Made up of many different film and TV studios, Hollywood is one of the most powerful businesses in the world, becoming the most popular film industry in the world and taking over the media of the western side of the world. Originating in America in Los Angeles, Hollywood have produced some of the most famous and popular films of all time.
For this blog I will be analyzing Hollywood films an Directors to explore what exactly a hollywood film theory is.
“Film theory is a generalizing practice concerned with the basic signifying procedures and underlying conventions of cinema which at its broadest would seek to account for the aesthetic, psychological and social dimensions.” (Maltby, 2003, p526)
World Building – The Avengers (2012) – Joss Whedon
The Avengers (2012) is arguably one of the biggest hollywood movie releases of the 2010’s decade. Directed by Joss Whedon of Firefly (2002-2003) and Serenity (2005) fame, The Avengers grossed over $1.5 billion dollars world wide and is currently in the top ten highest grossing films of all time list.
How did this film become a significant part of film history? The film was escalated by the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe world building. The Avengers was the 6th film in an ongoing film universe built up from four major Hollywood film franchises. This meant that the audience for The Avengers was broad with many fans eagerly anticipating what would feel like a pop culture event. The Avengers was a game changing film as it became apparent that major film studios needed to change their business plans as Marvel Studios popularized the idea of film franchise universe, which was then copied by Warner Bros ‘DC universe’ films and Universal’s short lived ‘Dark Universe’.
The Avengers also stars some of Hollywoods biggest A list actors in the world currently such as Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L Jackson. These are actors with great acting reputations in Hollywood and the ability to sell any film as they are named you already know as well as the popularity of the source material and comic book sub-culture popularity which helped put numbers in seats.
Style – Transformers (2007) – Micheal Bay
Transformers is one of Hollywoods go to franchises. While the films are often critiqued as bad movies, they became really influential for the big hollywood studios as the Transformers movies paved the way for the look of the the computer graphic era of film making. Directed by Micheal Bay, the transformers franchise became on of the most successful franchises of all time with 2 of the films from the franchise being in the list of 25 highest grossing films of all time.
The original live action Transformers film from 2007 became the staple for the style of every Hollywood film after its release. Style includes, Lens flares, digital editing, Digital camera movements, explosions, CGI characters and helped bring back the popularity of the 80s style Sci-fi and Superhero movies. Whenever you watch a Hollywood film, think of the transformers films and you will see the influence Micheal Bays famous style of explosions, erratic acting and camerawork has had on most big budget Hollywood films.
Compared to the blocky style of the Transformers toys, animated tv show and cartoon filmsof the 80s and 90s, Transformers 2007 took a different style as the design of the transformers changed to a more mechanical and believe-able style to appeal to an audience with higher expectations.
Transformers is a movie which is made to sell toys. This is proven by the amount of transformers toys which were sold after the films release.
Larger Than Life Characters – The Godfather 1972 (Francis Ford Coppola)
Arguably one of the most famous films of all time, and also in most top 10 movies of all time lists, The godfather is the literal godfather of all Hollywood films that focus on character building.
Marlon Brando, an acclaimed actor who is often considered one of the greatest actors of all time. Brando character ‘Don Vito Corleone’ really represents what hollywood look for in their films. Hollywood looks for the largest stories from larger than life characters. Characters that people can get behind, characters that the audience can relate to or characters that the audience strive to be. Brandos ‘Don Vito Corleone’ is one of the most recognizable characters in the whole of Hollywood History, Even if you haven’t seen The Godfather (1972) you have definitely seen the iconography the character has inspired. The character of Vito Corleone has also inspired and been parodied by other famous characters from Hollywood films such as Jack Nicholson and Jared Leto’s Joker from the Batman Franchise, Jabba The Hut in the Star Wars Franchise and of course every character Al Pacino has played since his role in the Godfather (1972).
In conclusion Hollywood has become the most influential film industry in the world. Every film industry outside of Hollywood is inspired by the modernity of what Hollywood are doing. This is because the Hollywood industry has mastered the formula to making films that are respected across the world with their Style, Larger than life characters and the many worlds generated from the army of famous and popular directors Hollywood has under their belt. Hollywood caters to everyone in some form or another.
DFPR3105 - Advance Specialism 