When studios began manufacturing movies in the early 1900s, a new era began. For the first time, a unique product was able to attract a massive audience using imagination and creativity. But it was the Hollywood style of producing motion pictures that kept audiences worldwide coming back for more than one hundred years.
Hollywood movies, as opposed to international films, have been defined as having unique and distinct characteristics. These films are described as an art form necessitating a great deal of skill in order to be created. So, what makes a Hollywood movie a Hollywood movie? Three of the most pronounced characteristics include invisibility, editing style, and narrative story.
Invisibility.
The Hollywood Style began during the studio system days as a factory with thousands of workers in huge departments producing 200 films a year with assembly line efficiency. The director, who orchestrated the entire process, would design a complicated and creative set that would in turn create a magical world filled with mood, drama, and texture on film. His greatest task was to get the audience involved without noticing the film's craft, i.e. to make filmmaking invisible.
A movie is set in a different place; worlds apart from an audience. The director wants the audience to feel like it is there, and that feeling is created by an illusion that the audience is present to what is happening. The camera, actors, locations, and props all have to be in the right place to deliver the feeling of presence; the feeling that they are among the characters. Invisibility is also created through editing, which must be seamless, with no sharp cuts but just the right close-ups, movements, and perceptions of the actors that make them appear real.
Editing Style.
Editing, the second characteristic of the Hollywood style, mostly focuses on the end product of the motion picture. How quickly a scene moves, or how much time the camera remains on an actor is determined by editing.
