Week 2 [Reading Notes]

Balio, Tino (1985): “Struggles for Control,1908-1930”, The American Film Industry, Revised Edition, University of Wisconsin Press: 103-131

[Notes start from page 113]

The Strand - 3,000 seat cinema, Opening night = April 14th 1914 

There was performances, orchestral accompaniment, souvenir programmes, costuming of ushers, intermissions.

The Star System

Stars provided means of differentiating product and boosted sales (p114)
It affected all 3 branches of the industry:

1. Production - Stabilised the financial side of it. The process revolved around the star - the narrative, acting, settings and lighting were all manipulated to enhance the star's qualities for their beloved fans.
2. Distribution - The star's name and image dominated the marketing strategy and provided a basis of bargaining rental price.
3. Exhibition - Ticket prices rose to keep up with the star's salaries, the film's budget and the elaborate promotional campaigns.

• Acting became the best-paid profession on earth! Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin were earning $10,000 a week!
• The system worked because the public endorsed it (p116)
• A few stars from the system including Chaplin and D.W. Griffith became independent producers. In 1919 United Artists were born and this was the Apex of the star system.

Rise of Paramount (1914)

• A former General Film exchange man named W. W. Hodkinson convinced 11 regional state's rights exchanges to join forces in 1914 to form the Paramount Pictures Corporation.
• Paramount would help producers finance and advertise their films for a 35% return on the films gross which attracted some of the best producers such as Zukor's Famous Players
• Although production costs then ranged from $10,000 - 30,000, Paramount's distribution grosses soon reached the unprecedented amounts of $100,000 - 125,000 per picture. To accommodate the growing audiences, a wave of theatre construction began across the country and as this "feature craze" spread, other national distributers entered the market. (p117)
• Hodkinson believed that the 3 branches of motion pictures should be kept separate within as better pictures, better distribution and cinema/theatre management would occur only if they were separated. (p118)

Resistance to Zukor: First National

• First National Exhibitors Circuit had 26 of the country's important exhibitors signed up to this and they owned in total : 100 theatres, 30 of which were in first-run key cities.
• If first-run exhibitors from every metropolitan area joined forces and financed independent productions and distributed them amongst their respective regions, the could assure themselves a steady supply of outstanding motion picture product (p120)
• They didn't have to waste time buying or building studios, they could spent their money on buying 'stars' --> e.g. signed Pickford from Paramount with $1m contracts.

The Industry as Big Business

• By the 1920s, the movies ranked as a major industry. The 3 branches corresponded to the manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing activities of other firms in America. It was vertically integrated.

Gomery, Douglas (1992): “The Hollywood Studio System”, in Nowell-Smith, G (1992): Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press; 43-53

• The emergence of the Hollywood studio system as a vertically integrated system can be found in the failures of the MPPC's (Motion Picture Patents Company) attempt to monopolise the film business
• MPPC was a combination of 10 leading American and European producers and manufactures of film equipment. They formed a 'Trust' to inflate prices of equipment that they alone could manufacture (p43)
• Other independent exhibitors and filmmakers differentiated their products from the Trust, making longer and more complicated narratives whilst the Trust stuck with two-reel, fifteen minute stories.
• Pre-talkies were cheap to distribute to foreign markets as only inter-titles had to be translated 
• Independent producers made their own theatres in major metropolitan cities, running their first-run films creating millions of dollars of profit which eventually merged into a system, which the MPPC had previously failed to accomplish - vertical integration. 
• From the demand from international markets and the profits being made, production of film was non-stop
• In less than 2 decades, the industry had moved from selling movies as a novelty to developing a finely-honed publicity machine to promote and entire system and its nationally advertised products. (p46)
• Stars provided an effective means of differentiating films, making each individual title an unmissable attraction.
• United Artist, formed in 1919 achieved great success with The Mark of Zorro [1920 Fairbanks], Robin Hood [1923 Fairbanks], Little Lord Fauntleroy [1921 Pickford] and the Gold Rush [1925 Chaplin] 
• Adolph Zukor's Famous Players film company became the largest film company in the world by 1921
• Marcos Loew owned MGM and Carl Laemmle owned Universal
• WWI offered the crucially opening for international distribution of Hollywood film's as it offered huge profits abroad which Zukor took lead on compared to other film company's in Hollywoods system of studio
• Zukor and Paramount had all the top stars, the most worldwide distribution and the most extensive and prestigious theatrea chain - the very model of the integrated business through which Hollywood's power was asserted (p51-2)
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