The Studio System In The 1930's

The studio system is the organization of power in the studio companies. Prior to 1931, there was a central producer who overall controlled things. He would have associate supervisors to handle the day to day operations of film production. In 1931, the studio system of central producers saw its retirement and a new system was adopted. This system was called the producer-unit system. This system was structured to have a general manager, executive manager, production manager, studio manager, and individual production supervisors. During the mid-1930’s, the studios were separated into four different groups. These groups were called majors, minors, “B” studios, and independent producers. The producers would guide the process of making …show more content…
During the 1930’s the decline started. The major central producers, Irving Thalberg and Darryl F. Zannuck, had built such highly efficient operations in their studios that there was no need for micromanaging. This made them more figureheads than anything else. Secondly, actions taken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the federal government would force the studios to change the way things were being done. In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act would foster growth of unions and divide and specialize labor unlike Hollywood has seen. Lastly, the studios would begin to reorganize their management system to the producer-unit system. The changing of the management system would open new strengths and weaknesses. This would also weaken major studios and strengthen the growth of independent producers. The rise and fall of the studio system was caused largely by the time period, the wars, and the people’s opinions on films. Under the central producer system, there were more movies of lower quality and the people did not approve of that. Then, under the producer-unit system, the generalized labor for the workers was changed by the federal government’s strengthening of the