Question: As we saw in the documentaries you watched, the studio system was designed to mass produce films. In the documentary, Charlton Heston mentions the fact that film is one of the few art forms that has to strike a balance between art and commerce (it's called show business for a reason). Remember that all creatives, including writers and directors, were under contract to studios and had little to no say in the films they made. Mass production tends to lead to less personal, more commercial art, and yet, filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz, and Howard Hawks managed to create wholly unique works that you can tell are theirs based on certain traits. The question is then how do you think that artists create personal, meaningful works inside a commercial enterprise like the studio system? Your primary focus should be on artists of cinema, but feel free to talk about all art forms (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.) and, if you can, talk about your own personal experiences at attempting to create art.
Below are a couple of videos that further go into German Expressionism and Soviet Montage.
1. Video Essay: German Expressionism, Explained (By No Film School)
2. The History of Cutting - The Soviet Theory of Montage (By Filmmaker IQ)