Vertical integration of the Classical Hollywood Genre

As mentioned earlier in previous posts, Vertical integration was another key component to the success of Hollywood Golden age, and was defined by the major studios releasing that they could enhance their profit by having a say in each and every phase of film making:
• The production
• Distribution
• Exhibition

At this point the ‘The Big Five’ Hollywood studios had started to cooperate together to create the vertical integration in 1940’s ,owning big estates to construct sets that later on was known to be the Hollywood sets ,the location of the most of films that were produced during the period. These studios would also control the date of releases and patterns of production. These studios included: Warner Bros., Paramount, 20th Centrury Fox, Loew’s ( MGM), and RKO ( Radio-Keith –Orpheum) .other studios such as Columbia pictures and United Artists- also made pictures however they lacked the vertical integration that we just discussed. To put it in nutshell these eight companies together ruled created the oligopoly of Hollywood, essentially controlling the entire market. All of the cinema theaters also were under the control of these eight studios.

The end of Hollywood golden Age

Just like everything else in this universe, all phases will eventually reach an end, and the same process applied to Hollywood, even in its Golden age! In 1948 with the advent of Independent industry, Hollywood had to give up its profit and its dominating power and what happened was that the struggling independent movie producers and exhibitors finally won the battle against the sole power of Hollywood studios, and the studios were ordered to give up their theaters and allow other film makers to distribute their work on their theatres. In other words, allowing them to open their market to other smaller producers. Therefore, the 1930 to 1948 was considered to be the ending chapters of Hollywood golden age‘s book., With their 95 percent of all film rentals and 70 percent of all box-office receipts. Of course the advent of television cannot be neglected and fastened the compromise of Hollywood monopolistic behavior.

lastly to conclude we thought i should embed a video of some of the shots of beautiful moments of Hollywood classics! we hope you like it .
enjoy!

xxxx
Jazgol

The coming of sound in Genre : Classical Hollywood

Ok , now that we have a bit more knowledge of the Hollywood golden era, we can dig dipper in to the making of the films at that time and hopefully get a better understanding of how that genre operated at the time being.

Advent of Sound films practically started in the late 1920’s. of course films were never ‘silent’’ before that time, since they always had a sound or piece of music accompanying the narration of the story but what it means was a technical intervention and progress in film industry where you can actually hear the actors interacting with another and listen to their conversations.

‘’Warner Bros’’ , one of the five big Hollywood studios had started to gamble that 'talkies' would be popular amongst viewers with a synchronized piece of speech in 'The jazz Singer' ,. With the commercial success of that movie , studios now had a proof that talkies do make money and can benefit the studios , therefore , they were willing to invest more In the camera equipment to new projection facilities , even though initially they were still hesitant of investing financially. In the end the power of moving the audience with the sound and how sound can enhance a story , all in all, persuaded them to invest more in p.During this time another big Hollywood studio found itself competing with Warner Bros, and that was ‘’Fox studios’’, where the Vitaphone sound on disc system , a technology introduced by Warner Bros was challenging Fox’s Moviestone sound-on-film system.

Overall the use of sound in film was well received by all audiences. However, there were still technical problems that would occur during the time being, such as problems with amplification of sound in theaters were did not have the facilities to fully answer the requirements of sound movies. By 1929 Hollywood had put our more than 300 sound films most of the theaters were converted to meet the sound requirements by 1930. However it would take longer for films to regain their stylistic elegance and glamor which it provided in later years. Some of the other struggles and difficulties of this renovation was that suddenly all complex editing structures in the moving camera was lost and now needed to be established all over again. Even actors struggled with their performances were they had to act out a conversation. The film ‘’Singing In The Rain” (1952) displays some of the early-sound film difficulties at that time.

Xxx

Jazgol

Classical Hollywood

Interested in classics? Ever fancy watching a old black and white, film grain Hollywood classical? Do you ever wonder what characterizes the classical Hollywood film, both in plot and the visual style? Do you reckon there has been a lot of change since the time of ‘Gone with the wind’ and the blockbuster, computer stylized and visually ground braking ávatar’? Is it just the ‘era of technology’ and the contributions it has offered to the film industry or maybe it also a matter of difference in plot development since then?

Well, if you look closely enough From the lighting of the scenes and the set design, everything from A-Z was somehow slightly different in that period of time which was called the Hollywood Golden Age.

The studio system in American film industry was dominated during the classical Hollywood era, during that time 5 major and most powerful studios reached a status in Hollywood to create a set of codes in visual design and to control it. Everything from a time a film is produced to a time when it gets released was controlled by these massive Hollywood studios that ruled the American film production. This golden era took place in years between 1930- 1948.

One particular trait about the American film production would be its ’over determined’ planning about its every single detail elements, which to put in simple forms is the idea that American films are pre-determined by a number of economic , social and cultural factors and that is seen in different times throughout the history of American film production.

The two key elements that controlled that set of codes and over determined outlook in the American film production were the: advent of sound and the business ideal of vertical integration.

In this section and the upcoming post we’ll be discussing and analyzing those elements in Hollywood golden age and how a film could be made during that time.

here is a video which i personally liked and thought would be a good representation of classical Hollywood movie.. of course! Gone with the wind!

Xxx

Jazgol

Fantasy Genre

Fantasy films are those films which capture the essence of fantasy, in which the audience are subjected all sorts of imaginative content. To either exotic new worlds, fairy tale style lands, magic, supernatural events and imaginary creatures – or possibly the all of these fantasy elements crammed together in order to create a film which dazzles and amazes its audience. The ability of the fantasy film to provide its audience with a sense of escapism, magic, wonder and the extraordinary allows fantasy films to be extremely appealing to both children and adults for instance the films, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) and ‘Avatar’ (2009).

The themes of the fantasy film genre help define the genre itself, as fantasy films differs from the science fiction and horror film genres although, all three genres contain similar elements and do overlap each other such as the double categorizing of horror/fantasy. The predominant theme of the fantasy film is good verse evil and the struggles in which the main character or characters (the hero) are forced to overcome. The importance of the ‘hero’ in fantasy films is just as significant as the fantasy and imaginative content, as ordinarily the hero is set out to rescue or protect the fantasy world itself. This basic structure of story line is present within many typical Hollywood fantasy films. The theme of the quest in which the hero sets out upon, encourages the growth and mental strength of characters as well as the theme of coming of age, where the hero after his physical and mental journey is seen as independent and heroic.

With the advances in technology in the 2000s, the respectability of the fantasy film has increased massively as with new high-tech film making technology audiences were beginning to become more interested in the fantasy genre. This success is evident in the Harry Potter film series as well as the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and in 2003 the ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,’ was the first and only ever fantasy film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

Jazgol xx

Teen Genre

The teen genre of film is a sub genre of the comedy genre, and is undoubtedly controversial and usually narrative based centring on characters who are high school students. Most teen films characters are very stereotypical and focus on a character who attempts to befriend the ‘popular’ crowd and of course focus on a romantic storyline between the male and female leads. The themes contain issues which affect teenagers such as popularity, sex, teenage pregnancy and drug use.

The typical Hollywood teen film usually portrays life as a high school student as extremely difficult for any teen who is not the stereotypical popular cheerleader or football player. Teen films humour may be very crude and often sickening such as the 'Not Another Teen Movie' (2001) and 'The American Pie' (1999), films. The teen film genre is usually considered very controversial as the portrayal of women can be very sexist and portray women sexual objects. Due to the teen film genre obviously targeted at the teenagers these films can be very influential.

However not all teen films utilize such low brow comedy. The teenage comedy 'Mean Girls' (2004) is defiantly one of my favourite teen films, the film does not unlike many films portray crude, sexist humor and depicts many of the issues which teenage girls face highlighting the issue of bullying as well as being a very entertaining film.

Jazgol x

Chick Flicks

'Pretty woman' (1990), 'P.S. I Love you' (2007), 'Before Sunset' (1995) all the type of movies women wished their boyfriends or husbands would at least sit through without making some kind of complaint. "Chick flicks" are romantic comedies which are targeted at us ladies who love a good tear jerking love story in which commonly follows a narrative story line. Cheesy? Well sometimes, but Chick flicks undoubtably consist of a male and female lead who usually fall in love and are forced to overcome one or more obstacles which result in either the blooming of a romance or tragically the demise. Chick flicks include the stereotypical interests and desires of women, men are handsome and in most cases charming and often profess there undying love in many romantic gestures.

However unfortunately these films do fill our minds with crazy ideas and expectations of love which no real man (probably ever) live up to. I mean really, take 'The Notebook' (2004), the male lead Noah is the perfect man romantic and completely devoted to his love Allie and when separated from her his life has no meaning and is completely lost. He even builds for the house she's dreamt of. But for those of us who can only dream of such romance and perfect relationships, chick flicks will always be a great way to imagine such bliss.

Jazgol xx

Dogme 95

Okay, this may seem the most foreign of all genres you have ever heard in your life! It's true that it is quiet unconventional but believe or not it was initially created to be this way. This genre was first established by a couple of Danish film makers including : Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg , (later on some other film makers joined the force ), to bring back the essence of film making. Dogma 95 was breaking the boundaries in terms of making a statement that film making can be done and accomplished without millions of dollars of big Hollywood budgets and the support of numerous corporations. This genre was criticized and accused of wanting to 'only ' gain the attention of media.

This type of genre was made to be more accessible for film makers without recognition and high budget funds, however Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinnterberg set up some other rules and regulations for this type of genre which made it more difficult to stick to .
A long list that can actually cause the result of the production more similar to an amateur job, Such as:
1. No back ground music
2. The whole production must be placed in one location.
3. Sound can be incorporated if it is happening while filming but no music edited on scenes.
4. Artificial lights and framings are prohibited.
5. The film also must not contain artificial scenes, such as action scenes and weapons and etc.

This way the list goes on to so many other regulations. as you can see this genre could not have lasted so long and even the creators of this genre themselves broke some of the rules themselves , (Von Trier used some symphonies as pieces of music in his films ) ,and caused this genre to end in 2005. Here is some footage from the movie 'Dogville' (2003) directed by Lars Von Trier himself , Now maybe u can get an idea what type of rules was used in this type of genre and how it visually appeared. Unfortunately i could not embed the video of 'Dogville' due to the privacy policy rules on youtube, but here is the address if you are interested

:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLu-m0tohKs


Jazgol xx

Documentry Genre

The documentary genre is the genre that can be considered ‘the non-fiction’ genre. When the objective behind all media texts are always coming from a subjective point of view or better say a ‘theme’, here the same structure exists. We still witness the ‘theme’ which represents a specific mindset, but in this case the images, the location represents a non- narrative story , that is tiring to exhibit a version of reality that is lesser dependent on fictional characters and plots.

The level though, may vary. Some of the documentary texts exist to simply record an event or record a specific period in the history, but even this attempt may seem like a platform or a medium to endorse a ideological perspective . Moreover, these actual images and this scenes which are taken to be assuming ‘non- biased' and less artificial, can always be edited and artificially framed in the editing room. Therefore cannot be ‘just a way of recording the history’.

Here we can briefly examine and mention some of the important documentaries, in terms of the story and the style making they offered in film industry. 'Nanook of the North'' (1922), directed by Robert Flaherty's was the first official documentary about the harsh lives of Canadian Inuit Eskimos in arctic, although some of the images were staged, it was perhaps the first time this genre was produced and labeled in the manner that it was .

Flaherty , continued his work and his documentary style later on with his 1926’s Moana about Samoan Pacific islanders, and in 1934 his first sound documentary Man of Aran was about the rugged Aran islanders/fishermen located west of Ireland's Galway Bay. His final and most controversial feature documentary was , 'Louisiana Story' (1948).

Here is some of the footage's of his first official movie ever produced ‘Nanook of the North’ It only lasts for 8 minutes ,but it might be a good reference of understanding how cinematic documentary elements worked and functioned in that period of time.




Jazgol xx

Horror Genre

Horror movies in general are movies that explicitly provoke emotions of fear and panic, at the same time entertain you while you are seated and eventually create a cathartic experience for the audience. Throughout the history Horror genre has changed and evolved. Each generation has had its own style of horror and themes and fear. For instance, in 1922, 'Nosferatu' directed by F.W. Murnau echoes the circumstances of Great War; therefore it is no just simple a theme of a town with random deaths all over the town.

The history of horror films goes back to 100 years ago and when it is well done and less reliant to visual effects and over the top disturbing images can actually provoke the true hidden fear of a man from ‘ the other‘ factor.

Not only that, it has been proved that the more subtle portrayal of fear in this genre can be even more scary and probably the scariest form of all horror movies. A good example of that is 'The shining' (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest film makers of all time, significantly draws the attention on the abuse of alcohol and turning a domestic abuse, to a two hour fearful experience of ‘psychic photograph’. ‘The Shining' is ground braking in a lot of terms since it does not follow a lot of horror movie conventions. Most of the terrifying scenes has been filmed in absolute day light or brightly scenes ,however, manages to create a paranormal, frightening and unforgettable portrayal of what a horror movie genre can be capable of.

'Iconography 'is also a very common trait in some Horror genre films. For instance 'The Others' (2001) and 'The Hunting' (2007) the old lurky house were everyone is imprisoned was depicted and was most recently appropriated as a sign of creating fear in the audience.






Jazgol xx

The musical

The musical genre of film may be considered the least unrealistic style of film due to the obvious fact that during musical films the characters will burst into song and dance regularly throughout the film often when an obstacle or problem arises. Due to this unbelievably many individuals are unlikely to accept the musical and therefore in contemporary film the majority of musicals are targeted towards the children audiences as well as the ‘tween’ market.

While the musical may not be everyone’s style of film, including my own, the musical style of genre is extremely popular with children and 'Grease' (1978) was defiantly replayed over and over at my house when I was young like my mother did when she was young. Many Disney films also incorporate an element of the musical genre in their films with many of the classic cartoons such as 'The Lion King' (1994), 'The Little Mermaid' (1989) and 'Aladdin' (1992) characters bursting into a huge theatrical performance capturing the imagination and attention of its young viewers.

The music which is a part of the musical genre depends on the trends of the time, with obviously more child friendly songs in 'The Lion King' then rather the smash hit of 1977 'Saturday Night Fever'. The music featured in the film as well as dance is crucial to the musical genre, as musicals can be very theatrical and the orchestration of music enhances the film immensely.




Jazgol xx

The Gangster and Crime genre

The crime and gangster genre of film includes films which depicts the sinister actions of the underworld figures of criminals who function outside the law. Crime and gangster films usually follow a narrative storyline, or also may roughly follow true events which focus on the life of a lead figure or the downfall of a group of criminals and usually involve the police detectives responsible for the criminals capture.

The crime and gangster film genre themes usually include illicit drug addiction, drug dealing and importation as well as violence and sexuality. The issues which are depicted in crime and gangster films are usually crude and shady issues which considered taboo. Due to this, audience’s fascination with these taboo topics contributes to the popularity of the crime and gangster genre.

Typically the Hollywood gangster film portrays the gangster group as a group of individuals who may be likeable and relatable to the audience as their background is explored. Although many of the actions of the criminals can be somewhat forgotten by the audience such as drug dealing, murder and dark and cynical actions. However in the majority of crime and gangster films, the villains are usually caught and held accountable for their actions, this can be noted in the American crime and gangster/ drama film 'Blow' (2001) starring Johnny Depp. 'Blow' is one of my personal favourite gangster films which follows the up rise and downfall of an American drug dealer of the 1970s.

Jazgol xx

Drama Genre

The drama genre categories films which are serious in nature and follow a narrative storyline which focus on character conflict dealing with serious issues which affect individuals in their everyday lives. Drama films depict their characters in an honest manner portraying all kinds of personalities from good to downright evil.

Drama films in general include themes and subject matter such as sexism, drug addiction, mental illness, political issues, inequality of social classes, violence in many forms such as domestic, family related concerns and problems, poverty and many more. These ‘social message films’ can be extremely powerful and by addressing these social issues draw attention to many issues and create public awareness.

Many drama films claim to be based on either true events or based on a true story. These ‘true stories’ can involve chilling historical events such as war which may include the true historical events with a made up love story or such. However dramatic films which claim to be based on true stories can also be completely false such as the famous 'Blair Witch Project' (1999).

Like the comedy genre, dramatic films are extremely popular and are usually the most nominated genre of film for awards such as the Academy Awards. The film critically-acclaimed 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008) is a exceptional example of a dramatic film which in 2008 was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won eight including Best Picture. If you have not already seen this film, defiantly watch it if you enjoy good drama.

Jazgol xx

Comedy Genre

The film genre comedy is one of the oldest styles of film and originates back to the beginning of film itself as being the leading forms of silent films in the 1920s. Comedy films main focus obviously is to create a humors film which is very enjoyable for the audience and provokes laughter and amusement. Evolving over time, the comedy now has several sub forms such as the romantic comedy, slap stick and the black comedy which will be reviewed in this post.

During the 1920s, the beginning of the film era, films relied on the use of popular comedians, very easy to follow narratives, cartoons such as Betty Boop, and in particular slap stick comedy which was easy to follow without the use of sound. The Slap stick comedy does not require sound to be effective as it relies on the most basic forms of comedy, people hurting themselves or silly behavour. The use of pies in the face and over exgaddergated visual action made slap stick comedy very popular with children as well as non English speaking people. Although in contemporary film, slap stick ceomdy has evloved into characters such as Mr. Bean.

The comedy genre has continued to be extremely popular since the beginning of film making, and continues to create new froms of entertaining its audience, the romantic comedy may be one of the oldest sub forms of comedy but continues to be one of the most popluar. The romantic comedy usually follows a narrative storyline centring around two protagonists who may argue or overcome an obsticle which has stopped the two from uniting and ultamitely come together as a romantic couple. The ‘happy ending’ is usually present within romantic comedies which affirms the belief of love concuring all. Of course each film has variations of this basic plotline but it seems the majority of romantic films follow this style.

The black comedy differs from the slap stick and romantic comedies in that generally the black humor takes on taboo or serious issues in a serious tone. Unlike the other forms of comedy, black comedy deals with issues such as racism, sexism, drug addiction, insanity etc. Black comedies usually have deeper meaning then the simpler comedy, although are just as humorous. The film 'The Royal Tenenbaums' (2001) is a perfect exmaple of black comedy starring Gene Hackman, Bill Murary and Ben stiller.




Jazgol xx

Genre in Film tradition Vs. Themes

If you are interested in film making, understanding of film studies or just interested in getting a better vision and analysis of film industry, this is your place to come. For starters, you may ask yourself what is exactly a tradition or in this case a film tradition. To answer that, we go directly to definition of the word film traditions itself. A film tradition in most times carries the sense of style and cinematography of a film (not all times, but often it occurs.)

More importantly in the study of film traditions, what is important is the Genre. Comprehension of genre helps with approaching the specific text and understanding what it is trying to portray or tell the audience or what is the intended outcome. Genre in simple form is a path to classify films. The type of storytelling, characters and events that take action. It mainly involves the mood and the feel of the story and the plot of the movie.

Every artistic production has a genre, whether a piece of music, or a simple painting. Without it, the actual purpose of the production may be lost. Whether a landscape, still life or portrait in a painting or sonata, song or symphony in a piece of music, genres are to be seen in any artistic format, as it exists in films, drama, romantic comedy, horror or musicals. In literature, drama genre has three most critical elements to itself and that is: lyric, drama and epic. Each has a defined meaning and each creates the idea.

Therefore, it can be concluded that its presence is vital in any art, however the question still remains, how is genre categorized or classified in study of films?
In other words what exactly makes a film a comedy and another drama?

The answer lies beneath two main elements: the first and the foremost is the way of story telling and how it is represented in the film, through the actual plot and how its narrated to the audience (a method of storytelling), it’s the discourse, the ideology behind it that can make the genre as well, it does not mean that it is definite but it definitely influences the genre.

It is important not to get confused between the themes and the genre, themes may be similar and present in two entirely different genres. How can that happen?
Say 'The Simpsons' and 'Harry Potter' (2001) movies, What are the main themes (the motif) in 'Harry Potter' movies? Just to name a few: family, loss, love, community, and friendship will probably come in to our minds. How about the soap opera 'The Simpsons?' Surprisingly 'the Simpsons' has all of the above themes in common with ‘Harry Potter' movies. However the two genres are again entirely different with a tag of 'fantasy' genre to Harry Potter movies and satire (or social comedy) genre to 'The Simpsons'.

And the second is the characters, (which is pretty much matter of performance) and how they appear through the eye of the audience, do they appear happy? Sad or dramatic? serious? Sophisticated? Frightened? One may argue that just because an actor in showing a certain emotion may not certify a classification of a genre which may be true but what is evident and what differentiates one genre to another is how that emotion or that sense of being is showed by the performer.

Hopefully with this post, you will be able to clarify and distinguish a genre easier than before and also be able to see the difference between a genre and a theme of a visual product.

Jazgol xx