Historical Perspective
Throughout the evolution of film making, studio
executives, directors and inventors have worked
to keep the medium relevant with continual
adaptation
Eadweard Muybridge
(1830-1904)
British photographer, known
for early use of multiple
cameras to capture motion
and his Zoopraxiscope, a
device for projecting motion
pictures that pre-dated
celluloid film strip.
Muybridge invented the Zoopraxiscope, a machine that projected images to
show realistic motion.
5
Considered to be a precursor to the development of the motion picture
Muybridge’s Motion Study for Leyland Stanford 1872-78
Eadweard Muybridge,
1872 - 1878
Hired by Leland Stanford to prove
whether during horse's gallop, all 4
hooves were off the ground at the
same time.
Series of photos, taken for Stanford University
“The Horse in Motion”
Findings:
Hooves all leave the ground but not
at the point of full extension forward
and back, as illustrators imagined, but
when all the hooves are tucked under
the horse, as it switches from
"pulling" from the front legs to
"pushing" from the back legs
Photos show each hoof hits the
ground just as another is leaving it.
At full gallop it gets traction from one
hoof at a time.
7
George Eastman (1854-1932)
Roll Film, 1888
Developed dry plates, film with flexible
backing, roll holders for the flexible film
Kodak camera: camera for novice, and
an amateur motion-picture camera.
Kodak: “You press the button, we do the rest.”
8
Thomas Edison
Inspired by Muybridge’s work, Edison
decided to develop a motion picture
camera. He bought 90 Muybridge
Motion Study Images.
1889 he filed a patent for his
Kinetoscope to view moving pictures
Although Edison conceived of the idea,
most agree that it was his assistant
William Dickson who did most of the
experimentation and work for the
device.
Eastman and Edison
Edison had idea to etch pictures on
photographic cylinders.
Dickson switched to celluloid film to
demonstrate synchronized motion
9
with sound.
The Kinetoscope: A single-viewer peep-show device.
Film was moved past a light
Thomas Edison/William Dickson
Kinetograph
Thomas Edison
Edison's Kinetograph was a motion picture
camera developed by William Dickson,
1892
Kinetograph uses rapid intermittent film
movement to record the movement of
images by taking pictures in quick
succession. Played back it creates illusion of
motion.
To record it uses a motor to run gelatin film
over a photographic lens.
William Dickson
11
Thomas Edison Kinetograph
Fred Ott’s Sneeze
One of the earliest films
Developed by Edison and
William Dickson, 1892
Together they produced the
first preserved motion
picture Ott's Sneeze.
Their early movies showed
dancers, clowns or other
entertainers.
12
Edison/Dickson Early Films
Edison’s early movies showed dancers, clowns or other entertainers. Edison’s
patent did not cover Europe.
Robert Paul fitted the camera with a hand crank that allowed portable set-so filming could
13
be done outside studio
Lumiere Brothers
Auguste and Louis Lumiere,
1895
1894 brothers invented camera
that could make films, process
and project movies- 35mm film
at 16 frames per second
Named it Cinematographie
shortened to cinema
1896 they opened theatres in
London, Brussels, Belgium and
New York to show films.
15
Lumiere Brothers 1895
One of the first films was
Workers Leaving the factory.
Appeal of people "caught in the
act of living,”
Edison's movies were staged
productions of fiction, the
Lumiere's were everyday people
Lumiere brothers
Everyday scenes
What people really wanted was
a combination of both
fictionalized films in the real
world
16
George Melies
Special Effects, 1902
Made a movie A Game of Cards
in 1896
His movies were surreal films
inspired by his experiences as
a magician
Considered the founder of
special effects.
Most famous is 10 minute
A Trip to the Moon
17
Action-Adventures
Edwin Porter
Great Train Robbery, 1903
Edwin S. Porter worked for
Edison and showed films under
name Thomas Edison Jr.
Early Action/Adventure: Adding the
“story”
The Life of an American
Fireman
The Great Train Robbery 1903
18
Action and Drama
Action-Adventures
D.W. Griffith
The Birth of a Nation, 1915
First Full-Length Feature
Tremendous Cost
Ku Klux Klan Revitalized
National Protests
Creation of United Artists,
1919
19
D.W. Griffith's
The Birth of a Nation, 1915
First Full-Length Feature
Cost $83,000- very costly
Shows Griffith’s film techniques but is
a racist story of struggling US attacked
by African Americans (Played by
whites in blackface) saved by the Klu
Klux Klan
Many leading politicians condemned
the movie; in Boston a race riot
followed, but the film made $20
million; it was the first film shown in
the White House
With others Griffith founded United
Artists , 1919
20
Documentary
Robert Flaherty
Nanook of the North 1913
A Canadian Inuit's struggle
example of early documentary work.
First great nonfiction film.
Nanook and his friends and family &
Flaherty re-created an Eskimo culture
that no longer existed in a series of
staged scenes.
Controversy over staging
Conflict between the explorer-scientist
Flaherty began a tradition of
participatory filmmaking which
continues today.
Robert Flaherty
21
FRITZ LANG
Metropolis
Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang's futuristic Metropolis
in 1926 was noted for its visual
effects.
Lang invited by Hitler to make
propaganda films, but he fled
Germany to Hollywood
22
LENI RIEFENSTAHL
Leni Riefenstahl influenced by Lang
created Triumph of Will and many
propaganda films for Hitler
23
SERGEI
EISENSTEIN
Battleship Potemkin
Famous "steps" scene Odessa Steps--Quick editing to produces tension
24
The Silent Era
Movies Became a Business
Directors Learned the Craft
Mack Sennett & Hal Roach
Cecil B. DeMille & Sergei
Eisenstein Charlie Chaplin &
Buster Keaton
Star System Established in
California
Mary Pickford: $1 Million a
Picture or $10 Million in
Today's Dollars
Numerous Scandals
Pickford/Fairbanks & Roscoe
Arbuckle
Academy Awards Established,
1929 as a public relations move
25
to dignify the industry
Synchronizing
Sound
Vitaphone vs
Phonofilm
1920s two competing types
of sound were being used
Vitaphone was sound on disc
Phonofilm was sound on film
26
Synchronized Sound
Late 1920s
The Vitaphone process was sound
on disc played along with a movie
to give the illusion of talking
pictures.
1926 Vitaphone publicly
introduced with premiere of Don
Juan, the first feature-length
movie to have a synchronized
sound system of any type
throughout.
The soundtrack had a musical
score and sound effects were
added but there was no dialogue.
Vitaphone= Sound on Disc
27
Al Jolson speaks: The Jazz Singer
First Dialogue:
Vitaphone (Disc): Warner Bros.
The Jazz Singer, 1927
Only 4 sequences have sound and only a
few moments of dialogue)
About the Jewish experience-the conflict
between aged cantor and his young,
assimilated son who wants to enter show
business.
Actor who plays his role in blackface.
Story of assimilation and
Americanization, but it contains a highly
offensive racial image.
Racism combined with the expropriation
of African American identity.
28
Sound on Disc : 1926-1931
Vitaphone
Weakness: cumbersome equipment, vulnerable to severe
synchronization problems, inability to edit
Sound on Film: 1923Phonofilm
Versions of Phonofilm followed: Movietone and later Photophone
were eventually adopted
Synchronization revived the slumping industry
29
Colour
First full length colour film was The
World, the Flesh and the Devil,
1914
Snow White & Seven Dwarfs 1937
First three colour process was 1926
Disney used it early
Technicolour in 1937 with A Star is
Born and in 1939 Gone with the
Wind
30
Colour
Tinted: Great Train Robbery,
1903
Kinemacolor: The World, the
Flesh and the Devil, 1914
Technicolor: The Black Pirate,
1926
Cartoons: Flowers and Trees,
1933
Public's Acceptance:
The Wizard of Oz, 1939
31
FORMATS:
Wide Screen Formats
Aspect Ratio Changed with Sound
Cinerama, 1952
CinemaScope (Panavision), 1953:
The Robe
Imax and Omnimax
Letterbox (Movies on Television)
3D
Cinerama from 3 projectors
32
Concerns about Content
The House Committee on Un-American
Activities (HUAC) an investigative committee
originally created in 1938 to uncover citizens
with Nazi ties within the U.S.
Hollywood Blacklisting: HUAC, 1951 (300
blacklisted)
Senator Joseph McCarthy and his communist
witch hunts
Joseph McCarthy
33
Cold War fears of Communism, led
to Sci-Fi, Atom Bomb, and
Teenage Angst Movies
3D and "B" Movies for Drive-Ins
Fall of Single Theaters
Hollywood Adapts
Rise in Television Production
Effects of Online and multimedia
34