definitions week 1

The Studio System

Book definition:
“Under the studio system, the more of production that dominated American film making from the 1920s to the late 1940s, each move company signed most of its directors to long-term contracts, along with actors and other creative personnel.” (Sikov,120).

“The studio system operated under a mass-production model in which films were made and distributed like sausages or boxes of cereal, and there was not a lot of room for individual directors to put their personal stamp on films they made.” (Sikov, 121)

Resources:

1) Academic:
Author, Tom Schatz, writes in detail about the rise and fall of Hollywood’s studio system era. Before going in depth about the rise and fall, he explains the studio system. Essentially the studio system was a vertical integration of production, distribution and exhibition of films popularized between the 1920s and 1940s. Studios controlling all vertical factors of production established norms for the film industry. Essentially through the studio system, big studio names ;such as Warner Bros., or Paramount; followed production norms to mass produce films. In this system big studio heads contracted the same directors, production teams, and actors to uphold their label. The studio system followed a top-down system in which the executives controlled the business side of distribution and exhibition while producers oversaw the overall production of the film.

2) Journalistic
Writer, Ryan “R.L.” Terry, reveals that during the time of the “studio system”, there were five major film studios known as the Big Five, essentially controlling the film industry from production to distribution. These studios consisted of Paramount, MGM, RKO, Loew’s, Fox Pictures, and Warner Brothers. The studio system contained the collateral that big banks were looking for in order to invest in films, after all, film and television were and continues to be the United States’ largest exports even though they are only recently counted as part of the U.S.’ gross domestic product. The system would prevent independent filmmakers in expanding their creativity within projects and keep established positions in studios as permanent, limiting additional creatives to join the company. This limitation also applied to properties. In the days of the studio system, outside companies could not rent and shoot films or television shows on another company’s lot.

3) Personal
An article on the Hollywood lexicon describes the Hollywood studio system. An interesting take from this article was the allusion to the Ford Motor Company. The similarities between the Ford company and the studio system are not too shocking, but the fact this article touched upon this is good information. The article also goes in detail about the hardships non-studio system theaters went through in order to produce a film. An example of the studio system theaters power was the idea of “block booking”. Block booking was big studio names way of renting out their studios to second grade studios.
Through block booking non-established theaters were required to buy blocks of film that they had to produce on. Sometimes these packages included footage worth 20+ films. Needless to say the big 8 studios controlled over the film industry. More so this article talks about the use of stars to sell movies which created the notion of A-list movies or B-list movies based on who the actors were.

4) Vernacular
Author, Amelia Robinson, describes the studio system as a means of film production, distribution and exhibition dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the 1950s. The term itself refers to the practice of large motion picture studios (1) producing their own filmmaking lots with creatives usually under long-term contracts and (2) proceeding a vertical integration through ownership of distributors and theaters, guaranteeing additional sales of films through manipulative booking techniques. A key part of the studio system was block booking, which entails them selling a year’s worth of films to the theatres that included a number of particularly attractive, big-budget films,
which would therefore, entice theatres to buy the whole block. Additionally, foreign films could not get a foothold in the U.S. unless they had arrangements with one of the Big 5 U.S. film companies.

Sources:
Academic:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/Sample_chapt
er/9781405133876/9781405133876_C01.pdf
(Links to an external site.)

Journalistic:

After the Rise and Fall of the Studio System, Could We Use it Today?

(Links to an external site.)

Personal:
http://www.hollywoodlexicon.com/studiosystem.html
(Links to an external site.)

Vernacular:
The Studio System
(Links to an external site.)