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 camera-projector 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 1910-1920’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 Depression-era 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 licensed companies, etc.

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.