Silent Films In The 1920s

Films were blossoming during the “Roaring twenties.” At the beginning of the decade, films were created mostly in Hollywood and West Coast, but as well as in Arizona and New Jersey. Most people do not know that the greatest output of films was between 1920 and 1930 and was 800 films per year. Nowadays, people consider big output of 500 films per year. The film business was a huge one because the capital investments were over $2 billion. At the end of the decade there were 20 studios in Hollywood and the interest in films was greater then ever. During the “Roaring Twenties,” the film production was focused on silent films. However, films became bigger, longer, and with more quality. Their production was divided into parts: writing, makeup,

The genres varied from melodramas and biblical epics, to horror films and crime stories. There were films of all kind: non-fictional narrative, documentary ones, mysteries, romances, and comedies, the comedian master Charlie Chaplin. Even thought the most produced films were silent, film studios were working for a sound film. They managed to do that with The Jazz Singer (1927). However, they discovered that they should deal with the surrounding sound and with the sound of the camera, so at the end of the 1920s films were produced in two version, sometimes with slightly different plot, a silent and a sound

They had long-term contracts with actors so their work and production continued. Then the eight significant film studios dominated in production. These eight studios were divided in five major and three minor. First from the five major was Warner Bros Pictures. It was created by four Polish brothers. It became prominent with the first sound film, The Jazz Singer (1927) and with gangster films. The studio became world-wide famous in the 40s with Bugs Bunny animations and other cartoons. The second was Famous Players-Lasky Corporation which later became Paramount. In it silent films with famous starts were produced. The third was Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) Pictures which was the smallest of all five. It produced mostly musicals. The forth was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with its greatest successes: The Big Parade (1925), Broadway Melody (1929). The last was 20-th Century Fox which was not so famous during the 1920s, but today is one of the most common film studios. For the three minor studios were: Universal Studios famous for comedies, United Artists, and Columbia Pictures later famous for Batman