Project

1. HOLLYWOOD
The Hollywood Film Industry or The American Film Industry is one of the global
proportions. Production, Film distribution
and Exhibition reach around the world and
continue to adapt to the varying Political,
Economic and Technological changes.
Hollywood however continues to be a
dominant factor in our film viewing
experiences. Even if we choose not to watch
Hollywood movies, the chances that we will
encounter Hollywood marketing through
accessing other media (trailers on TV,
internet, Video game tie-ins), walking
through town (posters), listening to radio (film adverts,’ exclusive’
interviews/promotions), listening to music (‘official’ soundtracks), catching the bus
(advertising hoardings), eating breakfast cereal (free toys/promotions inside), going
to bed (‘Spiderman’ pyjamas) etc. Considering that Hollywood remains a suburb of
Los Angeles, California, its reach and saturation remains global and unavoidable.
Our own experiences will play an important role in this study: the magazines and
newspapers we read, our conversations with friends and family, the DVDs we buy
and films we watch and download. These experiences confirm the presence of the
film industry as a worldwide commercial fact.
• Aside from Hollywood, what other film industries are you aware of?
When one hears the word’ Hollywood’, the first thing that pops in mind is movies.
There’s a reason why Los Angeles became the center of motion pictures. It all
started with a few independent studios that ventured as far away as possible from
“the trust”, mainly Thomas Edison and his lawsuits, and so they headed to L.A. to
distribute, produce, and exhibit their movies. The fact that Los Angeles was far
away from New York helped make it the home for independent film studios. Even
though there was still a presence of the major film studios in Los Angeles, it was not
till after independent film studios realization of the positive aspects about L.A.’s
location that Hollywood was finally established. The four major positive aspects
were basically the fact that L.A. was sunny all year long, the property was
inexpensive, it was an open shop town, and of course the variety of locations and
geography. These conditions made it perfect for any studio to shoot movies. Soon
almost every studio be it major or independent wanted to settle there, making
Hollywood full of film factories.
Once Hollywood became the center of the film industry in the US, a system
had to be established which introduces us to the studio system. The system was first
and foremost designed to ensure the cost and quality of the movies being produced.
Having a system made Hollywood a much more organized film industry than
anywhere else in the world. There was a clear division of labour from the producer,
to the screenwriter to the actors and director. All screenplays had to be approved
by the producer and established a kind of guideline and draft of what the end
product will be. Soon MGM, Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, and Warner
Bros. were leading the film industry in a well-defined system. Smaller studios like

2. Universal Studios, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures were also rising to take
their share of the evolving industry. The age of Edison was coming to an end, and a
new entrepreneur with high expectation, Adolf Zukor, took control of Paramount
Pictures and tried to lead the studio system.
Once in charge of Paramount he added a practice to the system known as block
booking. The idea of block booking was to sell multiple films to theatres ahead of
time in one quantity. This ensured that the studios would gain profits ahead of time
and that theatres would have films to play all year long. As a result 90% of movies
shown in the US were American movies and due to a large domestic audience
being such a large country, profits were higher than anywhere else in the world.
However, Hollywood with its studio system and great qualities for shooting movies
wasn’t the capital of the film industry in the US alone. In fact, its success became
worldwide.
Having a broad based US culture, there was a sudden wide appeal and
people all over the world became suddenly interested in Hollywood movies. As for
European cinema, while they were still in competition, the effects of World War
destroyed the European film industries. It was mainly due to the conversion to
propaganda films. Therefore, while Europe was suffering from the war trying to
focus on propaganda instead of the film industry, Hollywood was growing with a
strong system and eventually became the leading film industry of the world.
European cinema tried to make a comeback but was never able to achieve the
heights of the Hollywood system, and to this day, Europe has failed to recover from
the effects of WWI on their film industries placing Hollywood ahead of their time.
Now Hollywood leading the way with its 6 major institutions which are:
· Warner Bro’s Picture’s
· 20th Century Fox
· Universal Studios
· Columbia Picture’s
· Walt Disney Studio’s
· Paramount