Hollywood - The Silent Era - Essay Example

In the beginning, Fort Lee, New Jersey was the first Hollywood, until real Hollywood took its rightful place in the filmmaking industry. During this time, independents and large film companies had bitter and sometimes violent clashes. The main themes of this program are the universal appeals of silent films across the world and the success of moviemaking in Hollywood, because of its fitting climate and environment.

#3 Single Beds and Double
This program shows the negative effects of successful films on actors. Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle is one of the most despised comedian actors, who later on became charged and acquitted of manslaughter. The need to regulate the movie industry’s unsuitable scenes emerged and filmmakers practiced self-censorship through following Hollywood's Production Code.

#4 Hollywood Goes To War
Hollywood produced numerous successful movies about the war, which expanded the motion industry further. These films showed imagination and realism in depicting the causes and effects of war. They included wonderful scenes and breathtaking actions.

#5 Hazard Of The Game
This program focuses on the lives of several well-known stuntmen. They were the people behind exciting action and gag scenes. The themes are underpaid and underappreciated stuntmen and the rise of dangerous stunts.

#6 Swanson And Valentino
This program profiles Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino. It shows the difference between appearance and reality. These actors are successful in real life and had charming personalities, but their film characters clashed with their true personalities.

#7 The Autocrats
This program focuses on two of Hollywood's best directors, Cecil B. DeMille and Erich Von Stroheim. They had similar perfectionist attitudes, but DeMille worked within the system while Von Stroheim fought against it. It showed the role of bureaucracy in Hollywood.

#8 Comedy-A Serious Business
This program illustrates the comedy geniuses of Harry Langdon, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin. The main themes are comedy as a serious business and comedians as intelligent and creative actors.

#9 Out West
This program is about the portrayal of the Wild West in Hollywood cinema. It shows panoramic views and action scenes that are products of hard work and planning.
#10 The Man With The Megaphone Standards
This program shows the difficulties of filming indoor scenes outside. Directors showed amazing patience, flexibility, and planning skills, as they tried to control the weather and other environmental conditions.

#11 Trick Of The Light
Camera tricks emerged and improved the effects of the scenes and characters on the audience. They are products of collaboration between art directors and photography directors.

#12 Star Treatment
Journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns stresses that it is important to have character, which includes self-control. Studios made and broke cinema superstars, not just the audience.
#13 End Of An Era
The era ended because former successful actors and directors could not or would not fit the demands of films with sound. Using sound changed and destroyed Hollywood. It changed Hollywood’s depiction of scenes and plots and destroyed the universality of Hollywood films. Read More