The
History
of
Film
Rooted in still photography - early to mid 1800s
Considered 1st actual photograph,1826
by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce
Origins of Motion Pictures
•Early 1890s
•Simultaneous development:
U.S. - Thomas Edison
France - Lumiere Brothers
(Auguste & Louis)
America
1891 Edison and W. K. L. Dickson invent
THE KINETOSCOPE
Individual viewing booths
With film projected at 48 fps
1894, First Kinetoscope parlors
 NYC
 5 cents = 20 – 60 seconds
America
» 1893 – Edison builds the “Black Maria” in West
Orange, NJ
» Attracted famous vaudeville acts / performances
» Shoots over 200 short films in its first 8 years.
France
• Louis and Auguste Lumiere’s photo factory
• “Cinematographe”
•Lightweight and mobile; doubled as a projector
and developed film.
•Creates global presence of film
France
• Cinema begins!
– Lumieres have 1st public
screening on
December 28, 1895 in
Paris
– 10 “Actualities”
shown
Meant to portray actual life
America
• Cinema begins!
Edison has first public
screening – April, 1896
New York City Koster and
Bial’s Music Hall
Several single shot films
as part of variety
program (singing,
dancing, performance)
The earliest films
up to 1902-03
Primitive techniques
Usually just “showed a view”:
1 angle
Stationary
generally less than 1 minute
Films after 1902-03
o Multiple shot productions
o Fiction films and theatrical films begin
o Types:
• Trick films – film increased the power of illusion
• Comedies – mostly nonsensical
• Chases – mini-stories
Trick film – “The Golden Beetle”, 1907
Exhibition of new multiple shot films
-- Nickelodeons --
Small (under 200 seat), family owned movie house.
They tended to have continuous daily showings of a
few (three or four) short "feature" films.
These theatres attracted a wide clientele which
included women and children.
Exhibition of new multiple shot films
-- Nickelodeons -• 1st Nickelodeon opened in Pittsburgh
June 1905.
Entrance to the Harris nickelodeon
Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, 1919
• 8,000 American Nickelodeons by 1908.
• The film industry evolved from the demands of these
small store front theatres.
Narrative “story” films
early 1900s
 Classical or scenic moments from
famous stories (the Bible, history, etc.)
 2 pioneers of new multiple shot films:
 Georges Melies (France)
 Edwin Porter (USA) – hired by Edison
Georges Melies
“The Cinemagician”
• Films characterized by:
 “Special effects”
 Fantasy
 highly artificial sets
 many shots, most scenes
only one shot
 dissolves
Georges Melies’
--- most famous film ---
A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) - 1902
Edwin Porter
 Thomas Edison hired him
to make films
 Porter is credited with
establishing an editing
language (with “Life of an
American Fireman”, 1903)
 Use of cross-cutting - to
dramatize the action
inside and outside of
the house
 Various angles and
shots
 Continuity of action
introduced
Edwin Porter
-- his most famous film -“The Great Train Robbery”,
1903
 Considered the first real movie
with a plot, it used:
 Multiple scenes, locations
 Frequent cross-cutting,
parallel stories
 Pans and tilts
 Other directors had presented
multiple scenes sequentially
before, but their films played
like condensed versions of
stage plays, The Great Train
Robbery played like a movie
Major developments after 1907
• Shots were closer (within 9 ft.)
• POV shots used
• More cross-cutting
• Use of intertitles
Screens with written dialogue
Between shots
Major developments after 1907
Narrative (storytelling) techniques improved
David Wark (D.
W.) Griffith
Was the narrative pioneer
Made first feature length films
Made more serious films
Used moving shots: dollies, tracking shots, etc.
D. W. Griffith’s
Most famous (and controversial) film
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The three hour ten minute film,
based on The Clansman by
Thomas Dixon, deals with
The American Civil War and the
rise of the Ku Klux Klan during the
Reconstruction.
“Birth of a Nation”
trailer, 1915
Considered to be technically sophisticated and ahead of its
time but extremely backward in ideas
Despite its controversial story, the film continues to get praise from film
critics such as Roger Ebert, who said: "'The Birth of a Nation' is not a bad film
because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s 'The Triumph of the Will,' it is a
great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a
great deal about film, and even something about evil. "
Narrative feature length films, along with the
popularity of movie theaters, brought about
the Rise of Hollywood…
and… the first “talkie” (film with sound):
“The Jazz Singer”, 1927
• 1927 and 1928 = beginning of Hollywood's
Golden Age and the final steps in the
establishment of studio system control of the
American film business.
• The success of 1927's The Jazz Singer gave a
big boost to the then midsized Warner Bros.
studio. The following year saw the general
introduction of sound throughout the
industry.
Studio System = the practice of large
motion picture studios:
• producing movies on their own filmmaking lots
• pursuing vertical integration -- ownership or
control of distributors and movie theaters,
guaranteeing additional sales of films through
manipulative booking techniques.
• During the Golden Age, only eight companies comprised
the major studios in the Hollywood studio system. Of
these eight, five were fully integrated, combining
ownership of a production studio, distribution division,
and theater chain:
 Fox (later 20th Century-Fox),
 Loew’s Incorporated (owner of America's largest
theater chain and parent company to MGM),
 Paramount Pictures
 RKO, and
 Warner Bros.
• Film historians list a few reasons why many
great movies emerged during this period:
Quantity! With so many movies being made, not
every one had to be a big hit. A studio could gamble
on a medium-budget film with a good script and
relatively unknown actors.
In other cases, strong-willed directors battled the
studios in order to achieve their artistic visions… this
is less common nowadays, but helped produce many
unique and interesting films for the time period.
Famous Movies: The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful
Life, the original King Kong, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves…& many others!
“The Paramount Case”
This1948 Supreme Court case ruled against
these unfair distribution and exhibition practices
(vertical integration) and ended the studio
system, which gave those “Big 5” studios control
of basically the entire film market… this brought
about the end of the Golden Age.
The Rise of TV
-- 1950s -Movie attendance peaked in 1946. There
several reasons why it has never reached
the same levels of attendance:
– The invention and widespread ownership of
televisions
– The post-World War II era led to:
• Suburbanization—suburbs sprouted up, making people less
interested in traveling to the cities to see movies
• The Baby Boom—more babies made many people more
family-oriented
The Rise of TV
-- 1950s
New ways to attract audiences:
Cinemascope
3-D
A bigger, wrap-around
Screen in theaters
(similar to IMAX).
Cinerama
3 screens combined
to project a much bigger
Image = more expensive
Smellovision!!
a system that released odors during the
projection of a film so that the viewer could
"smell" what was happening in the movie.
The process injected 30 different smells
into a movie theater's seats when triggered
by the film's soundtrack. Hilarious!
New Hollywood
Generally dated to the release of “Jaws” in 1975
1975
New Hollywood characterized by the “Blockbuster
Syndrome”– The Film industry is dominated by high
cost, high stakes productions… studios generally fund
movies that are sure to be successful. This leads to:
•Sequels
•High action / less dialogue movies
•Movies easily translated into other languages (for overseas success)
New Hollywood
more characteristics:
Multi-plex theatres
Sequels
Younger viewers
Series
Less dialogue, more spectacle
Remakes