Studios in action
1930-50
Studio System
•
•
As the cost of making films
increased the ability of
individual to finance a movie
was limited. e.g. D.W. Griffith
was bankrupted as his epic
films like Birth of a Nation
required more and more
elaborate sets and equipment
and bigger distribution systems
to recover costs.
The need for finance
encouraged links with Banks
and financiers for the necessary
resources. This was the Studio
System.
Studio System 1930-50
•
•
•
•
•
Making movies is about money investing and making it.
The Studio System was
designed to maximise the return
on the investments. This meant
that that film-making became an
industry with the organisation of
a factory.
Studios specialised in particular
film types:
Republic = Westerns,
Paramount = European style,
Universal= Horror,
M.G.M.= Musicals.
•
•
Studios employed their
Technicians, Directors and
Actors on salaries and expected
them to work as required by
their contracts.
Studios also controlled the
distribution and screening of the
films as they also owned the
theatres and distribution
systems. Warner Bros. for
example, owned the Stanley
Theatre chain while RCA owned
the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
Theatre group.
Studio System 1930-50
•
•
Directors were expected to
produce films on schedule (e.g.
Curtiz made 44 films for Warner
Bros between 1930-39.)
compared to the present where
a Director may make only one
film a year.
Directors had little control over
the final product as editing was
done by the post-production unit
with Studio Executives often
making final decisions.
•
•
Actors were on seven year
contracts to the Studios. e.g.
Mae West & Joan Crawford
were contracted to Paramount.
Greta Garbo to M.G.M. Mary
Pickford to United Artists and
Erroll Flynn was contracted to
Warner Bros.
The contracts controlled the
minutiae of the actors’ images
and the roles the were to play..
They could also be loaned out
to other Studios as and when it
suited.
Studio System 1930-50
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The effectiveness of the Studio System can be demonstrated in
their market share / profitability during the period 1931-41 for the
Big 8 Studios.
M.G.M. was No.1 for the 11 years.
Fox was No.2.
Paramount was No.3 until 1943 when it overtook M.G.M.
Warners was No.4.
RKO was a consistent No.5.
Universal
Columbia
United Artists
Question: Can you offer an explanation why In 1932 all the
Studios except M.G.M. lost money?
Studio System 1930-50
• Early Censorship
•
Fatty Arbuckle - falsely accused of
rape of an under-age girl but banned
from the screen by William Hays -the
head of the MPPDA.
The Studio System was
challenged by growing
Governmental concern about
the content of the Films being
distributed. Particularly in the
period 1920-30 as the Fatty
Arbuckle scandal exemplified.
(http://www.ralphmag.org/fatty.html)
The concern with sex & violence as
well as the reported scandals
associated with the Actors and
Directors raised questions about
public morality.
Studio System 1930-50
•
•
1)
2)
3)
4)
The Self-Censorship attempted
by the Studios through the
Motion Pictures Producers &
Distributors Association didn’t
work as there was no real
means of enforcing the
Production Code formulated by
it in 1930
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
1930: Production Code: Laid
down in detail what could or could
not be shown or said in a movie.
The code stated that:
No picture will lower the moral
standards of the audience.
Only current standards of life will
be presented.
The law will not be ridiculed.
The sanctity of marriage and love
will be upheld.
Scenes of passion will not be
introduced.
Excessive & lustful kissing &
embracing will not be shown.
Sexual relations between Black &
White is forbidden.
Obscenity in all forms is
forbidden.
Nudity will not be permitted.
Studio System 1930-50
The lack of strength to the
code allowed Mae West to
purr such lines as: “I can
make it happen when the
shades go down.” and “Is
that a gun I see in your
pocket or are you just
pleased to see me?”
1943: Hays resigned and Joseph
Breen was appointed in charge
of the newly renamed: Production
Code administration.
PCA insisted on a seal on all films
signifying they’d met the moral
guidelines of the Code. This was
backed with a $25,000 fine.
The PCA vetted a film from first script
draft to final production. This
meant that Breen could control
the content of a film as this
example shows:
The classic film: Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington, almost wasn't
made; Breen warned that the
novel it was based on had
enormous adaptation problems
since the book actually
suggested, among other things,
that senators are controlled by
lobbyists.
Organisation of the Studio System
The Owners
Shareholders,
Investors &
Financiers. Often from
the East Coast and
investing to make a
profit.
Distributors:
Deal with Exhibitors
to provide
marketable deal for
Studio.
Exhibitors:
Box Office indicates
popularity and
profitability. Often
limited by the Block
Booking system
imposed by the
Studio. Had to
screen quality as well
as filler films sold in a
block.
C.E.O.
Made
decisions re
schedules,
budgets of
A&B movies
and prestige
pictures. Often
a shareholder
or founder of
the Studio but
dependent on
the financiers.
Head of Production:
Made day by Day decisions about Studio,
determined individual film budgets and
appointed Directors.
Studio Ownership
•
1.
2.
3.
There were three tiers of
ownership during the 1930s.
The Big Five: Warner Bros,
Paramount, RKO, MGM, Fox.
The Little Three: Universal,
United Artists, Columbia
Pictures.
Poverty Row Independents: Disney,
Monogram,Selznik,Samuel
Goldwyn,20th Century
Pictures, Republic.
The Big Five
Studio Ownership
•
Posters for the
first talkie. The
Jazz Singer
(1927 )
•
These Studios had a total
vertical integration of the
production, distribution and
exhibition of the movies.
The Big Five produced 90%
of the fiction films in America
and controlled the distribution
and exhibition of their movies
nationally and internationally.
Studio Ownership
•
The Big Five:
•
Had vast studios with elaborate sets
for film production.
Owned their own film exhibiting
theatres - about 50% of the seating
capacity of all first -run US theatres.
Owned the distribution system for their
films.
Required “Block Bookings” of films. A
system that forced theatre owners to
take a block of 20 films (mainly cheap
B grade films) in order for the studio to
distribute the one A grade movie the
theatre owner wanted to screen.
(Block booking lasted until the US vs
Paramount anti-trust case forced the
studios to divest selves of their
theatres.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Little Three:
These studios were not fully
integrated as they did not own
their own theatres.
Poverty Row-Independents:
These studios were centred on
“Poverty Row” (Sunset
Boulevard & Gower Street. )
and concentrated on making
cheap, low budget, stock
footage films with second tier
actors. Usually Westerns,
Science Fiction, Horror or
Thrillers. Disney specialised in
animation.
Studio Ownership
Big Five:
Warner Bros, Paramount, RKO, MGM,Fox
Vertical
integration.
Owned means
of Production,
Distribution &
Exhibition.
Dominated Movie
industry 1930-50.
Little Three:
Universal, United Artists, Columbia Pictures
Lacked full Vertical Integration of
production, Distribution & Exhibition..
Benefited from
Paramount
decision. United
Artists model of
contracting basis of
present system.
Independents:
Disney,Monogram,
Selznik,Goldwyn,20th
Century,Republic.
Niche market films.
Broken up by US vs Paramount anti-trust decision 1948.
FINANCING THE STUDIO
SYSTEM
Financing the Studio System
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
From the beginning of the
1920’s Film Companies began
to move to California attracted
by:
Low Land prices
Attractive climate allowing
regular out-door shooting.
Disparate locations within a
short distance.
Cheap labour.
Distance from the Motion
Pictures Patents Company
which controlled film making
on the East Coast.
•
•
•
West Coast Companies sued
the MPPC under anti-trust
legislation forcing its dissolution
in 1915.
World War I shifted the
European industry expertise to
America giving the production
companies effective domination
of the international industry.
By 1918 the California Movie
industry produced over 90% of
American films & dominated the
European distribution &
exhibition system. Effectively
becoming an oligopoly.
Financing the Studio System
•
•
From 1930-50 Eight Studios
dominated Hollywood.
They were vertically
integrated controlling the
means of production,
distribution and exhibition.
Exhibition was the most
profitable sector as the
receipts from the box office
recouped the costs of
production. The “first-run”
cinemas delivered 75% of all
theatrical revenues.This
meant that the Studios
controlled the money & power
within the film industry.
•
•
Block-Booking: The practise of
forcing film exhibitors to buy
cheaper B grade films in order to
get the A grade films was devised
by Zukor of Paramount Pictures
(hence the Court case).This system
guaranteed audiences for all of the
Studio’s out put regardless of
quality.
Contract System: All staff involved
with producing a film were under
long-term contract with the Studio.
Actors were on a 7 year contract
that dictated the number of films
they made and removed their ability
to choose the type of film they
made. Actors could be suspended
without pay and their contracts
extended without negotiation.
Production Process
•
•
•
The Studio System treated
movie making like a factory so
that productions were made on
a assembly line process.
Studios needed to produce an
average of one film a week to
meet audience demand.
The Studios broke down the
tasks involved in movie
production so that once the
individual’s function was
completed for one movie he
could be moved onto another
film project.
Production Process
•
•
•
This meant that from the
Director down all people on the
set were salaried staff employed
according to their function.
A film moved from the Writing
Team to the Director and the
personnel selected for the film
by the Producers. Once the film
was shot the project was
passed to the Editors who made
the decisions about the final
film.
The Associate producer was the
only person who saw the
complete process concentrating
on ensuring the film ran to
budget and to schedule.
Production Process
•
•
1.
2.
The Studio style developed
Generic story structures or
Genre.
The Genre format meant that:
The movies offered financial
guarantee. The formula could
be consistently recycled to
meet the demands of the
target audience. The genre
also allowed the Studio to
predict the size of the
audience and thus its
profitability.
The genre saved money as
the Studios could re-use sets,
props, costumes, story-lines
and actors repeatedly.
Production Process
•
•
Historical Context:
Between 1929-49 thev USA
underwent a series of
traumas:
1.
Wall Street Crash.
2.
The Great Depression.
3.
World War II.
The trauma gave the film industry a
boost as the Studios offered
escapism from the harsh
social conditions of the time.
W.W.II also meant that the film
industry received government
support as an “essential
propaganda industry”.
Decline of the Studio System
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
From 1949 the Studio System began to decline. While the Studios didn’t
disappear their ability to control and dominate the production,
distribution and exhibition of the films was limited.
Reasons:
Divorcement: (1948) US Courts required the Studios to break up the
vertical integration structures because it broke US anti-trust laws.
The growth of Independent Production Companies to meet the 1940s
demand for films meant that the Studios faced stronger competition
than the System had allowed.
Stars began to demand independence from the Studios. e.g.Olivia
DeHavilland had sued Warner Bros over her contract. The fixed 7 year
contracts were replaced with unlimited contracts.
Unionisation of the work-force that put an end to the unreasonable and
often dangerous working practices imposed by the Studios.
International reaction against the Hollywood product as countries
revived their own film making industries.
Decline of the Studio System
1.
Competition from Television post 1950. This lead to a decline in Theatre
audiences.
2.
Social trends throughout the USA. e.g. a developing suburbia which
meant that the central city theatres lost popularity. Peoples’ leisure
focus moved to being home based.
3.
Increasing production costs, decreasing revenues (Theatre audiences
fell 50% between 1946 and 1956.) and the closure of 4000 cinemas
limited the market for the films the studios produced.
The Studio production line system was no longer viable.
Controls
Controls are the factors that control the production of
movies.
Controls are both Internal and External.
Internal = include: production processes, editorial
policy, commercial considerations, codes and quality
controls.
External = Government and societal agencies,
pressure groups, market demands, codes and
industrial standards.
Controls
•
•
•
•
•
INTERNAL CONTROLS
Quality Control - A or B grade /
genre
Production Process (filmfactory)
Commercial Considerations
Contract system
Block Bookings
Vertical Integration
Code of Practice (MPPDA)
•
•
•
•
•
EXTERNAL CONTROLS
Censorship movements
World Events
Wall Street Crash
Depression
World War II - Essential
industry
Market Demands
(Genre appeal )
Anti-Trust legislation
Task: Write a brief definition of each of these controls
and identify possible effects each had on the filmmaking industry.
References
Web-based
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.fathom.com/course/1070
1053/session1.html
http://lsc.mit.edu/schedule/archives/
design1999/links.html
http://www.filmsound.org/ulano/inde
x.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/
Blockbuster/movstudios.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/violen
ce/censornotes.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/alevk
eyconcepts/genre.html
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Stars
gcse/stardomnotes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_s
ystem
http://www.reference.com/browse/wi
ki/Studio_system
•
•
•
http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_arch
ive/1film_studio-system.htm
http://www.fathom.com/course/1070
1053/session1.html
http://www.internetcampus.org/frtv/fr
tv003.htm
Texts:
Making Movies: James Monaco
Discovery of Cinema: Thorold Dickinson
Film-an Introduction: Fell