Features of the Hollywood Studio System

The Hollywood Studio system, had a big role in the success of the Classic Hollywood era. It was formed in the 1920's when during the Golden Age, eight companies created the 'major studios' that created the Hollywood Studio system. The biggest studios at this time were grouped into two groups called The Big 5 and The Little 3. During the Classic Hollywood era, production companies would have to do something called 'block booking', where the studio would sell multiple films they have made as a unit. One of these movies would usually be an A-list popular movie and the rest would be B-list movies with less budget.

The Hollywood Studio System was made of eight different companies which were separated into two different groups called The Big 5 and The Little 3.
The Big 5 consists of:
-MGM
-Paramount
-Warner Brothers
-RKO
-and Fox
{Explain what the little 3 is}The Little 3 consists of:
-Universal
-Columbia
-and United Artists

Vertical Integration is when the production company has complete ownership of the production, distribution and exhibition of the film. This means they receive all of the profits made.
Horizontal Integration is when the production company expands into other areas of one industry. so this means the company is able to develop in particular areas of the production, or the can buy another company that is able to deal with these areas. The studio system was solely seen using vertical integration, which was seen being used by the Big 5. It was more likely for the Little 3 to use the horizontal integration.

Warner Bros: explain briefly how it was formed, who is in charge and what roles they all have, the genre of films they make and the actors they generally use
Warner Bothers was founded on April 4th 1923. It is one of the most respected and successful studios in the world. It all began when the brothers (Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack L Warner) brought their company together in 1923. Warner Bros. had particular genres. Up to the mid-1930's and onward, mew genres were formed such as 'the swashbuckler cycle', 'the biopic' and later on 'film noir'. One of Warner Bros' most famous actors was Bette Davis who joined them in 1932 and stayed with them for years to come. Today, their most commonly used actors consist of people like Mark Christopher Lawrence and Scott Krinsky.
Warner Bros' production company uses vertical integration, so they have complete control over the production.

Paramount is another production company in the Big 5. It is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world. It was founded in 1912. Adolph Zukor, Jesse L Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille are credited as Paramount's principal founding fathers. Brad Grey is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Other executives include Rob Moore, Frederick Huntsberry, Adam Goodman and Amy Powell. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, Paramount Studios had a very European sophisticated taste for films. Paramount's genres in this time were comedies, westerns, cutting-edge, bioptic films, documentary-style and war films. Paramount's films were largely male-dominated, fast moving and very cutting-edge. The early stars of Paramount were classics such as Mae West, Mary Pickford, Gary Cooper and Alan Ladd along with so many others. An extremely popular Paramount director is Alfred Hitchcock who created the famous film 'Psycho' (1960) and also 'Vertigo' (1958), another classic.
Paramount Pictures, like Warner Bros, used and still uses vertical integration meaning they have full control over their production. For example, Hitchcock would have full control of the making of Psycho.

Universal Studios is a member of the Little 3. It was founded on April 30th 1912. It was first founded by Carl Laemmle who was the President of the studios. He gave up daily needs to begin forming the studio. He was part of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust which took fees from exhibitors so they could make and show their films. Laemmle avoided payment by producing his own pictures. He started with the Yankee Film Company with two partners. This eventually evolved into the Universal Studios which we know today.
In the Classic Hollywood Era, Universal made very low-budget horror movies such as Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). They also made westerns with director Tod Browning and W.C Fields and Abbott and Costello comedies.
Actors who were seen a lot in Universal movies were Colin Clive Boris Karloff and Mae Clarke.
Universal Studios produced and distributed their movies, but however didn't own their own theatres. This means Universal had horizontal integration.


United Artists was founded February 5th 1919 and another member of the Little 3. The founders included Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W Griffith, the four leading figures of their time. Their film genres was generally varied from Romance to Comedy to Westerns. United Artists gave actors the opportunity to be in control of their own careers as actors often felt owned by their studio. The founders of the company were often in their movies. U.A created some famous films such as The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), A Woman Of Paris (1923) and one of the most famous films, West Side Story (1969).
United Artists had horizontal integration since they did not own the entire company, only the production and distribution.

Hollywood played an extreme part during the Great Depression. Even during this time, hundreds of people still went to the cinema. The industry had financial issues when it came to paying for the theaters and converting their films in sound. In 1933 40% of the movie attendance had fallen. To solve this problem, the industries had to trim the salaries, production costs and close a third of the nations theaters. There was a noticeable change to the genres and characters of the movies during the early years of the Depression. Gangsters, prostitutes, sleazy politicians and lawyers were the kind of characters in films around this time. The types of movies made were commonly gangster movies or films about money or politics. People found seeing these movies a form of escapism to forget the problems around them. At this time of the Depression, the most realistic films were ones regarding social problems, a lot of these films by Warner Bros or Columbia Pictures.

The fall of the Studio System took a long period of time from the late 1940's to the late 1960's. It all began in the post war era. There was the Supreme Court decision in 1948 which is said to be the beginning of the end for the Studio System, United States v. Paramount Pictures. This decision banned block booking which is when a studio would sell multiple films to a movie theatre at once. This caused the studios to be a lot more selective in the films they sold, therefore making an increase in the production value and more freedom to independent filmmakers. The Little 3 greatly benefited from this change while The Big 5 didn't as they did not own their own theater chain.
The growth of television popularity was putting a great deal of pressure on the film industry. Short programs, news programs and cartoons slowly took  over TV. The showing of late night movies therefor made for less audiences at the movie theatres. Studios reacted by filming their movies in colour and started using wide screen and stereo sound. However television was proving to be unstoppable and the rates of movie theatre attendance was dropping at a rapid speed.
The star system fell when established stars began to refuse roles they did not want, resulting in studios becoming more selective and demanding with contracts.


Conclusion
The current system uses synergy. Particularly Casino Royale  and Spider Man 3 who use something called Sony Synergy. Both these movies contain content from Sony. The films are distributed by Sony Pictures, the Spider Man games are made for PSP and Playstation 2, both Sony products. Casino Royale uses product placement with the Sony Vaio notebook, Cyber Shot Camera and Ericson phone and the soundtracks for the Spiderman movies are from Sony Music Entertainment. In todays system, companies like Sony can spread their company using synergy. It enhances the companies image and increases profit.
The current system also uses horizontal integration. Almost every studio will not have their own theater chain. Every system has several common actors in their films, those actors usually being A-List. For example, the production company Marvel Studios commonly sticks to the same actors, (Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansen etc.). Almost every studio will be horizontally integrated. Compared to the old studio system, where some studios would prefer vertical and create everything for themselves. Studios today would rather hire other companies to do certain parts of the work as they can afford to pay for the work to be done (granted that it is within their budget).

Memento

Memento 

Memento is a film directed by Christopher Nolan. The protagonist is Leonard Shelby. A man who has a condition named anterograde amnesia that gives him the inability to recreate memories, after his wife was attacked. The film opens with a reversed scene of a man who we later learn is Lenny shaking a Polaroid picture of a man who has just been killed which is later revealed to be Teddy. The reverse filming makes it so the Polaroid is fading back into white. The black and white clips are in chronological order, while the colour scenes are in reverse order in between different black and white scenes. The audience sympathize with Lenny when they first hear his story, before the story of what Lenny has done is fully revealed. At the end of the movie, the audience tend to have mixed feelings on how the feel about Lenny. The layout of the film puts the audience in the point of view of Lenny and the audience will learn something new at the same time as Lenny learns it. This helps the audience to relate to how anterograde amnesia affects Lenny’s mind. Not only do we learn information as Lenny does, we also follow Lenny for the entirety of the movie and we hear his thoughts.

By the end of the film, it is unknown if the audience learn everything there is to know about Lenny's story. The audience are left wondering who is telling the truth and who is lying. The audience’s feelings towards Leonard change due to how the film ends. Teddy claims that Sammy Jankis is a fraud and that Leonard's wife survived the attack and is also diabetic. Leonard chooses to forget everything Teddy has told him and decides to choose Teddy as his next target. After learning that Leonard has killed previously, and seeing him kill Jimmy Grantz, we are left with a lot of unanswered questions. Did Leonard cause his wife to overdose therefore killing her? Is his wife still alive? Was Teddy lying the whole time?

The sympathy the audience has for Leonard at the beginning and during the film dramatically changes towards the end of the film after discovering what according to Teddy, 'really' happened.

Leonard's condition is interpreted in a number of different physiological theories, one of these theories being Sigmund Freud’s theory. Freud believed that there are three stages we go through as we grow up. The first being the Id, the pleasure principle which we are born with. During the first few months of life, when babies have a need such as being hungry, thirsty or just want attention, babies will cry for it until their needs are met. Babies are not aware at this point of other people's needs.

The second stage is the Ego. This begins to develop during the third year of life. The child will begin to be more interactive and they will begin to develop more of a personality. The ego is based on the reality principle. The child will begin to understand that people have needs of their own and that being selfish can be harmful in the future.

The third stage is the Super Ego. This develops from the age of five and above. This is the end of the conscious development.  The superego is the moral part of a person. The moral and ethical part which considers everyone else's needs.

As a grown up, we will often find our Super Ego and Id will clash against each other. The Super Ego works as the role of the represent as it is the moral side of us that helps repress things that the ego wants.  For example we might want to do a certain act that we know would hurt someone but our Super Ego will fight against this need because of the result the act would have.

In terms of Lenny, we can see that due to his condition, he has lost the use of the Super Ego. There is a possibility of Lenny still having his Ego, but it is over ridden by the pleasure principle which is for him to avenge his wife's death. In the unconscious are the repressed memories. Lenny seems to purposely repress certain memories and tries to forget them to create an alternate reality for himself to live for. Those memories being the apparent truth about what happened to his wife, that he had already killed John G and the truth about Sammy Jankis. This links back to the end of the film. 'Do I lie to myself to be happy?' We see Lenny burn the photos of Jimmy Grantz and the photo Teddy claimed to take after Lenny killed the real John G.

It can be argued that Lenny does no longer have a Reality Principle as he is only focused on his task of killing John G in his Pleasure Principle. There is also the argument that Lenny has created his own reality with information that he believes to be true, linking with repressed memories. He blocks out the truth and makes up his own.

Since Lenny can only remember a few minutes at a time before forgetting completely due to anterograde amnesia, his method of remembering is by taking pictures with a Polaroid camera and writing important notes on them. Another method he uses is tattooing key words and 'facts' all over his body to create a ‘fact file’. However, the ‘facts’ he puts on his body, may not be completely true. Which links to his repression. It is likely that Lenny repressed certain facts to manipulate the story to how he wants to believe it. By tattooing fake facts on his body, he is creating his own reality and totally disregarding the truth.

Carl Jung was a supporter of Freud because of their shared interest in the unconscious. Initially Jung followed Freud's theory of the unconscious but later developed his own theory on the unconscious to include some new ideas. The most important is the archetype which structures the collective unconscious, which Jung believed is not developed but rather inherited. The archetypes are pre-existent forms created by everyday forms such as the parents, husband or wife.

There are three important archetypes called the animus, anima and the shadow. The anima is a man’s unconscious feminine image he has within himself. This is the same for all men. At a certain stage in a male's life, he will want to free himself from the anima fascination he has with his mother.

The animus is the opposite, a woman's unconscious masculine image.

Lenny masks himself from the outer world as vulnerable and weak, due to his condition and the story of his wife's attack, in an attempt to gain sympathy from others. This persona is the mask that conceals his true self.

Within his unconscious lays his Anima and the Shadow. Natalie could be seen as the motherly figure to Lenny, therefore Lenny could arguably project his anima onto Natalie. Another theory is that since his wife's death, Natalie has been the only womanly figure in his life at this point. So therefore projecting him anima on her.

Lenny's shadow is filled with repressed memories and things he is possibly ashamed of. His shadow will contain the repressed memories of the truth of Sammy Jankis, the information Teddy reveals to him about his wife surviving the assault and that she had diabetes and that he had already previously killed the real John G a year previously.

From watching the film, I think that Lenny is hiding a dangerous personality and he is using fear and vulnerability to mask it. At certain points in the film, I can see aspects of Lenny’s dangerous personality coming through his mask. For example, when he murders Teddy and Jimmy, and when he beats up Dod. Another example is when Teddy reveals everything to Lenny about him previously murdering another John G a year previous. Lenny is not fazed by this at all and this makes him look potentially dangerous.

Jung believed in a process called the ‘Individuation Process’. Individuation means becoming your own self or self-realization. It is the development of lifelong personality from birth to death. The ‘Individuation Process’ was separated into three parts, the maternal stage, the paternal stage, and the wholeness stage.

The maternal stage is the dependence of the parents, which can last for up to thirty years. The parents give support and encouragement to their child to help them develop. However, life’s tough reality can be blocked out at this stage. By the end of the first stage, people develop to do things for themselves that others would once do for them. This transitions them into the next stage.

The paternal stage is where the adapting and adjusting takes place. The reality principle is seen in this stage. Consequences for actions taken are learnt, typically taught by the paternal figure, commonly the father. The person is exposed to the truth of living in the world. There are consequences and strict conditions. For the person, their world has changed from ideal to reality.

The wholeness stage consists of three tasks. Becoming an independent individual and understanding the reality of the human existence, the ego answering to the psyche rather than a voice from the outer world, and finding something worth living for rather than working for survival.

In terms of the film, parts of the first and third stage of the ‘Individuation Process’ link to Lenny after the assault. He believes that avenging his wife’s death and killing her second murderer is what he now lives for. He does not listen to anyone around him. His ego listens to his inner voice, the psyche and not the outer world (e.g. Teddy).  Natalie can be perceived as the maternal figure in Lenny’s life.

“She has also lost someone. She will help you out of pity.”

Richard Wollheim believed in a method called Event Memory. Wollheim had a memory of accidentally driving his jeep into the German Line during World War II. He said he felt ‘terrified, lost and lonely’. However, when he recalls the memory, the emotions are ‘different from how he felt on the night it happened as now’, he feels ridiculous that he drove his jeep into the German Line, and he found comfort and reassurance and relief that the soldiers did not kill him when they found him. The emotions associated with this particular memory would be ‘anger’ and ‘embarrassment’. Time can effectively change the emotions felt from when the event happened and when the memory is thought about over time. So they will look back at this memory and find it funny and feel silly for it.

However, Lenny does not react in the same way. When he remembers the event of his wife being attacked and Lenny getting knocked out by one of the attackers, the event will instil emotions of shock, guilt, devastation, anger, the desire for revenge and to avenge his wife's death.

These emotions are expressed in anger, hatred, and the urge for revenge. Normally overtime, if someone has been through this event, they would mourn their loss, have positive thoughts about their lost one and have the feeling of relief that they survived. However Lenny cannot make new memories or emotions so he will always feel the initial emotions he felt when the attack happened.

‘How can I heal if I can’t feel time?’- Lenny

‘I can’t remember to forget you’ - Lenny

When watching Memento and applying all the psychoanalytic theories to Lenny’s character, as an audience, we can learn to understand his ‘condition’, (anterograde amnesia) better. I think Memento manages to put us in the shoes of Lenny really well. We learn new information as Lenny does, even with the film scattered in a different order, new information is exposed to Lenny and the audience consecutively.