In addition, beyond the Big Eight, about three hundred films annually were made by smaller concerns, collectively known as "indies" or "B studios," geographically centered in Hollywood along "Poverty Row." Hence, roughly 75 percent of the pictures made during the 1930s, well over four thousand films, fall under the  rubric. B's filled out production schedules and encompassed approximately half the product of the vertically integrated majors. With each studio releasing, on average, one feature every week of the year, big-budget films were the exception, a distinct minority of the motion pictures produced. The content, production, exhibition, and profit from A films were not typical of the material that made motion pictures a continuously viable business enterprise. 1 However, B films occupied an equally important role in Hollywood to concentrate upon the A would emphasize the art of a few films and elide the basis of production, the underlying commercial and artistic means by which the industry survived-as well as the vast quantity and range of films offered to spectators during the studio era. Such terms imply pictures that were regarded as secondary even in their own time, and the "B" label has often been used to imply minor pictures or simply poor filmmaking, anything tacky or produced on a low budget. These are the B movies, also called "quickies," "cheapies," "low-budget," or simply "budget films," even "C" or "Z" films. 8 The B Film: Hollywood's Other Half Defining the B Film The Organization of B Product B Filmmakers The Style of the B Film Ethnic Films Conclusionīeyond the industrial structures and the typical glossy Hollywood cinema described elsewhere in this volume, there is another entire category of American fictional feature films created and shown under different conditions.
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