The Birth Of Hollywood (1900-1930)

1. Filmmakers and producers moved to Hollywood due to the useful filming locations and to escape Thomas Edison trying to monopolize the film industry.
2. Charlie Chaplin was both a big star and a director. Another famous film star was Harold Lloyd, and Thomas H. Ince was a silent film director. Famous pictures from the silent era includes The Cabinet Of Dr Caligiri and Nosferatu, both german, while Hollywood produced Ben-Hur and 7th Heaven
3. The early Hollywood studio system had one person do the writing, directing, filming and producer work on the film, until Thomas Ince changed that by splitting these aspects into different jobs. The early system also had the studio practically own the actors, which Charlie Chaplin combated.
4. The Jazz Singer from 1927 was the first talking picture (or Talkie)
5. The end of the silent era brought problems to certain directors and actors who had made careers in the silent era as now vocal performances became important and they couldn’t just use physical skills anymore. The new technology was also too complex for them to get used to quickly.
6. During the time of the silent era of film, America went through World War One, the Wall Street crash and The Great Depression.

Charlie Chaplin, famous silent director and actor (1889-1977)

Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ (1925)

The Golden Age Of Hollywood (1930-1947)

The five big studios were:

– MGM, which did high budget films and literary adaptations

Gone With The Wind (1939)

– Paramount, which was known as the more European studio and got German directors over to make films

Shanghai Express (1932)

– Warner Brothers, which made low budget movies like gangster movies and musicals

The Public Enemy (1931)

– 20th Century Fox, famous for making westerns, musicals and dramas

The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)

-RKO, which made a variety of films from musicals to screwball comedies to creature features and even dramas such as Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane (1941)

2. Vertical integration is the combination of two or more stages of production in a business. Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theatre as a unit.

3. The original studio system collapsed in 1948 at the conclusion of the United States v. Paramount court case when the 5 big studios were found of violating trust laws.

4. At this time, America went through the Great Depression. America also went through the second world war in the 1940s.

5. At the time people enjoyed movies of the westerns, musicals, screwball comedies and film noir genres. More people than ever went to visit the cinema during this time to escape the great depression, which took a large toll on the mental health of the American population.

Classical Hollywood Style

1. The invisible style of storytelling is when the edits are practically invisible to the audience. This style tries to conceal artistic choices in order to present a natural story to the audience.
2. Continuity editing is the use of editing techniques to combine shots into one smooth, continuous narrative. Classical Hollywood often used continuity editing. This creates an illusion of a sequential, chronological story and is meant to get the audience immersed in the story presented by the film.