Rebecca King
A2 media
GROUP
Elizabeth Ediale
Rebecca King
The Hollywood Studio System
by Rebecca King
SCRIPT
The Hollywood film system, in the 1920s to the 1960s referred to a small number of major production companies who dominated and controlled the market. They manipulated the market using vertical integration and block booking. This allowed more control over movies made and distributed. Some of these companies are still in business today and laid the foundations of Hollywood.
VERTICAL INTERGRATION
The major producers used vertical integration to keep the money in their company throughout production, distribution and exhibition. This meant the company never paid out to a competing company for distribution or exhibition. the concentration of ownership by a few major production studios sustained market dominance in the Hollywood industry.
BLOCK BOOKING
The studios participated in block booking, which is where companies would sell many films together as a unit. Films in this process would typically include one A list movie which many people were interested in watching and some much lower quality B list movies. There were usually around 5 films in a unit. This allowed the companies to make low budget, low quality movies which people would never the less watch to see the A list movie.
The anti-trust case specifically outlawed block booking. This was filed on July 20, 1938, however the Big Five managed to delay the case for 10 whole years before the law came into effect. The courts decided that the big five were indeed in violation of the law and to prevent any future block booking each studio had to break off from the theaters. This was the beginning of the end of the golden age of Hollywood but ultimately put all studios on equal footing in turn breading higher quality films and allowing smaller companies to succeed, including and especially United Artists.
THE BIG FIVE
The big five were the five largest production companies in the industry in the 1920s and owned studios, distribution lines and theaters.
The big five consisted of MGM, Paramount, Fox, RKO and Warner Bros. The Little Three, whom were less successful, included Universal, Colombia and United Artists.
The big five dominated the market and owned theater chains with which they block booked with no restrictions. One company could even control all the theaters in an area, preventing competition and allowing low quality films to gain a lot of audience and revenue.
STAR SYSTEM
The producing companies often put producers, writers, directors and actors under contracts. The star system refers to the selection of young actors and actresses by studios that then fabricated new personas, names and backgrounds for them.
The studios created images for the stars, and enforced them, often taking extreme measures to do so. Stars had to sign contracts with morality clauses for the studios to ensure they would not damage their image. Regimens included discreet acting, voice and dancing lessons to maintain the high public image created around them. Women could only go out with makeup on and stylish clothes, whilst men had to always be gentlemen in the public eye.
The studios set up fake dates for stars and then tipped off the gossip columnists to create publicity for those involved and promote films. On the flip side any negative media including drinking, drugs, divorce and adultery were covered up by paying off the gossip columnists or alternatively promising future stories or less damaging ones in the place of the image damaging story.
For example, Rock Hudson originally Roy Fitzgerald was gay, but had a public image as heterosexual and the perfect man. When confidential magazine found out they were offered information about the criminal past of another client by his agent, to prevent the magazine printing about Rock.
Studios had control over the movies the stars were in and were known to lend them to other studios. Stars often felt owned and were unable to choose where they worked, However if they refused a movie they would get suspended from work.
Four major movie stars in 1919 founded United Artists, their own
company. Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and
D.W. Griffith started the company to take charge of their careers and
have choice over the films they acted in. United Artists became one of
the little three and were successful in a very compressed industry.
Large studio companies who produced horror in the golden era of Hollywood include:
Hammer Film Productions, which is well known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from 1950s until the 1970s including 'The Curse of Frankinstein', 1958's 'Dracula' and 'The Mummy'.
Paramount Pictures was also successful in the hollywood system in horror and are responsible for 'Psycho', 'Friday the 13th' and 'My Bloody Valentine'.
Universal Pictures also had a hand in horror movies at that time, producing the successful film 'The Birds', 1931's 'Dracula' and 'The Wolf Man'.
Hollywood now includes the entire film production system and now you know its roots!
SOURCES
http://mediahistoryproject.org/hollywood/
http://www.hollywoodmoviememories.com/articles/hollywood-history/hollywood-studio-system-golden.php
http://classichollywoodcentral.com/?p=48
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_system#Sound_and_the_Big_Five
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_system_(filmmaking)
http://classichollywoodcentral.com/?p=223
