The paramount decision of 1948, broke up the big time film companies. Paramount, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Warner-brothers and the like, controlled the movie industry from imagination to opening night. They had control over every aspect of the film industry and created a form of monopoly that maximized their profits, which they needed to, given the studio system of the 1930’s and 40’s. The Studio system of the Golden Age was a largely profit oriented system. It was quantity of quality in that time where the studios produced a film a week with personnel working 24 hours a day and many doing 7 days a week. Everyone that worked for the studio was a contracted individual. They were seen as property and were at times treated as such. But it was …show more content…
The majors were selling off assets, to include film stocks. Independent film companies were now making the movies in studio’s they rented from the majors. Films became a project that was unique. They were no longer a cookie cutter format of western, comedy, drama, etc.. Movies became more of a work of Art than they ever had been before. The one week timeline was gone, and so were contract personnel. Actors were starting to get a portion of the movies gross income which made them a partner in the project rather than an employee. And since there were no guarantees that a film was going to bring in big money on opening weekend, each movie had to be the best it could be. Through the 50’s but mainly the 60’s and 70’s, we see films using various color formats, technology and styles in an effort to outdo the last film produced. Advertisements were even works of art. In the end, the paramount decision, combined with the rise of television, was a win-win for actors, directors and the public. Actors got better pay and a stronger sense of purpose in the film, directors could focus more on making art than money and the public saw a revolution in entertainment that has made them be on the cutting edge of technology ever since which produced amazing films that are still enjoyed
However, after the dust settled, it was widely accepted that the blacklist was unjust, which enabled many film workers to pursue the movie studios in civil courts through the 1950’s for unpaid contracts and wages (Lewis, 2008). While the studios were initially impacted by the Paramount decision, the breadth of competition and independent successes of smaller studios gave rise to the advancement of innovative filmmaking that may not have been possible if it were not for the Paramount decision. Filmmaking is one of the riskiest and most profitable ventures in modern day society, and without these events, the studios and the film workers may not share the successes that they do
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Similar to businesses standardizing in making and advertising consumers goods, the practice of mass-producing culture standardized and sped up in the 1920s. Radio became a national obsession. What started out as only a few independent stations soon evolved into huge networks and sponsored programming became popular. Movies during this time became accepted by all social classes with the expansion from rowdy nickelodeons to uptown theaters. With audiences nearing 80 million people a week, the corporate giants Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Brothers, and Columbia made the ...
The roaring twenties would be nothing without the roar of the MGM Lion. “If Hollywood had no other studio than Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the town still would have been the movie capital of the world” (Fricke para 1). MGM enchanted audiences with its high-budgeted films and glamorous list of stars (Hanson para 1). Three failing movie companies came together in 1924 in hopes to make it big in the motion picture industry, and it did (Fricke para 3). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer created spectacles of movies after its merging which made MGM one of the most prosperous motion picture companies in the 1920’s (Hanson para 2).
Has anyone ever wondered how radio communications changed society during the 1930’s? According to the research done by the Education Foundation, many people believe that the most important development in the radio at that time was entertainment; this is entirely false. In fact, radio communications not only made an impact in the way people received their news, but also brought together a nation that got out of a brutal depression. Together, the nations as one made radio communications the commanding form of media in the 1930’s. As stations and businesses were beginning to establish themselves, companies from across the nation were taking notice in the department of advertisement. This new realm ignited a spark for the nation’s new economy which later boomed and gave rise to an economically and socially powerful country.
The fifties was a learning year and the 60's became the time to express everything that they learned. The 60's was a time for new and innovative ways to entertain the people. Since the blacklisting continued in Hollywood, the making or films became very difficult to express. The restrictions, such as the production codes, kept the big corporations to produce films that had no interesting subjects. These films also had to be films that show no signs of communistic values. The film industry was failing to bring in the audience to the theaters. With the TV making a big wave all over, the U.S. the film industry was losing it is money. Then in 1961 something big happened, 20th Century Fox took apart its lot. This act was one that led to a chain reaction. Studios were assuming the role of distributors. This would allow the independent companies to come in and add a new flavor to the silver screen. During this time films changed it's traditional film making ideas. Things started to get graphic, more violent, sexual and more expressive. Movies had found a new look and with the production codes now gone and the blacklisting ending, there was an explosion of ideas that would be presented to the United States.
... middle of paper ... ... Larry Ceplair and Englund stated in the book The Inquisition in Hollywood, “The destruction of the motion picture Left not only transformed the political atmosphere in Hollywood, but also adversely affected the kind of product which the studios turned out. “ In the early 20th century Hollywood reframed from producing politically controversial films in fear of becoming a target of McCarthy or the HUAC.
During this decade, the film industry went through massive changes that would completely change what movies were or stood for. After the Great War, more people began considering movies as a form of entertainment. This increased attention caused change in the industry, allowing the experience of the movie goer to massively change for the better. Many new genres, ideas and technologies emerged in the 1920s that would later dominate the industry. The 1920s saw massive changes happening in the movie industry that would help it to get one step closer to what it is today.
Largely influenced by the French New Wave and other international film movements, many American filmmakers in the late 1960s to 1970s sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema in a similar way. The New Hollywood movement, also referred to as the “American New Wave” and the “Hollywood Renaissance,” defied traditional Hollywood standards and practices in countless ways, creating a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. Due to the advent and popularity of television, significant decrease in movie theater attendance, rising production costs, and changing tastes of American audiences, particularly in the younger generation, Hollywood studios were in a state of financial disaster. Many studios thus hired a host of young filmmakers to revitalize the business, and let them experiment and have almost complete creative control over their films. In addition, the abandonment of the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code in 1967 and the subsequent adoption of the MPAA’s rating system in 1968 opened the door to an era of increased artistic freedom and expression.
The Studio System Key point about the studio system could be: Despite being one of the biggest industries in the United States, indeed the World, the internal workings of the 'dream factory' that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entities which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930.
Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54
With the loss of its centralized structure, the film industry produced filmmakers with radical new ideas. The unique nature of these films was a product of the loss of unified identity.
During the nineteen twenties films were becoming more popular, creating five major studios and three minor studios (“Films History of The 1920s.”) The five major studios, some of which are still around today, were: Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures (originally named Famous players), Mutual Film Corporation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Fox Film Corporation. Warner Bros. Pictures, incorporated in 1923 by the brothers (Jack, Harry, Albert, and Sam); the studio's first principal asset was Rin Tin Tin. MGM, first named Metro-Goldwyn Pictures - in 1924 formed from the merger of Metro Pictures (1915), Samuel Goldwyn Picture Corporation (1917), and the Louis B. Mayer Pictures Company (1918).
Hollywood's film industry created a new life style for the laborious and those willing to show integrity in this exciting new business. Now that the technology of the time was producing as many as eight hundred a year they started to become complex as the years went on. Like safari hunts, Egyptian rulers, Gothic kingdoms or just movies that complimented the times with large extravagant parties or musicals with lots of jazz! Hollywood needed a type of headquarters. Meaning movie
The American motion picture studio was formed in 1912 by Carl Laemmle who was a film exhibitor, and producer. The studio started off creating low budget films, until it was purchased by the Music Corporation of America, which formed it into the most profitable and largest company for films and television in the world.