Film Studies

1. Film Studies Notes #1

2. Classical Films of the 30s and beyond • The main genre of the 1930s was the musical • Films were character based, story developed through one protagonist • Actions are clearly motivated through acting style, costume, dialogue, and actions • Usually 2 goals: (1) needs to solve a problem, (2) need to get the romantic couple together • Editing is meant to go unnoticed; continuity a priority

3. Musicals • Busby Berkeley (dance director) and Fred Astaire (exquisite tap dancer) made the musical sophisticated enough to become the major genre of the 1930s. • Berkeley used aerial photography (using a crane), kaleidoscopic lenses, highly expressive camera movement, and sophisticated montage techniques. His production numbers (musical numbers) came closer to experimental cinema than to anything in traditional narrative film.

4. Coming of Sound Changes Cinema • Other genres made possible or great with sound: • Historical biography like Marie Antoinette • Dialogue comedies W.C. Fields (sound films) and the Marx Brothers • Screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday. These had wisecracking dialogue, fast pacing, and an element of slapstick comedy. • Many careers declined like those of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

5. The Studio System: 1910s to early 1960s • When the Motion Picture Patents Company was destroyed then independent film studios decided to move in and assume monopolistic control over film production, distribution, and exhibition. • Films became big business. • Stars had contracts to stay with one studio (they didn’t just pick and choose which films they wanted to be in like today)

6. Studios and Monopolies • Vertical integration from the 1920s and 30s (ending in 1948 with Supreme Court case) meant 5 film studios (MGM, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, and RKO) had control over all of the production, distribution, and exhibition of films (3 other studios – Universal Studios, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures – had control over production but did not own theaters so they were not vertically integrated) • This is considered a type of monopoly which meant foreign films had trouble coming into U.S.

7. Production Codes • In 1934, the Hays Office and the Catholic Church intervened in Hollywood after many scandals had made many appalled at the possible influence Hollywood films might have on social attitudes and behavior. • A study (the Payne Fund) found that movies brought new ideas to children, influenced interpretations of the world and day-to-day conduct, and presented moral standards. These findings were shocking to Americans of the day. How scared they would be today.

8. Production Codes Cont’d • Legion of Decency was set up by the Vatican to fight for moral motion pictures • Production Codes came into being that were very repressive. Forbidding: scenes of passion, not upholding the institution of marriage (while not sharing a bed), nudity, representing surgeries, showing guns or details of crimes, showing law-enforcement officers dying at the hands of criminals, violence should be avoided unless necessary to the plot and could not be excessive, racial slurs, excessive drinking, criticizing religions of any sort, bad deeds going unpunished, profanity, and anything sexual happening

9. MPPDA (1922) and PCA (1934) • The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America: all studios were a part of it and had to submit all films to be approved before distribution could happen. • The director of The Production Code Administration had to sign off on the film before it could be distributed • Any company who released a film without the seal of approval would be fined $25,000

10. Studio Structure • Distribution happened at a national level • Since the major 5 studios owned the means of production and distribution, they made all of the decisions and could do whatever they wanted (minus the production codes) • To ensure high quality films, emphasis was put into what they could easily control: quality of equipment, techniques, photography, staging, and costumes.

11. Here’s how the magic happened • Writers: scripts were prepared in detail even down to the shot types (writers were present during shooting); as many as 20 writers worked on a single script. • Producers: approved the screenplay and cast the actors. • Producers or studio managers: selected art directors, composers, cameramen, and editors. • Directors: might help cast minor roles or make changes in writing, rehearse the actors, etc. • Head of the studio made the big decisions (or any decisions for that matter) • From 1930 to 1945, 7,500 feature films were made with every aspect of production carefully controlled by the studios. • What is different about that today? • What are the positives of the studio system? • What are the negatives of the studio system? (highlight 2 of each in your notes)

12. About the Studios • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: known for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind. A major visual style of films from this studio had high-key lighting (3 point lighting system using a key light, fill light, and backlight) and amazing production design. Considered the richest and most prestigious. • Paramount: considered the most European (many filmmakers came from Europe to work for Paramount). Made Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plus many Marx Brothers comedies, Cary Grant, and W.C. Fields films.

13. Studios cont’d • Warner Bros.: Studio of the working class, specializing in low-life melodramas and musicals. Usually set in the Great Depression. Imposed a strict code of production efficiency on its directors, technicians, and stars. Director-in-chief at the time won three Academy Awards for production efficiency in the 1930s. • 20th Century Fox: 3rd most profitable studio. Had a reputation for hard, glossy surfaces produced through careful budgeting and production control and the best special effects department. Produced the most Technicolor features through 1949. Known for Shirley Temple films.

14. Studios cont’d • RKO: the smallest of the major studios. RKO stopped production entirely in 1957 since it was sold to a non-film company. A financially unstable film studio through the 30s and 40s. A risk taking studio. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made it their home. RKO did a lot of musicals, literary adaptations, brilliant stop-motion photography and special effects, and made Walt Disney films. Known for making Citizen Kane and many other excellent films. The film studio went under after Howard Hughes took over.

15. Le Million by René Clair • Musicals were famous in France during the 30s as well. He was a writer and director. He made many experimental and avant-garde films like Entr’acte. • He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He went on to make some of the most innovative early sound films in France, before going abroad to work in the UK and USA for more than a decade. • Le Million was the second sound film he made.

16. Le Million (1931) • Employs a whole range of nonnaturalistic effects on the sound track. Most historians feel that this is the best European musical comedy of the period between the wars. • While being hounded by creditors, a debt-ridden artist discovers he has just won a lottery worth a million Dutch florins. Realizing that he has left the ticket in the pocket of his jacket, he attempts to retrieve it but discovers that his fiancé Beatrice has given away the jacket to a criminal in order to elude the police.