Cinema • Cinema refers to the art or technique of making motion pictures • Cinematography is the illusion of movement by the recording and subsequent rapid projection of many still photographic pictures on a screen. Originally a product of 19th-century scientific endeavour, cinema has become a medium of mass entertainment and communication, and today it is a multi-billion-pound industry. Inception: The Silent Era • Back in 1891, Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope – an early motion picture exhibition device that allowed one individual at a time to watch short silent movies of about 20-30 seconds long • By 1894 the Kinetoscope was a commercial success • first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. They used a device of their own making, the Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector and a film printer all in one. Early years • films were very short, sometimes only a few minutes or less. They were shown at fairgrounds, music halls, or anywhere a screen could be set up and a room darkened. • Greater complexity and length were added to films with the passing years of the Silent Era. It was named after its lack of sound and laid the foundation for future eras to follow. • The Silent Era ended in the late 1920s’ when sound was added. The Sound Era • By 1930s nearly all feature-length movies were presented with synchronised sound and, by the mid-1930s, some were in full colour too. • In 1927, The Jazz Singer – the first ever feature-length motion picture with music heralded the Sound Era. • Cinema had now evolved from silent films characterized by Charlie Chaplin to films with synchronized music. • Addition of sound to films benefitted various genres – American gangster films like ‘Little Caesar’ and ‘The Public Enemy’ gained popularity in 1931. • Walt Disney, a short cartoon producer released its first English-speaking animated feature – ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. • In Bollywood, the country’s traditional song-and-dance drama was common in most sound films. • The advent of sound secured the dominant role of the American industry and gave rise to the so-called ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’. Rise of film industry • By 1914, several national film industries were established. At this time, Europe, Russia and Scandinavia were the dominant industries; America was much less important. Films became longer and storytelling, or narrative, became the dominant form. • The First World War greatly affected the film industry in Europe, and the American industry grew in relative importance. • The first 30 years of cinema were characterised by the growth and consolidation of an industrial base, the establishment of the narrative form, and refinement of technology. Adding colour • Movies were made in color starting 1916 with the development of a Technicolor technique. • Colour was first added to black-and-white movies through hand colouring, tinting, toning and stencilling. • ‘trip to the moon (1902) – kinemacolour process used • colour was not used more widely until the introduction of its three-colour process in 1932. It was used for films such as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz (both 1939) in Hollywood The Golden Age of Cinema • With the releases of classics like Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and many more in 1939 – filmmaking took a new turn with various advancements in film devices, plot, and technology. • The films started getting longer, plotlines were more complex, relatable human characters drove the narratives, artificial lighting and special effects were introduced, and an industry standard was established. • This period was also marked as the Golden Era for Indian Cinema or Bollywood with the most critically acclaimed films of all time like Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awaara’, Guru Dutt’s ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’ and various other Bollywood classics produced between 1950 and 1960. ‘The Apu Trilogy’ by Satyajit Ray, caught the attention of global audiences through international film festivals. • The Golden Age witnessed some of the finest filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Satyajit Ray, and many more who influenced the world of Cinema profoundly and forever. • The Blockbuster Era • The 1960s’ and 70’s gave us innovative blockbusters such as ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, ‘Sholay’, and many more packed with action, drama, comedy, and romance. • Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ is regarded as the first blockbuster film, and it gave rise to many more groundbreaking films such as ‘Star Wars’, ‘Indiana Jones’, and ‘Batman’ to name a few. • In 1980s’, the increasing presence of television and VCRs in the homes of audiences led to a popularity in renting movies for home usage. • The Independent Era • The rise of successful independent cinema marked the beginning of the Independent Era in the 1990s’. • Studios were creating their own independent production companies • Special-effects films such as ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, ‘Jurassic Park’, and ‘Titanic’ dominated the scene, • whereas independent films such as Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ were catching up with success at cinemas as well as on home video. • also the year when online film distribution came into picture, familyoriented animated films such as ‘Aladdin’, ‘Lion King’, ‘Toy Story’ • and by the end the decade, VCRs had already started getting replaced by DVD players as the last cinematic transition of the century. New Age Cinema • 3D technology for the cinema, online streaming platforms for home entertainment, the rise of documentary film as a commercial genre, more sophisticated home theatre systems, special edition DVDs, globalization of cinema – this was the first decade of the 21th century in a nutshell. • The continued evolution of film technology brought about a paradigm shift in how movies are made as well as consumed. • Cinema has revolutionized in terms of production, distribution, and the overall experience itself. • Today, films are produced with high-tech digital cameras, computer-generated effects added in postproduction, and showcased not only in theaters, but also on websites and online streaming platforms to a worldwide audience. • Impact of digital technology • past 20 years, film production has been profoundly altered by the impact of rapidly improving digital technology • past few years there has been a revival of interest in 3D features, sparked by the availability of digital technology. History -hollywood • No Hollywood begore • Only Europe dominated early years of films • Thomas Edison owned a litany of U.S. patents on camera tech – and he wielded his stamps of ownership with righteous fury. • To escape Edison’s legal monopoly, filmmakers ventured west, all the way to Southern California. • Fortunate for the nomads: the arid temperature and mountainous terrain of Southern California proved perfect for making movies. By the early 1910s, Hollywood emerged as the working capital of the United States’s movie industry. • Director/actors like Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton became stars – but remember, movies were silent, and people knew there would be an acoustic revolution in cinema. Censorship • 1929-1934- a period in Hollywood history after the advent of sound • Films produced during the pre-Code era often focused on illicit subject matter, like bootlegging, prostitution, and murder –uncensored • 1934, MPPDA Chairman William Hays instituted the Motion Picture Production Code banning explicit depictions of sex, violence, and other “sinful” deeds in movies. (public enemy) • result of the shift from silence to sound, Hollywood pictures started to veer in new, experimental directions. Some films flirted with nudity, others portrayed criminals in a positive light. This brief, yet hugely influential period in Hollywood, is known as the PreCode era. • Pre-Code Hollywood is the period in American filmmaking between the Silent Era and the institution of the Hays Code (1929-1934). Hays Code was a rulebook established by Will Hays as an attempt for Hollywood studios to "self-censor" to appease the moral majority. • By 1934, a resolution was passed that required that all Hollywood movies going forward would need a certificate of approval to be released. The five major film studios: MGM, RKO, Warner Bros., Paramount, and 20th Century Fox, had no choice but to agree. • After World War II, radical film movements began to sprout all over the world, such as the French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, and Scandinavian Revival. These movements all pushed cinema in new, and daring directions; just like Pre-Code Hollywood did. Cinema era- context • Wartime and Propaganda Films • In 1937, Benito Mussolini founded Cinecittà, a massive studio that operated under the slogan “Il cinema è l'arma più forte,” which translates to “the cinema is the strongest weapon.” During this time, countries all around the world used cinema as a weapon to influence the minds and hearts of their citizens. • This was especially true in the United States – prolific directors like Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces to make movies to support the U.S. war cause. • Wartime film is important to explore because it teaches us about how people interpret propaganda. For posterity’s sake, let’s define propaganda as biased information that’s used to promote political points. Global cinema underwent a renaissance after World War II; technically, creatively, and conceptually.post war movements: • Italian neorealism-(1944-1960) – an Italian film movement that brought filmmaking to the streets; defined by depictions of the Italian state after World War II. • French new wave- The French New Wave was about independent filmmaking – taking a camera into the streets and making a movie by any means necessary. • Scandinavian revival • Bengali cinema- lso known as Tollywood, helped develop arthouse films parallel to the mainstream Indian cinema. The Indian film industry is the biggest film industry in the world. Each year, India produces more than a thousand featurefilms. When most people think of Indian cinema, they think of Bollywood “song and dance” masalas – but did you know the country underwent a New Wave (similar to France, Italy, and Scandinavia) after World War II? • Japanese new wave • Iranian new wave • The Hollywood Golden Age began with the fall of pre-Code Hollywood (1934) and lasted until the birth of New Hollywood (1968).- audrey hepburn/ james dean etc • Censorship: In 1934, Chairman William Hays of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America instituted a production code that banned graphic cinematic depictions of sex, violence, and other illicit deeds. • The “Production Code” or “Hays Code” was responsible for the censorship of Hollywood films for 34 years. • The Hays Code kept cinema tame, which led to Hollywood romanticism. But it also made cinema unrealistic, which made the American public yearn for improbable outcomes. Not to mention that it set race relations back an indeterminable amount of years. The Hays Code specifically forbade miscegenation, or “the breeding of people of different races.” • Ultimately, the censorship of Hollywood films was about keeping power in the hands of people with power. It had some positive unintended outcomes – but it wasn’t worth the cost of suppression. • New hollywood- bonnie and cyylde HOW HAS THE FILM INDUSTRY CHANGED? • New Distribution Methods • The current state of cinema is in flux due to a wide array of issues, including (but not limited to) the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the wide-adoption of new streaming services from firstparty producers, i.e. Netflix, Disney, Paramount, etc., and the growth of new media forms. • Over the last few years, big-budget epics like Marvel’s The Avengers and Star Wars have performed well at the U.S. and Chinese box-office, but their success has often come at the expense of medium-budget movies; the result being a deeper lining of the pockets of exorbitantly wealthy corporations. Advantages • One of the major means of mass communication. • An easy way to look at history and learn from them • A movie educates us about the virtues of teamwork. • Popular media for information and entertainment. • Helps promote patriotism and mutual harmony among people. • Helps promote unity and mutual coexistence. • Movies challenge our imagination and take us beyond the realms of possibility. adv • Cinemas can be used to teach us about the varied customs, cultures, and traditions of the world. • Cinemas are true mirrors of the society. • Movies inspire us. • One successful movie can completely change the lives of so many people involved in its making. Many struggling actors have been known to hit it big time with just one hit. • Provides employment to millions. • Movies are educative. • Effective source of advertisements. • Movie advertising transcends the barriers of language and reaches all kinds of audience. Disadvantages • With ever-increasing consumerism, cinema seems to have lost its original purpose. • Some movies distort true facts and portrays false nations amongst the people under the guise of artistic freedom. • Not all movies are worth a watch. • Wastes time. • Some movies Devoid of logic. • Some scenes may have negative influence on children and minors. • Encourages stereotype. • Lewd dialogues and song lyrics may corrupts the viewer’s mind. • Some movies are devoid of any social message and relevance.
