Detailed Film Studies notes with practice exam questions for revision of topics covered. Used by many students to achieve A*'s in their final exams in summer. Key works and concepts are all covered in detail with images and diagrams to aid understanding.
,American Film Industry and Contemporary Hollywood
What is Hollywood?
Mike Davis (an urban theorist) pointed out that this was a very difficult question. Hollywood
is no longer the home of film production and hasn’t been for over 70 years. The core of the
district is now one of the poorest areas in the US. In response to the ‘social emergency’,
studios have recreated Hollywood in Florida. Disney and Universal have rival theme parks
which aim to give the authentic Hollywood experience.
‘What is Hollywood?’ can be answered in some way. We can say Hollywood is the
companies we will learn about, those American companies who dominate the film
industry.
All of them, with the exception of Disney, are now owned by much larger companies. A term
used to describe these parent companies, often called conglomerates, is transnational
corporation.
Hollywood Studio System – 1930s onwards
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, During the 1930s, those involved in the film industry began to ignore working class
nickelodeons and created new cinemas in the centres of big cities. These 2000 or so cinemas
that the Hollywood companies owned then had the right to show the latest Hollywood films
before anyone else.
With large scale investments of over $100,000 in each film, making more prints and sending
them to cinemas abroad made sense. The studios were vertically integrated.
By working like this, the studios had control of:
• The production
• The distribution (around the states and the world)
• The exhibition (in the 2000 or so cinemas they owned)
Fearing that independent cinemas would favour non Hollywood films and threaten their
business, Hollywood studios used a few key business practices to tie these exhibitors into
their product:
• Block booking
• Blind bidding
• Run zone clearance system
TASK
Find out:
What block booking is
What blind bidding is
What the run zone clearance system is
For each on state what the advantages/disadvantages are for Hollywood
studios/exhibitors.
For each of the three distribution methods, can you explain the
1984 saw the Paramount decree, where the systems were deemed
advantages and disadvantages for audiences?
illegal. The vertically integrated studios were told to sell their cinemas.
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