The film industry is made up of many companies who have one goal: to expand their market and come out with movies to release whether on TV or movie theaters. This goal is fueled by the desire to make more money and have profitable projects in which they establish themselves as either actors or producers. This industry has a deep-rooted history that goes all the way back to black and white films with no sound to the modern day gigantic multi-million budgeted productions.
Today, this industry supports and develops talents while entreating viewers. If we go back about 121 years, we will find that Hollywood has been producing films since then. Catching viewers’ attention can be extremely difficult, which is why there are more and more innovations being made as the years pass. Even today, a movie that was made a year ago won’t be of the same caliber or quality of a movie made this year; this is because the industry knows that in order to keep growing, it must stay up-to-date and keep innovating their content.
New techniques of filming using artificial lightning, fire effects and other types of lightning were applied. As the time past specialist writers were employed to simplify stories for a better understanding by the audience who were new to this form of storytelling. Movies started to be classified by genres and the most common were drama and comedy and till today these categories outstand.
Hollywood is now a huge industry with millions and millions of dollars; they have been able to expand their profits and gain worldwide recognition as the biggest and strongest film industry in the world. In the short period between 2009 and 2015, Hollywood managed to collect around 10 billion dollars per year, not counting outside investments. As of 2016, this company had an income of 11 billion dollars a year.
But now I want to talk about the beginning of this industry. Harvey Wilcox bought 160 acres of land in L.A and because of his wife they named the community ‘Hollywood’. Later in 1911, David Horsley purchased some land and turned it into the Nestor Film Company, the first film studio and from that moment on the first movie was released and so people continue opening filming studios. The first film ever made in Hollywood studios was ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, in 1908. Since that moment Hollywood became the perfect place make movies because of their perfect movie backdrops.
The Golden Age of Hollywood was a period with a lot of experiments and changes in the industry which brought lot distinct or prestige from all around the world to their movies and stars. It also brought establishments, the first color movie, animated cartoon movie, the first talking movie called the ‘Jazz Singer’ in 1927 and the Oscars; so, people started to name it ‘home of movies’. Everything started with dramatic films as ‘The Birth of a Nation’ in 1915 and comedies as ‘The Kid’ from Charlie Chaplin in 1921, and since those releases hundreds of genres started to appear leaving them reptation of fame and affluence; and some of the greatest movies were made in 1930. As Hollywood continuing growing, scandals including actors and actresses were talked all over America. The Golden Age of Hollywood ended in the 1960, but its legacy continued into the modern days.
Years went by and in between 1960 and 1970 Hollywood experience their second Golden Age. They stand out with a few more movies made in that period of time, leading to an entire year of successful production meanwhile other producers were suffering major losses. Once American film industry showed cultural and social responsibility filmmakers started to stand against certain controls they needed to work under.
Hollywood has many outstanding movies, but in 1972 they released one called ‘The Godfather’, which was not expected to be a successful movie by the studio, but the director fought for his goal of making a godfather look like a champion, when he really is a champion for his own benefit; for the studio surprise this film became a cinema masterpiece directed by Francis Ford Coppola changing the perspective of cinema forever, winning three Oscars, including Best Picture. This movie is about a family from the old world, which really respects the old values and grow their kids believing the same. In the movie, godfather is a term of high respect and the mentor of someone, which immediately becomes the mentor of a child who lose their parents. We can also see the kids following their parents’ tradition and a Christian connection showing that to be a godfather is an honor.
During the old Hollywood they had a lot of very talented actors and actresses that passed by leaving a trace in culture; that reason of my interest in Audrey Hepburn. She was born May 4, 1929 in Belgium, Brussels, the descendant of a family from the aristocracy of Holland. Audrey lives in Holland till she was 10 years old and afterwards she went to London because of the divorce of her parents. In London Audrey started to study dramatic arts in the Marie Rambert School. During World War II Audrey started working as a little model, this was a very tuff moment for her since due to the war one of her brothers was taken by soldiers and her uncle was killed. A Few years later she started to appear in some rolls in many movies. One day she was offered to play a film and this roll led her to win an Oscar for Best Actress. From that moment on her career as an actress started to take off, and with the time she became unstoppable winning four more Oscars with the movies ‘Breakfast at Tiffany's’, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘The Nun’s Story’, but these was not all. In 1958, she was also nominated in the San Sebastian Festival. She met Hollywood September 25, the same year she married and in 1960 her first daughter was born. For many years she retired from the film industry to take care of her child and because she taught that hiding from reality would be the perfect option and coming back was a very good decision.
In conclusion, in this essay, we can see that Hollywood films have changed a lot throughout the years, the movie industry has improved dramatically in every aspect.