History of Film
In the Beginning…
Well actually, several
contributions were made in
the history of photography that
later contributed to the history
of film. Because our time is
so precious…
…Fast-forward to where the
emergence of the motion
picture film begins…
In the Beginning…
(ok, for real this time!)
… It always starts with a
woman/man with a plan…
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge
• 1878-Took the first
successful photographs of
motion, showing how
people and animals move.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison:
• American Inventor and Businessman
• Lightbulb…
• Patented the first movie making
machine in 1891, called the
Kinetoscope
Kinetoscope
• The Kinetoscope was designed for
films to be viewed by one individual
at a time through a peephole
viewer window at the top of the
device
4 years later…
French inventors and
brothers, Louis and
Auguste Lumiere,
created the cameraprojector called the
cinematographe
Cinematographe
• A combination of camera
and projector
• Capable of projecting an
image that could be seen by
many people at the same
time
They say everyone wants a
piece of the pie…
In 1898 Edison filed the first
of many patent infringement
suits, claiming that others
are using equipment based
on his Kinetographe
camera.
… And then in 1903, there
was “The Great Train
Robbery”…
“The Great Train Robbery”
• 8 minutes long
• Launched movies as mass
entertainment
• American filmmaker Edwin S.
Porter
Following “The Great Train
Robbery”…
• American filmmakers began to
dominate the film scene
• Major studios in New York
American Developments
• 1897: 2 means of film exhibition
– Peep show devices for individual viewing
– Projection systems for audiences
• Types of cinema:
– Scenics, topicals and fiction films
Scenics
• Short travelogues offering views of
distant lands
Topicals
• News events, recreations of key
occurrences in studio
– Sinking of battleship Maine during
Spanish-American War (1898)
Fiction Films
• Brief staged scenes telling a story
• Some shot outdoors, but most shot in front
of painted backdrops
• 1904-became the industry’s main product
• Camera set up in one position and action
unfolded in one continuous take.
• No credits, music
• Provided live
• by the “exhibitor”
American Developments
• 1905- Admission to Nickelodeon (movie theater) =
$.05-$.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
• Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, MGM got
there start as Nickelodeon exhibitors
Nickelodeon
By 1909 There are about
9,000 movie theaters in the
United States. The typical film
is only a single reel long, or
ten- to twelve minutes in
length, and the performers
were anonymous.
• 1910-Studios begin distributing publicity
stills of actors and actresses.
• 1911 Credits begin to appear at the
beginning of motion pictures.
• 1912 Carl Laemmle organizes Universal
Pictures, which will become the first
major studio.
• 1913 Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man
is the first feature length film made in
Hollywood.
…And then there was another
famous film guy…
… this guy!!
D.W. Griffith
So what did he do for film?
• Developed a grammar of shots and
lighting effects to evoke audience
emotion.
• Highly successful film, “The Birth of a
Nation” (1915)
• Pioneered the idea of film as art
Okaaaay… now what?
Well… it turns out, after that,
American filmmaking shifted
to Hollywood from 19101920’s.
…and again we find ourselves
with some more famous
names in Hollywood…
Leading Directors
• Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten
Commandments, 1923)
• Ernst Lubitsch (The Marriage Circle,
1924)
• John Ford (The Iron Horse, 1924)
• Mack Sennett (Slapsticks like Keystone
Cops)
So what…?
• Hollywood film directors offered a
variety of genres, and thus the birth of:
epics, romantic
comedies, and westerns
… and a little something
called “Slapsticks”…
maybe you’ve heard of them?
Maybe you’ve heard of
Charlie Chaplan?
Maybe not?
What’s A Slapstick?
A type of broad
physical comedy
involving exaggerated,
boisterous actions (e.g.
a pie in the face), farce,
violence and activities
which may exceed the
boundaries of common
sense
C’mon, you know this guy!
Well, maybe you don’t know
him… but you at least
recognize him right?
It’s Charlie Chaplan!
• English comic
• Famous character he played: the forlorn
"tramp" in The Kid (1921), The Gold
Rush (1925), and others
• Became one of the first international
movie stars
By the 1930’s Hollywood
Films gained full speed
American Film Studios
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Paramount
• Warner Bros
Through the 1930’s, these studios honed
a "studio system" that produced a steady
stream of films and stars for Depressionera audiences seeking escape.
American Leading Ladies &
Gentlemen
• James Cagney
• Bette Davis
• Clark Gable
• Cary Grant
• Katharine Hepburn
Actors starred in dozens of now-classic
films, including the Civil War epic Gone
With the Wind (1939
Meanwhile, in other parts of
the world…
• Germany became the birthplace of the
expressionist movement
• In Russia, filmmakers mastered the idea
of montage (a sequence of overlapping
film clips)
• France became a rich film source as
well
Notable films in Europe
included:
• Jean Renior's antiwar classic
Grand Illusion
• Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi
paean Triumph of the Will
(1935
Enter (((SOUND))) into the
film scene
Lee DeForrest
• In 1912, demonstrated a
method for recording
sound on the edge of a
film strip
• Considered one of the
fathers of the “electronic
age”
(((SOUND)))
The Jazz Singer
(1927) introduced
sound to movies,
revolutionizing the
industry worldwide.
"Wait
a minute, wait a minute,
you ain't heard nothin' yet."
The Vitaphone method that
the studio uses involves
recording sound on discs.
-Warner Bros.'s The Jazz Singer,
presents the movie's first spoken words
American Cinema: Pre-WWI
• Edison company vs. American Mutoscope and
Biograph
• Conflicts over camera patents and equipment
licensing distracted the two companies from the
distribution aspect.
• Two companies decided to cooperate-created
Motion Pictures Patent Company that owned
and charged licensing fees on key existing
patents.
• Production companies had to pay MPPC
licensing fees in order to exist.
American Cinema: Pre-WWI
• MPPC limited number of foreign
companies
• MPPC’s goal was to control all three
aspects of the industry: production,
distribution and exhibition.
• Only licensed companies could
produce, distribute and exhibit
films=oligopoly
• Eastman Kodak only sold films to MPPC
Production
• The whole creative process involved in
the making of a film (shooting footage,
set design, costume, directing, editing,
etc)
Distribution
• The process of selling and marketing
the film
Exhibition
• The process of showing the film in
theaters
– Exhibitors were those who owned and
operated theaters and were involved in the
buying/renting process of films.
Oligopoly
• When a small number of firms cooperate
to control the market.
• In the film industry, when any other
unlicensed firmed attempted to shoot,
distribute, or exhibit a film, MPPC would
threatened to sue for patent infringement.
• Monopoly: when one firm controls the market
Independents
• A group of professionals in the film
industry who were not licensed through
the MPPC to create, distribute, and
exhibit films.
Post-WWII Film Era
• Heightened realism in international
cinema
• Changing tastes, decreased film
attendance, and corporate takeovers
significantly altered the American studio
system by the end of the 1960s.
• In its wake came increased
experimentation and independence
through filmmakers such as Stanley
Kubrick, Robert Altman, Francis Ford
Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Film Today…
• In recent years, independent
studios have grown in stature,
becoming known for supporting
high-quality original filmmaking.
• American films since the 1970s
have been distinguished by the
big-budget blockbuster.
The Blockbusters
Blockbusters
Primarily special-effects-laden fare for an
increasingly younger target audience, the
blockbuster has been dominated by two
directors: George Lucas and Steven
Spielberg.