Classical Hollywood

Classical Hollywood was a very different industry from the Hollywood we're used to today. Perhaps the biggest difference; the one that seems most important to me, as it's the hardest to wrap my mind around, is the system of production Classical Hollywood employed. The system could most readily be compared to an assembly line, "Fordist" in nature- everything was assembled on sight. There would be a room filled with writers working on scripts, right next to a room filled with editors working on their latest films, right next to a sound stage with actors and directors working on their next film. This assembly line system was highly efficient, and allowed studios to put out far more films than they can now, albeit oftentimes at the expense of quality. The system also tended to marginalize the input of everyone but the actors, who served as the face of filmmaking. Today, something like The Social Network is advertised as a David Fincher film with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. This provides an interesting contrast to Casablanca, considered one of the greatest films of all time, yet whose director, Michael Curtiz, is hardly a household name.

The assembly line system also affected the kinds of films Hollywood produced. The system was all about efficiency, and creativity often fell by the wayside in the process. This helped foster the creation of clear-cut genres, such as the crime genre, or the western. These films tended to be rather similar to each other, playing on what audiences both expected and wanted. There were exceptions, of course, but a large portion of the many films Hollywood produced could be easily categorized by design. Certain actors even tended to be associated with certain genres, such as Humphrey Bogart, who was expected to play the "hard-boiled detective" type. Casablanca may seem to defy categorization, but the film is really a combination of multiple clearly defined genres, most notably romance and war films. As well, Bogart, though not a detective, brought many of his familiar qualities to the film.

The picture used in this post can be found here:
http://legendsrevealed.com/entertainment/2009/05/15/movie-legends-revealed-5/

See, a picture! I lived up to my word on this one.