The Hollywood studio system
The Hollywood studio system was said to be created in the 'golden ages' by the collaboration of 5 different major studios, later to be known as the 'great 5'.
The Hollywood studio system is credited with creating the majority of the most iconic stars of the said, golden age.
At the beginning of the studio film production there was a special scheme or system put in place that helped the development of very talented actors and actresses. This system was called the 'star system' it included investing large amounts of money in the recruitment and training of fresh new talented stars and ending with a contract from the studio.
Breaking the sound barrier
Breaking the sound barrier was something that dramatically changed movies as the world knew it.
The use of sound in films brought the silent movie craze to a complete end in a matter or years.
'Talkies', as the films were formally known, increased the number of people who would attend film screening, not by the hundreds but by the millions.
Due to the fact that talkies were not that good technically meant that the quality of the visual aspect suffered, but this wasn't such an issue as the majority of people became fascinated with the dialogue and lyrics that were so new to them.
The first successful talking film was entitled 'The jazz singer' and was released in October in the year 1927.
The actor who starred in this production was Al Jolson who was a very popular singer of the time.
During the production he could be seen wearing black face paint. This is known as 'Blackface'
Blackface
Al Jolson from the film 'The Jazz Singer' in blackface make up.
Blackface make up was used on white people to imitate the face of a black person. In history this actually emerged in the mid 19th century and was used to put down the fear and morbid fascination with the black culture.
Black actors were not hired at the beginning of the 20th century therefore the blackface method grew very important for desensitising people.
No comments:
Post a Comment