Halfway through the 1960's, the Hollywood industry seemed to be healthy with blockbuster movies such as The Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago. But problems then arose, with expensive studio projects failing, TV networks stopped bidding for pictures. By the year 1969, Hollywood companies were losing $200 million annually.
In order to bring back the industry, one strategy they used was to produce counterculture-flavored films aimed at young people. But these "youthpix" about campus revolutions and unorthodox lifestyles proved disappointing at the box office. Films aimed at a broader audience proved to help lift the industry's fortune. The most successful films were Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975), George Lucas's Star Wars (1977).
These and other directors were know as "movie brats". Instead of coming up from studio system ranks, they had gone to film schools. They learned about the mechanics of production, film aesthetics and history. The movie brats produced self-conscious films. They used their life experiences, opinions and thoughts in creating the stories for their films.
The movie brats
Many films of the new Hollywood were based on Old Hollywood as the young directors were influenced and involved in movies. Many of the directors were drawn to European Tradition and dreamed of making complex art films in the European mold. Lucas and Spielberg became powerful producers. They worked together to produce blockbuster films like The Indiana Jones series and they had personified Hollywood's new generation. Scorsese was the most critically acclaimed living American filmmaker by the end of the 1980's.
During the 1980's, fresh talents won recognition, creating a new new Hollywood. Many more films from directors like Lucas, Spielberg and Scorsese became famous. The resurgence of mainstream film was also fed by filmmakers from outside Hollywood. Many directors came from abroad during the 1980's and 1990's, more women filmmakers became commercially successful.
The new new Hollywood absorbed some minority directors from independent films while others shifted into the mainstream, making medium budget films with widely-known stars. On the other hand, other directors remained independent. The most mainstream young directors still stick to the tradition of classical American cinema. Continuity editing was still the norm with clear signals for time shifts and plot developments. Visual techniques were used for storytelling strategies wherein they play with focus, motion and special effects. Spielberg and Lucas also led the advancement toward digital sound and high-quality production.
Less well funded Hollywood film making cultivated more flamboyant styles. Some use slow motion and camera movements to extend an emotional impact like Scorsese. De Palma used long takes, startling overhead compositions and split screen. Coppola used fast-motion black and white in Rumble Fish. Several of the newer entrants in Hollywood enriched mainstream conventions of genre, narrative and style.
By the end of the 1990's, classical conventions and independent film tradition were merging. Independent films began having larger audiences. Sometimes the big budget films of independent filmmakers conveyed a distinctly experimental attitudes. The films conveyed or presented the society, its problems and issues. They also began to play with narrative form, using misleading narration or complicated stories that enticed the audience to watch the films again in order to fully understand its story.
Source: The New Hollywood and Independent Film-making pp 463 – 468 of Film Art by Bordwell and Thompson
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