New possibilities was countered by increased
conservatism at the studios• CHC narrative easily absorbed new
technologies, resulting in a highly marketable product
ADAPTING TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES
• SOUND– Sound could be used to help define space
• Offscreen sound helped create a sense of a fully developed, 3-dimensional world
• Onscreen sound could help define the space it came from (echoes, distant sounds, etc.)
• DIALOGUE
– Remember, in Hollywood narratives individual characters are of paramount importance
– Sound a way of more fully developing characters & defining character traits
• MUSIC– Nondiegetic music (“background music”)
added to help reinforce “proper” emotional responses: drama, comedy, fear, etc.
– Music could be used to help define & identify characters; important characters had particular “themes”
– Both outgrowths of the use of live music in silent film exhibition
– Studios also found that there was a market for records of film music
• SOUND DEVICES FOR CONTINUITY
– Work with continuity editing to help create smooth transitions between shots & scenes, keeping our attention on the narrative
– SOUND BRIDGE
– DIALOGUE HOOK
• DEEP FOCUS– By late 1930s, clear trend toward the
use of deep focus cinematography• It had been used as early as the
1920s• However, new film stocks & lenses
made it more feasible– Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, in 1941,
brought it to the attention of mainstream filmmakers
• CHC adapted it to the CHC narrative style
– Used to help establish relationships among characters in a number of planes of action
– Always used to support the narrative
• Takes became longer, but not to the point where they would draw attention to their length
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