Article on ‘rise’ and ‘fall’ feature article Homework

 Article on ‘rise’ and ‘fall’ feature article Homework

The ‘Golden age’ of Hollywood happened around the time of the rise in studios which was in the year of 1910. The studios that started to get popular back then still stand with the dominant studios today, these studios are 20th century fox, Universal, Paramount, MGM and Warner brothers. By the 1920s the ‘Studio System’ was established and the studios named before were named the ‘Big 5’ as they dominated film production. The ‘Studio System’ consisted of very powerful studios who were vertically integrated. The production line these companies followed consisted of producing, then distributing then exhibiting their films, this was compared to the production of Ford cars on a conveyor belt. The studio consolidates all the production too. These studios only focused on one type of genre film because it was formulaic and fulfilled audiences expectations. Furthermore, the ‘Start System’ played a big part in the ‘Hollywood Golden age’. This system made it so that actors would sign long and unbreakable contracts with specific studios (This also allowed the studios to make films back to back as the actors were always there). These contracts with specific studios meant that the actors were cast into one role linked to a specific genre. Spectators knew what genre and actors they were going to watch if they knew the studio behind the film. The golden ‘old’ or ‘classical’ age ranged from around the 1920s - 1948, everything after 1948 was considered ‘new’ if considering the decline after paramount laws exhibition/theatre in 1948. Some people would consider 1960 the ‘new’ golden age as there was a range of new director, and relaxation of the Hays code (set of industry moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most United States motion pictures). Whilst critics do not debate or refute the dates, they argue over its perceived decline and power and whether 1948 was the moment of decline. Even with the steady flow of new directors such as Speilburg, Scorsesee, Cassavetes and Parker, many people argue that the arrangements of the studio system, the mode of production and audiences preference for popular genres has been residual in contemporary Hollywood today.