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