The Star System

The Star System
Title The Star System PDF eBook
Author Paul McDonald
Publisher Columbia University Press
Pages 141
Release 2001-06-13
Genre Performing Arts
ISBN 0231503245

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Looks at the development and changing organization of the star system in the American film industry. Tracing the popularity of star performers from the early "cinema of attractions" to the Internet universe, Paul McDonald explores the ways in which Hollywood has made and sold its stars. Through focusing on particular historical periods, case studies of Mary Pickford, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Will Smith illustrate the key conditions influencing the star system in silent cinema, the studio era and the New Hollywood.

The Origins of the Film Star System

The Origins of the Film Star System
Title The Origins of the Film Star System PDF eBook
Author Andrew Shail
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages 424
Release 2019-05-30
Genre History
ISBN 1350111422

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Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Andrew Shail traces the emergence of film stardom in Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Modifying and supplementing Richard deCordova's account of the birth of the US star system, Shail describes the complex set of economic circumstances that led film studios and actors to consent to the adoption of a star system. He then explores the film industry's turn, from 1908, to making character-based series films. He details how these characters both prefigured and precipitated the star system, demonstrating that series characters and the 'firmament' of film stars are functionally equivalent, and shows how openly fictional characters still provide the model for 'real' film stars.

Picture Personalities

Picture Personalities
Title Picture Personalities PDF eBook
Author Richard DeCordova
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Pages 190
Release 2001
Genre Motion picture actors and actresses
ISBN 9780252070167

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Moving pictures existed for over a decade before anything resembling a star system appeared. Then American cinema went from being devoid of stars to being dependent on them. This is an account of this development in cinema and modern culture.

Stardom in Cinema, Television and the Web

Stardom in Cinema, Television and the Web
Title Stardom in Cinema, Television and the Web PDF eBook
Author Vanni Codeluppi
Publisher Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Pages 158
Release 2021-03-01
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1527566846

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In the last 50 years, the social importance of stars has steadily grown, to the point that stars have now become key role models who strongly influence people’s behaviours. This book considers the connections between the three main media (cinema, television and the web) and each of the three phases into which the history of stardom can be divided. The first phase can largely be credited with the creation and codification of contemporary stardom, while the second is linked to the spread of television, which weakened the Hollywood stardom model and gradually transformed the figure of the star, making it more intimate and familiar. In the last of these phases, we have many ‘outsiders’ (personalities from a variety of professional domains and experiences) who are able to achieve considerable social visibility thanks to their skilful use of the web.

Stars

Stars
Title Stars PDF eBook
Author Richard Dyer
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages 344
Release 2019-07-25
Genre Performing Arts
ISBN 1838718370

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Through the intensive examination of films, magazines, advertising and critical texts, Dyer analyses the historical, ideological and aesthetic significance of stars, changing the way we understand screen icons. Paying particular attention to icons including Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne.

Studios Before the System

Studios Before the System
Title Studios Before the System PDF eBook
Author Brian R. Jacobson
Publisher Columbia University Press
Pages 313
Release 2015-09-01
Genre Performing Arts
ISBN 0231539665

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By 1915, Hollywood had become the epicenter of American filmmaking, with studio "dream factories" structuring its vast production. Filmmakers designed Hollywood studios with a distinct artistic and industrial mission in mind, which in turn influenced the form, content, and business of the films that were made and the impressions of the people who viewed them. The first book to retell the history of film studio architecture, Studios Before the System expands the social and cultural footprint of cinema's virtual worlds and their contribution to wider developments in global technology and urban modernism. Focusing on six significant early film corporations in the United States and France—the Edison Manufacturing Company, American Mutoscope and Biograph, American Vitagraph, Georges Méliès's Star Films, Gaumont, and Pathé Frères—as well as smaller producers and film companies, Studios Before the System describes how filmmakers first envisioned the space they needed and then sourced modern materials to create novel film worlds. Artificially reproducing the natural environment, film studios helped usher in the world's Second Industrial Revolution and what Lewis Mumford would later call the "specific art of the machine." From housing workshops for set, prop, and costume design to dressing rooms and writing departments, studio architecture was always present though rarely visible to the average spectator in the twentieth century, providing the scaffolding under which culture, film aesthetics, and our relation to lived space took shape.

The Genius of the System

The Genius of the System
Title The Genius of the System PDF eBook
Author Thomas Schatz
Publisher Henry Holt and Company
Pages 530
Release 2015-06-02
Genre Performing Arts
ISBN 1627796452

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At a time when the studio is making a stunning comeback, film historian Thomas Schatz provides an indispensable account of Hollywood's tradional blend of business and art. This book lays to rest the persistent myth that businesspeople and producers stifle artistic talent and reveals instead the genius of a system of collaboration and conflict. Working from industry documents, Schatz traces the development of house styles, the rise and fall of careers, and the making-and unmaking-of movies, from Frankenstein to Spellbound to Grand Hotel. Richly illustrated and highly readable, The Genius of the System gives the definitive view of the workings of the Old Hollywood and the foundations of the New.