Cinema & Film History – Arts & Humanities
In this lesson we study About cinema and film history as part of Arts & Humanities.
Film
Most familiar and easily accessible art form
Purpose and Function – Much like Theatre
– Personalize the spectrum of human emotions
– Confront/Examine the human condition
– Fantasy
– Escapism
– Entertainment
Film history
Initially, films were still pictures pulled across a projector
– Frame-Individual picture
– 24 frames per second
Narrative
– Tells a story
– Basic literary constructs
– Controlled setting
– Genre films
– Professional actors/crew
Documentary
– Not actors, real people in real situations
– Real time
– May use narrative structure
– Focus on reality
Eadweard Muybridge
1878 “Galloping Horses”
George Eastman
1884 – Developed celluloid film
– Originally created for the still camera, it made motion pictures possible
– Flexible and allows light to pass through
What was the first film in America?
Fred Ott’s Sneeze in 1889
– By William Dickson (working for Thomas Edison) begins using celluloid film
– Watched through a Kinetoscope
Auguste and Louis Lumiere
credited with the world’s first public film screening on December 28, 1895
Lumieres’ show:
– Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory
– Arrival at Lyon
– A Baby’s Meal
Where was the Lumiere’s film screening?
Basement of a Paris café
First theater opens to the paying public
Nickelodeon
1905 Movie theaters
– Admission = $.05-$.10 for a 15-60 minute production
– Audiences sat on benches, wooden seats
– Front display = hand painted signs
– Actors stood behind screen and spoke dialogue in synchronization with the action on the screen
– Sound effects were made with noisemakers behind the screen
Where did Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, MGM get there start?
as Nickelodeon exhibitors
The Great Train Robbery
Based on a true robbery by Butch Cassidy
– First Western
– First to use editing as a storytelling technique
– One of the first to use panning and close-ups
– Moved from documentary to narrative
First Theaters
– Built expressly for showing movies – 1910
– Beginning of feature-length films
– Single Piano Player
The Movie Palace
1920s
– Accommodated thousands
– Opulent architecture and furnishings
– Included lounges, restaurants, nurseries and hospitals
– Full orchestras replaced the single piano
What was the First Talkie?
“The Jazz Singer” in October 6, 1927
– “Vitaphone”
– Silent picture with musical accompaniment on disc
– Four talking sections with synchronized dialogue
By 1929, how many movie theaters had converted to sound?
9,000
1939
Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz
1940
Fantasia, The Grapes of Wrath
1941
Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon
1942
Bambi, Casablanca
What resulted in diminished popularity after WWII?
TV
How do studios try to regain viewers?
– 3D
– “Sensurround”
– Technicolor
– Cinerama, Panavision, CinemaScope, etc.
Drive-in Movies (Rise)
Capitalized on automobile obsession
– Air conditioning rare and expensive
Theme park atmosphere evolved
– Restaurants
– Playgrounds/Swimming pools/Amusement parks
– Laundromats
– Motels
Drive-in Movies (Decline)
Air conditioning more widespread
– “Suburbinization”
Real estate prices
Rising taxes
Zoning regulations
The Platter System
7 to 8 reels of film to be spliced into one large reel which was coiled onto a round table called a “platter”
– Allowed the projectionist to prepare and start the film and not attend to it until the end of the movie
– Allowed one projectionist to work up to 8 screens
What became the more affordable form of film?
Digital
Digital
Doesn’t suffer the image degradation (scratches, dirt, damage) typically found in analog format
June 18, 1999 (U.S.)
Texas Instrument’s DLP Cinema projector technology was publicly demonstrated on two screens in Los Angeles and New York for the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
February 2, 2000 (Europe)
Texas Instrument’s DLP Cinema projector technology was publicly demonstrated, one screen in Paris for the release of Toy Story 2
December 2000
15 digital cinema screens in North America
11 in Western Europe
4 in Asia
1 in South America
How many of the world’s cinema screens are now digitized?
98.2% (May 2016)
Why does Quentin Tarantino want to retire?
Because of the rapid conversion to digital
He cannot project from 35 mm prints in the majority of American cinemas
Trailer (Preview)
An advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema
The term “trailer” comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening
Effective “mini-movies” to entice viewers
Product Placement
An advertising technique used by companies to subtly promote their products through a non-traditional advertising technique, usually through appearances in film, television, or other media
A company will often pay a fee to have their product used, displayed, or significantly featured in a movie or show
How are product placement ads often initiated?
through an agreement between a product manufacturer and the media company in which the media company receives economic benefit
Merchandising
Film producers license the right to sell film-related products to other companies
The sale of movie-related products can not only generate substantial revenue, but the presales of merchandising rights can sometimes contribute to a film’s production budget
How much did The Lord of the Rings trilogy attract in merchandising revenues?
over $1.2 billion
Breakdown of a Dollar at the Box Office
34.4¢ — Film rental
26.6¢ — Labor
24.5¢ — Rent, mortgage, overhead
9¢ — Advertising
Leaving only:
3.5¢ — Profit (before taxes)
1890-1900s Visual Effects
Georges Melies – accidentally discovering “stop-action”
Soon using stop-action, double-exposure, fast and slow motion, dissolves, and perspective tricks
1910s Visual Effects
Editing, camera movement, shot composition, and lighting
Dissolves, effects in-camera. split-screen and double exposures
1920s Visual Effects
Combining full-size sets with miniatures using mirrors, models, animation,matte painting, rear projection, and full-scale mechanical effects
1939 Visual Effects
first Academy Award in Special Effects given to “The Rains Came”
1950s Visual Effects
larger-than-life-formats such as CinemaScope, VistaVision, Cinerama, and 3-D
1970 Visual Effects
Star Wars – George Lucas
Lucas’s technicians built first computer-controlled camera (motion-control)
1980s Visual Effects
Computer Graphics (CG) start becoming more common
Star Trek, Return of the Jedi, TRON
1990s Visual Effects
Effects become digitally controlled
Terminator 2, Toy Story, Titanic