a vast expansion of Hollywood and worldwide film making and audience. Production increasingly focused on the feature ‘blockbuster’ film rather than the short "two-reeler." (This change began with the long D.W. Griffith epics of Rise of Nations and Intorlance)
Larger studios took over smaller ones, creating the Studio System that would run American film making until the 1960s. MGM was founded in April 1927, while Paramount were the highest-grossing studios during the period, with Fox, Universal, United Artists, and Warner Brothers making up a large part of the remaining market.
The "Picture Palaces" emerged: large urban theaters that could seat up to 2,000 viewers, with full orchestral accompaniment and decorative neo-Baroque interiors. Key genres such as the swashbuckler, horror, and modern romantic comedy flourished.
The rise of stars: e.g. Douglas Fairbanks, Ramon Novarro, Pola Negribob, Nazimova, Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford, Lilian Gish, Francis Bushman, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.
Prominent styles emerged: German Expressionism, Soviet Montage Editing, and Realism made profound aesthetic changes to film.
Also a more artistic approach to composition on the screen “mise-en-scene”(the arrangement of everything that appears in the framing – actors, lighting, décor, props, costume) shifted filmmaking away from its realist approach in earlier days.
the silent film d’art (art film) was on the rise with some famous silent films being produced: Von Sternberg's Underworld and The Last Command, Vidor's The Crowd, and Murnau's Sunrise. Erich Von Stroheim's ultra-realist films such as Greed also had a big influence.
The transition to sound-on-film technology occurred mid-decade with the talkies developed in 1926-1927. Fox Studios and the Warner Brothers were crucial in is development.
With sound, the concept of the musical appeared immediately, as in The Jazz Singer of 1927. Sound also greatly changed the Hollywood approach to storytelling, with more dependence on dialogue.
Also, in 1927, the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was formed.
The decade marked a time of frustrated romanticism of the materialistic and cynical Jazz Age, which found other outlets in the large-scale costume ad spectacle productions e.g. The Mark of Zorro (1921), The Ten Commandments (1923), and Ben Hur (1926).
a series of innovative, angular, distorted images presented by the decors all use as an outward expression of the inward thoughts of the characters
use of free-ranging camera, and its ability to use significant visual detail for psychological effects
The Jazz Singer, 1927
directed by Alan Crosland
first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era
demonstrating the profit potential of feature-length "talkies"
Fritz Lang's Metopolis, 1927
German expressionist epic science-fiction film
pioneer work of science fiction movies, in terms of its length, the genre, and the cost (5 million Reichmarks)
set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the journey of Freder to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes of their city.
features a range of elaborate special effects and set designs, ranging from a huge gothic cathedral to a futuristic cityscape
1930s
Many full-length films were produced though the decade a time of political turmoil and economic hardships. This age of uncertainty and anxiety resulted in the rise of fantastical, escapist genre. Horror and monster films were highly successful in this period.
The studio system was at its highest with studios having great control over a film's creative decision.
decade of the sound and color revolutions and the advance of the 'talkies', and the further development of film genres (gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horrors).
After 1932, the development of sound-mixing freed films from the limitations of recording on sets and locations. Scripts from writers were becoming more advanced with witty dialogue, realistic characters and plots.
The decade also marks the consolidation of Hollywood’s domination over the film industry: King Kong (1933), Cleopatra (1934), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Most of the early talkies were successful at the box-office, but many of them were of poor quality - dialogue-dominated play adaptations and an unmoving camera. Screenwriters were required to place more emphasis on characters in their scripts
Some 'firsts' in cinema history in the 1930s
One of the first 'color' films was Thomas Edison's hand-tinted short Annabell's Butterfly Dance.
In 1934, the first full-color, live-action short was released - La Cucaracha (1934).
first full-length feature film photographed entirely in three-strip Technicolor was Rouben Mamoulian's Becky Sharp (1935).
first musical in full-color Technicolor was Dancing Pirate (1936).
first outdoor drama filmed in full-color was The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936).
In 1937, Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1937) was the first feature-length animated film - a milestone.
Special-effects processes were advanced by the late 1930s, making it possible for many more films to be shot on sets rather than on-location (e.g., The Hurricane (1937) and Captains Courageous (1937).)
In 1939, two films were expensively produced with Technicolor: The Wizard of Oz (1939) - known for its
elaborate use of character make-ups and special effects in a film up to that time;and epic historical romance
Gone with the Wind (1939). The trend would continue.
Sources:
Robinson, Daivd. The History of World Cinema. 1971.
