Obs Studio Download ((FULL)) Crackeado
Doria Mayberry
In this episode of The Crack-Up series, which explores how 1919 shaped the modern world, film historian David Bordwell discusses two big changes in the American film industry in 1919: the revolt of film stars against the powerful studio system, and Paramount's response, which was to try and control the "product" from creation to point of consumption. He goes on to look at how these creative and commercial tensions still play out today.
Most stars were content to either simply take their salary from a production company, a studio, or they would set up their own production company but then contract it to the studio. So they were somewhat more independent, those other stars, but they were still working through the studio system. What the UA figures decided to do was essentially bypass the studio system and go straight to the theaters.
But this came, as you say, at a time when the industry is consolidating. Theater chains are being created, big chains, and they depended on the star vehicles for sure. But they also depended on a steady and reliable output of product. If you own a theater in 1919, you're probably showing four to seven movies a week because unlike today, movies changed much more frequently. So they needed a lot of product. And the studios grew up in order to supply that steady stream of product. The star vehicles were the golden items on the list, but most films were not star vehicles in the same sense, and exhibitors just demanded something to put on the screen.
But at the same time what the studios and their distributors did was execute a policy which is loosely called today "block booking." It's more complicated than this, but basically if you owned a theater, you would have to take a batch of films, sometimes as many as a whole year's output from a studio, in order to get the prime items.
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