Introduction to Film Studies

Study Notes

The module covers the history of Hollywood, focusing on its development, including the coming of sound, the studio system's evolution, and the Classical Hollywood narrative.
Three-act and five-act structures are discussed as narrative types within film.
Hollywood's origins in the early 20th century are located in Southern California, responding to factors such as desired climate and avoidance of fees from Tomas Edison.
The key figure in early Hollywood was Cecil B. DeMille.
Early Hollywood actors include Charlie Chaplin.
By the 1920s, Hollywood was a dominant force in the US film industry.
The 1930s marked the "Golden Age of Hollywood", with 65% of the US population attending cinema weekly.
Notable genres of this era included action, musicals, documentaries, social statements films, comedies, western and horror movies.
Key directors, actors, and actresses of this period are discussed such as Laurence Olivier, Shirley Temple, and director John Ford.

Highlights the period from 1960s to 1980s as the post-classical age in filmmaking.
The period witnessed changes in narration and story-telling methodologies.
Shift to highly skilled professionals, especially from the West, in Hollywood's production and distribution.
The movie Bonnie and Clyde (1967) marked a significant turning point in Hollywood's paradigm shift
The rise of blockbuster movies had a huge impact.

Edison's phonograph enabled early synchronization of sound and image; this early implementation proved to be rudimentary in use.
Inventors in the 1900's experimented with synchronized sound recordings onto film strips.
Oskar Messter pioneered the use of synchronized musical scores in film between 1903 and 1908.
Eugene Lauste's 1910 sound on film invention laid the foundation for a RCA photo phone.

Key challenges included synchronizing sound and image, as well as amplifying sound for larger audiences, and recording methods.
Record formats for sound, initially phonograph cylinders and discs, were relatively short in duration as compared to cinema film length.

Early attempts to introduce sound in cinema faced resistance amongst studios, who weren't convinced of the costs for conversion.
1927 marked a turning point with significant production costs towards sound.
Studios like Warner Brothers showed early adoption of sound on-disc technology.
The 1926 agreement was an important first step in the production of sound film.

Conversion to sound required significant investment in new equipment and facilities.
Actors and actresses often required retraining.
Microphones struggled to capture all possible sounds.
Lighting became a problem with conversion too.

A 1927 agreement among major film studios (MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., etc.) standardized sound on film technology.
The high cost of converting to sound meant that only the biggest studios could afford it.