Classical Hollywood & Animation Golden Age

Classical Hollywood
a period of time between the 1920s to the late 1950s, considered the golden age of Hollywood.
The golden age refers to the production values, style and distribution of films made under the Hollywood Studio System.

The Big 5 Studios
Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Paramount Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures
20th Century FOX

The Little 3 Studios
Universal Studios
Columbia
United Artists

The Studio System
The Studio System was a system that enabled the biggest studios in Hollywood to have total control of the movie they made and how they would be distributed. This is known as vertical integration, because the studio controlled the supply chain from production to exhibition.

The Motion Picture Producers and Distribution Association (MPPDA)
In 1922, Paramount and the other 4 major studios brought together their power within the United States and internationally through the establishment of a trade body. This was made to:

• Neutralise the increasing moral panic over the disreputable nature of the movies with a voluntary production code.
• Encourage co-operation between the major studios, effectively barring entry to new competitors and restricting international access to the huge and profitable US market.
• Work with the US states Department to lobby overseas governments who threatened to introduce restrictions on Hollywood imports.

Block Booking
Block Booking was an important part of the studio system, A studio would sell a years worth of films to theaters as a unit. These unit would include only one attractive, A-budget movie that the theaters really wanted and the rest of the rest of the world would be a mix of A-budget pictures of dubious quality and lower budgeted B-movies.
The Big 5 studios had controlling stakes in their own theaters chains, which were exempt from block booking.
In 1948, the verdict in the antitrust case United States vs. Paramount Pictures, inc the decision outlawed the practice of block booking and forced the studios to sell their their theater chains.

The Hays Code

The Star System
The studios were also infamous for 'owning' their stars. This system meant that the stars were employees of the studios that they were working for and were bound to them in contracts.
The studio would build an image around the star.
The contract usually had morality clauses, in the hop that it would keep the actors from using drugs, commuting adultery and other indiscretions that could ruin their image.
This would result in the actors feeling 'owned' by the studios and were frustrated that they did not have the ability to choose their own work. The studios sometimes 'lent' out their stars to other studios.

Techniques common to classic Hollywood Films
Narrative Structure
Continuity Editing
Establishing Shot
Shot/Reverse Shot
180 Degree Rule
30 Degree Rule
Match on Action
Eye-line Match

Golden Age of American Animation

Disney
Steamboat Willie (1928) The film that introduced Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie was a synchronized sound film based of the sound feature film The Jazz Singer (1927)
The Skeleton Dance (1929) The first of shorts called Silly Symphonies, These shorts would star optimistic characters that gave audiences a lift during the great depression.
Three Little Pigs (1933) The most Successful of the Silly Symphonies, it won an Oscar for best short film.
The Wise Little Hen (1934) Another short of The Silly Symphonies. Notable first appearance of Donald Duck.
The Old Mill (1936) This film was to test out techniques in establishing realism in animation, it contains realistic looking animals and the natural world along with natural sounding effects.
Feature Films
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Fantasia (1941)
Dumbo (1941)
Bambi (1942)
Cinderella (1950)
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Peter Pan (1953)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Fleischer Studios

Betty Boop (1930)

Popeye the Sailor (1933)

Gulliver's Travels (1939)

Superman (1941)

Rotoscope
Max Fletcher invent the Rotoscope which enabled animators to draw figures, frame by frame, over filmed action, thereby creating more life-like movement.

Warner Bros.

Daffy Duck (1937) First appeared in Porky's Duck Hunt

Bugs Bunny (1938) First appeared in Porky's Hare Hunt

Knock Knock (1940) Created by Walter Lantz who ran his own studio from 1929 to 1972. in the 1940's, Ben Hardaway, who created Daffy and Bugs joined Lantz Studios Knock Knock introduced his most popular creation Woody Woodpecker.

Characters

Tex Avery and his team reinvented animation by taking the developments that had been made in character animation and pushing them to the limits with a extreme and exaggerated style.

Warner Bros created the following

• Daffy Duck
• Bugs Bunny
• Porky Pig
• Speedy Gonzales
• Wile E. Coyote
• Road Runner
• Sylvester the Cat
• Foghorn Leghorn

Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Tom and Jerry (1940) Created By William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Tom and Jerry originally called Puss gets the Boot with a cat called Jasper trying to catch a mouse.

Mighty Mouse (1942) Created by Paul Terry