HOH - Actors, Directors and Agents (Assessment)

Question 1

Actors and directors have always been key personnel in the industry, but under ______ Hollywood structures they were very much subservient to studio producers and executives.

Answer 1

Old

Question 2

Actors and _______ were told to work on one project and then when that was finished they were assigned by their studio bosses to a new project: contracted to the studios they were quite simply at the beck-and-call of those studios.

Answer 2

Directors

Question 3

It could be argued that since perhaps the 1970s ________ have become the real power brokers in Hollywood, controlling stables of stars, directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, producers and other filmmaking personnel, and striking deals for clients in return for a percentage of earnings.

Answer 3

Agencies

Question 4

Finding themselves under the financial pressures the studios were prepared to support the emergence of independent _________ who offered them greater business flexibility, enabling them to pick and choose projects.

Answer 4

Producers

Question 5

Under the _________ System producers exerted overall management control at any one time across a range of film projects that might be at various stages of completion.

Answer 5

Studio

Question 6

With the end of the Studio System _________ retained their importance with regard to each one-off film project, since they remained the linchpin executive needed to bring together the total package.

Answer 6

Producers

Question 7

The big players in the industry have of course always been interested in cheap-to-produce movies that were likely to offer good percentage profits.

In the era of Old Hollywood companies such as Columbia and _________ invested in cheap B-movies from early in the 1930s.

Answer 7

Universal

Question 8

As the Depression hit America some cinemas began trying to attract hard-up customers by offering two features films instead of one, creating a demand for these cheap supporting films.

By the mid-19__s up to half of the outputs at Warners, Fox and RKO were also taken up with these movies.

Answer 8

30s

Question 9

At the same time about 10% of studio output in the 1930s and 1940s comprised ‘_______ pictures’ such as those made by Warners using the ‘Dead End Kids’ or MGM’s ‘Andy Hardy’ series starring Mickey Rooney.

Answer 9

Series

Question 10

At the same time major studios have more recently recognised the potential profitability of low-cost films, and have as a result set up arm’s-length low-budget companies such as Fox ________ at Twentieth Century Fox.

Answer 10

Searchlight