The release of Gordon Hollingshead and Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer in 1927 marked the new era of synchronized sound in cinema. The feature film was a huge success at the box office and ushered in the era that David Bordwell describes as "classic Hollywood cinema"; Bordwell and two other film theorists (Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson) conducted a formalist analysis of 100 randomly selected Hollywood films from the years 1917 to 1960 in order to fully define this movement. Their findings revealed that most films made by Hollywood in that era focused on or followed specific projects that formed the finished product. Through this analysis of Hollywood films theorists were able to establish stylized conventions and modes of production after which a classic Hollywood film was modeled (Foster, 2008), the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of Ring (2001) directed by Peter Jackson will be used as a case study to demonstrate these specific conventions. It was concluded that in classical Hollywood cinema the narrative followed a clear and distinguishable structure with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Although this type of storytelling had some restrictions, it still understood the psychology of the characters and their goals, and the inevitable conflict intended to capture the audience's attention. Continuity editing added to audiences' enjoyment of the film and, combined with the attraction of the Hollywood star system, formed a type of cinema that would astonish and captivate the rest of the world. Before each of these conventions is defined and analyzed, the process of making a classic Hollywood film must first be described; begins with completing a script or taking on a scr...... middle of paper ...... is not just limited to actors, directors also inform our reading of the film as they too are related to genres. Peter Jackson (the director of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) is commonly associated with fantasy films. Audiences can then formulate a basic outline of the film simply using the actors and directors involved, expecting for example a fantasy tale with special effects, heartbreaking moments and, ultimately, a satisfying ending. In conclusion, the undeniable force behind classical Hollywood cinema is the methods and conventions implemented in film making. The narrative structure is clearly set and the events that take place are motivated. Bordwell states that the style of classical Hollywood cinema is "overly obvious" due to its strict adherence to conventions; it is a form of escape and as such can provide complete entertainment (Thompson, 2008).