Studio System in Hollywood



IB Film Year One: Week 14.1Rise of the Studio System, Part 1Rise of the Studio SystemMany of the pioneers of moviemaking realised the earning potential of films.Naturally they went looking for ways to exhibit their productions.Watch This: System in HollywoodPreviously, you learned about the Kinetoscope, a one-person movie theatre, and the Nickelodeons, where for, you guessed it, one nickel, you could join a small group of patrons in a converted restaurant or funeral parlor to watch a projected film.It should come as no surprise that the film business quickly became a growing concern and many companies were formed to both produce and exhibit films.Thomas Edison, always ready to seize an opportunity, set up the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC) in 1908. This company incorporated most of Edison's biggest competitors at the time and together they monopolised the fledgling film production, distribution, and exhibition industry.The MPPC owned key Patents on motion picture technology and with an exclusive contract with the Eastman Kodak Company, also controlled who got raw film stock.Add theatre ownership to this, and you have what is known in business as vertical integration.?It would be like a farmer who not only grows the wheat, but also owns the business that refines the flour, the bakeries, and the trucks that deliver the bread.Edison was ruthless with any competition coming from outside his?trust,?as it came to be called, and would use almost any means possible (including Lawyers and tough-guys) to quash independent filmmakers.Sub-plotAs Edison's MPPC basically had total control of the film industry in the eastern United States, a few smaller companies decided to move out West in the hope of avoiding expensive patent payments (or worse).?A tiny town called Hollywood, 10 miles West of Los Angeles was chosen, and an abandoned road-house was converted into the first motion picture studio in the West.?Not long after, the Hollywood boom was on and that small town quickly became the epicenter of movie production in North America.?On the plus side, this monopoly encouraged the production of longer films, developing 'popular'?stories that would appeal to a wider audience and the building of more theatres to serve that wider audience. But it would not last.?The American Department of Justice decided in 1915 there was an anti-trust violation and broke up the company.?One of the pre-studio era pioneers was Alice Guy-Blaché.?In 1894, Guy-Blaché was working for a still photography company owned by Leon Gaumont.?When Gaumont branched out into the fledging motion picture business, Guy-Blaché soon proved herself to be a talented producer, writer, and director.?She worked in both France and the United States, and like George Melies, pioneered in-camera special effects (like running the film backwards through the camera). ?The Big Five and the Studio EraFrom the end of the MPPC to roughly 1930, a great number of production companies came and went.Of the companies that survived, five became so powerful they were dubbed 'The Big Five'.They were:ParamountFoxMGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)Warner BrothersRKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum)These companies actually managed to pull off the same trick Edison and the MPPC did back in the day.They owned many of the first-run movie theatres in the United States and Canada and therefore were able to collect most of the ticket revenue from the movies their companies made.Sub-plotThese powerful studios could even control independent theatre owners by forcing them to accept what was called?block booking.??Block booking meant the theatre had to book, for example, five films from MGM - four that were mediocre and maybe one with a major star.?Not only that, but the owners were not allowed to preview the films.?If they were lucky, one of the films might prove to be a?blockbuster.Production in the Studio EraThese movie companies began to establish?a factory model of film production.Rather than having one major producer oversee a large number of productions, the studio would have a Head of Production who hired a number of producers. Each of these producers would manage a smaller number of films.The studios themselves were huge complexes that employed thousands of people.Actors, directors, designers, and crew were all kept on salary and pushed to crank out the reels and reels of film demanded by the public.The biggest stars of the day were attached to certain studios by long-term contract, and every job on the set had a very specific description.Further ViewingView these early?blockbusters.Watch -?King Kong?(1933)Watch -?Citizen Kane?(1941),?starring and directed by Orson WellesTony Susnick and Kevin Lewis take us on a tour of what was Vitagraph Film Studios in Brooklyn, New York, USA, including?a clip from?A Tale of Two Cities?(1911).Vitagraph was one of the pioneering film companies in the US. It is now famous for its smokestack that still stands today. It is currently The Shulamith School For Girls.Also included is a few minutes of Vitagraph's version of?A Tale of Two Cities?(1911). ?Norma Talmadge can be seen at the very end on the ride to the Guillotine. Also stars - Maurice Costello, Florence Turner and John Bunny.Watch -? HYPERLINK "" Vitagraph Film Company Brooklyn Today + a portion of A Tale of Two Cities (1911)Review -?A Tale of Two Cities ................
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