RTF 305- Fifth Blog Assignment

The aspect of the studio system that seemed most prominent was its use of vertical integration. This meant that they controlled production, distribution, and exhibition; keeping everything in one place. Besides containing a great deal of power through their vertical integration, they also had writers, actors, actresses, and everyone else in between on contract. This meant that they were unable to work for anyone else or have much flexibility in doing anything other than their work for the production company.
Many of the films created under this studio system defined the Classical Hollywood era, a very important period for film that took place between the 1920s and 1940s. As a result of this vertical integration, many of the writers, actors, actresses, and other workers were used continuously and frequently. Because each person was on contract, some workers were forced to produce film after film at a much more frequent rate than that of today.
A perfect example is in the overworking of Judy Garland. The young actress starred in fifteen films between the period of 1941 to 1950, which is much more frequent than that of any actor or actress today. This led to the eventual retiring of Judy Garland and her disappearance from the public eye at a rather early age.
In whole, the studio system of the Classical Hollywood era was very efficient. It spat out movies at an incredible rate, most of which were extremely successful. It's use of vertical integration and contracts gave it an immense amount of power over many of its workers. However, despite being very efficient, it did overwork many of its stars at the time.

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