1. The Golden Age of Hollywood Independent Cinema

2. Golden Age of Hollywood  Late 1920s (The Jazz Singer) to early 1960s  Unwritten set of rules dictate these films  Style/content are expected from the audience  Still exists in many films today

3. Studio System  Five (5) major studios dominated the films made  An assembly-line process for filmmaking with contracted directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, etc.  Fostered the idea of the “star,” an actor/actress who drove audiences to the theater

4. Classical Style  Focus on the narrative of the film  Three-act structure with a problem (Act 1), working through the problem (Act 2), and resolution (Act 3).  Time is linear (with perhaps a flashback)  Classical editing techniques  Matching action, etc. that maintains sense of time and space  180º rule and a focus on mise en scene

5. Development of the Genre  Conventions or rules are established for classic genres:  Western  Slapstick  Screwball  Musical  Animation  Biopic  War  Film noir

6. Changes in the 1950s-1960s  End of the Hays Production Code  Spread of television  Foreign influences (auteur theory)  Acting styles changed (i.e. Method)  Film schools started to produce filmmakers  Some directors (Hitchcock, Welles, Ford) had been able to develop an individual style within the Studio System  Political change which influenced audiences and what they wanted from film

7. Independent Cinema (aka the New Hollywood)  A feature film produced mostly outside a major studio  More limited releases  More idiosyncratic to the filmmaker (remnant of auteur theory)  Brought on by the rise of the film festival/alternative forms of distribution  Horror films (Night of the Living Dead)

8. 1990s and Independent Film  Indie films found commercial success  Sex, Lies and Videotape; Clerks; The Shawshank Redemption; Pulp Fiction  Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Soderberg, David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Wes Anderson became synonymous with their films and their unique styles

9.  Does Classic Hollywood still exist?  Do audience expectations drive filmmaking or do filmmakers dictate how films are made?  Is Slumdog Millionaire a classic movie or an independent film?