Hollywood Film Industry

Catalog description

This is a course on the history of Hollywood. It seeks to unravel Hollywood's complex workings and explains how the business and politics of the film industry translate into the art of film. We will trace the American film industry from Edison to the internet, asking questions such as: What is the relationship between Hollywood and independent film? How has the global spread of Hollywood since the 1920s changed the film industry? How has Hollywood responded to crises in American politics (e.g., world wars, the cold war, terrorism)? And how have new technologies such as synchronized sound, color cinematography, television, home video, computer graphics, and other digital technologies changed film and Hollywood? We will look closely at representative studios(Paramount, Disney, and others), representative filmmakers (MaryPickford, Frank Capra, and George Lucas, among many others), and we will examine the impact of industrial changes on the screen.