Preview

Great Depression Film Industry Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1031 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Great Depression Film Industry Essay
The film industry was able to rush in a golden age of film by capitalizing on the need for Americans to have an escape from the harsh reality of the Great Depression; they were able to provide Americans with this escape from reality by utilizing the best of technological innovation of the time which included sound and color films. The film industry created an environment where Americans could pay a small amount of money to sit down and enjoy a film that took them away from the bleak times of the depression. During the Great Depression countless business and even entire industries went bankrupt and fell into financial ruin, but not the film industry. During the Great Depression the film industry was one of the most profitable industries in America; this high profitability sent the film industry …show more content…
The technological advancements, such as sound and color, were leaps and bounds in advancement compared to the silent picture shows that started the film industry. Film studios were able to immerse the audience with sound and involve another sense in the movie process. This added depth to movies that had never been present before. Film studios then added color which brought fantasy lands, such as the Land of Oz, to life. This added another dimension to films. The combination of these technological innovations allowed film studios to create a real life experience. This experience gave the audience a place to go to leave the Great Depression behind. The golden age of film in America was fostered by the technological innovations in film at the time coupled with the need of a an escape from the overwhelming harsh realities of the Great

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Wizard Of Oz Analysis

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The most notable achievement for the film is it being the first film to use Technicolor. This transition from films only being in Black and White to full color sets a large milestone in achievements for the movie industry having created a new expectation of what can be put on the screen when telling a story. (PAGE 202). Also, The Wizard of Oz’s use of the crane to film introduced the ability of making a location in a film magical and produce a spectacular shot. (Thompson, 1994, Page 202) The film was able to create a world using both of these techniques that seemed to be out of this world and not appear to be in a studio at all. The world created by the filming technique heightens both the quality of the film and the connection an audience can make to it because of its realistic…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Movies have been around since Thomas Edison’s invention of the Kinetoscope in 1894. The Kinetoscope, or peep show, was a tall, wooden box that allowed a person to look inside and see moving images. Viewing images was made possible by the film moving past a shutter over a light source. The Kinetoscope, however, had a two major flaws: the images viewed were jerky and didn’t move smoothly, and the viewing time for one show was only twenty seconds. Improvements to the Kinetoscope allowed it to hold more film and present at least a full minute of animation. Many early films had the theme of popular culture: dancers, performances, or reenactments of historical events.…

    • 1263 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine this. You wake up one morning in the year 1929, in your luxurious, pricey mansion. You then make your way downstairs to eat that nice big breakfast. Then you kiss your family good bye and head off to your fancy job. You come home that evening and suddenly you’re flat broke. Meaning all your money and life’s savings vanished. Unreal right? Well it was real for hundreds of families on October 29, 1929. The day the stock market crashed and when America’s confidence was challenged greatly.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Depression was an economic downturn that began in 1929. The long term causes of the Great Depressions were the overproduction of farms and the instability of banks. Hoover was elected in 1928 and he believed in rugged individualism, the economy had natural cycles, and a do nothing approach. Hoover not stimulating the economy by putting money into it and providing jobs prolonged the Great Depression. FDR was elected in 1932 and he created the new deal, which was a series of government programs to provide reform to the stock market, relief to the American people, and recovery to the United States economy. The New Deal was a success in pulling America out of the Great Depression.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Section 1 – Identification and Evaluation of Sources This investigation will answer the question, “How did photography and images of the Great Depression impact effect how society viewed the Depression era?” This investigation is important because it provided insight into how American society was shaped by the art of photography during the era. The Great Depression was an intense time period, and understanding the effect to which photography changed the civic view can help further understanding about the greater question of how art affects perception of history. The scope of this investigation is the photographs released to the public by the FSA from 1935 to 1945.…

    • 2009 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Wizard of Oz was a cinematic breakthrough when it was released in 1939. It became cinematic because of many different new ideas and technologies spliced together into one film. When Frank L. Baum wrote the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in 1900 he had no idea of what a success it would become in the motion picture industry. The remainder of this paper will touch on some of the key points that made The Wizard of Oz a cinematic breakthrough and a major success for its time.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1930s the United States was suffering from the Great Depression. People were out of work and penniless, but Hollywood actors raised several American Spirits. Shirley Temple a child star, Clark Gable the first macho man, and Charlie Chaplin an English born actor who became an American movie icon were all actors who raised American spirit on the silver screen during the Great Depression.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Cold War era of communist witch hunts, and blacklisting, Hollywood executives had even more pressing worries: the imminent death of the studio system and the meteoric rise of television, which subsequently led to a drastic decline in ticket sales. To combat the drop in profits, the studios quickly sought to attract moviegoers—particularly families—from the living room by enhancing and exploiting their medium's technological advantages, namely its relatively large image size and its color format. Not coincidentally, the 1950s were the first decade of drive-in movie theaters, stereo sound, wide-screen formats, and epics shot in glossy color, and a full gamut of movie such as 3-D film technology.…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Great Depression of the 1930’s was an economic catastrophe in which the American stock market crashed and citizens lost millions of dollars. Near the end of the Great Depression the movie The Wizard of Oz was produced, and became a groundbreaking movie about a farmer’s daughter’s search to get home after she was blown away in a twister to the Land of Oz. The time period in which the movie was produced and how well it was received raises the question: how does the film’s popularity relate to the Great Depression?…

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I see that there are basic themes that remain in all movies from any decade and those are story’s revolved around love, good vs evil, adventure, fear and comedy. I see the main difference is the shock value that resides in current day movies and the ability to put anything on screen no matter how graphic or distorted the images may be. In Screening Out the Past, by Lary May he discusses regulation censorship of the youth in America and the goal being to preserve their morality and it seems to that they were successful in keeping their youth sheltered longer than in our society today. Another aspect of movies that has drastically changed the movie going experience is special effects and camera activity. With our current technology we can shoot a scene at the beach in front of a green screen. This enables more options for produces to magnify adventure and transcend you from your…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Prosperity HIST 202B

    • 1439 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Electricity during the Great Depression in the 1930s was very popular. If you had electricity, you had oil and petroleum products. After the WWII furniture in homes and AM radio became prevalent. A typical radio program would be fifteen minutes long and there would be sponsors. After WWI, Thomas Edison brought picture motion cameras and that’s when Hollywood Land was created.…

    • 1439 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nosferatu Analysis

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After World War I Germany’s film industry surprisingly flourished “due largely to the isolation created by the government’s 1916 ban on most foreign films” (101). The five-year long ban caused the German film industry to increase their creation and production of films for audiences luckily without the conflict of competition. Also with the ban of foreign films “producing companies rose from twenty-five in 1914 to one hundred thirty in 1918” (101). The German government was in favor of film production at this time which also caused an increase in film production. Another major reason for German film production after World War I was the problem of inflation. Money in Germany was…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Technology in the 1920s

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another technological advancement in entertainment came from the ability to add color and sound to movies. This created the revenue of the movie industry, as well as created jobs, and added a new aspect to the social lives of families and friends. The color and sound in movies was great was to spend leisure time in a new way! The genre of movies could expand and people could understand the movie more. In general the movies was a great way to spend time with your families. The sound and color added more to the movie and made it more enjoyable.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Great Depression Essay

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    |-king beats Bennett in the 1935 election (New Deal) |-helped out those who sent him letters |…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Great Depression Essay

    • 1652 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Canada is a nation constructed from small stones of determination, and piles of perseverance. Today, Canada stands tall as a beacon of democracy and a fortress of ideological freedom. From the small stones of determination, to the status it wears proudly today, much has changed. It is the history that has shaped Canada into the nation it is; from the victorious moments to the days of misery and hardship. A prominent decade of true misery and hardship recalled by Canadians is the Great Depression. The Great Depression of the 1930s was a time of severe poverty, unemployment and unjust treatment experienced like never before by Canada. The Great Depression was unforeseen, yet inevitable. The Great Depression led many families to undertake drastic measures. This spark ignited a flame of downwards spiralling, leading the worst to be brought out in Canadians everywhere.…

    • 1652 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays