Film Studies First Test

Magic Lantern Show

Done on a projector, with candle or gas lamp, used glass slides to show movement

Leland Stanford hires Eadward Muybridge

• Hired him to settle a bet about whether or not a horse had all four legs off the ground at one point 

• Realized a bunch of photos together gave the look of motion

• led to him going to Thomas Edison with his ideas

Thomas Edison

• invented the first video taping device

• wanted to patent many things, which led to the creation of film studios

• Also created the phonograph, which was used alongside peep shows

• establishing Black Maria, first film production studio

• kinetoscope

W.K.L. Dixon.

• Hired by Edison to “develop device that would do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear” 

• Helped developing Kinetograph

• Helped develop peep shows

• directed early motion pictures

First movie studio “actors.

First movie stars

Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish

Lumiere brothers

• invented the cinematographer, which had sprongs on the film to capture more frames per second

• also had the idea to project pictures instead of just having peep shows

George Melies

• invented and pioneered lots of special effects, like the dissolve transition, that we still use today

• Brought his vaudville/magician knowledge to film industry

• made movies with optical illusions/magic ricks

First call for censorship?

• first call for censorship was after a kiss was shown in a film

• thought of as scandalous, police & church action called for

Edwin S. Porter.

Part of the Edison company, and the director of the great train robbery, first to make a film that told a story not just showed moments

What did they call the first movie theaters?

They called them Nickelodeon’s because they cost a nickel to watch the films, and Odeon means theater in Greek

Director of Birth of a Nation

• DW Griffith

• Established shot (a wide shot at the start of a scene that displayed the setting and all of the characters)

• close up (a zoom in on a character that could display their emotion)

• parallel editing (he would cut back and forth between scenes to show multiple things that were happening at the same time

• Iris shot (zoom in where you can’t see the entire screen)

Talk about what you learned from Birth of a Movement.

• one of the first projects that NAACP worked on was trying to get the birth of a nation censored in the US because of the hate it incited

• boston was an epicenter for calls for censorship around the birth of a nation

Oscar Micheaux & his film, Within Our Gates.

• oscar micheaux was the first black director, had little experience in film school

• made his film with a low budget using friends houses, and it was a response to a birth of a nation displaying the cruel racism of southern white people, and how black people were affected and became the victim of it

1910-1920 History & Politics

WWI started during this time

1910-1920 science/technology/innovations

Pop up toaster invented

1910-1920 Arts

• Animal inspired dances (like turkey trot and grizzly bear)

• ragtime music

1910-1920 Pop culture & Daily life

Baseball was a popular sport to watch

History & Politics 1920-1930

Big scandal when Warren G Harding was president, members of his cabinet were secretly selling land for bribes

1920-1930 Science/Technology/Innovation

The bandaid was invented, as well as first version of a TV

1920-1930 Arts (Visual, Music, Theatre, Film, Dance)

Jazz became very popular in 1920s

1920-1930 Pop Culture & Daily Life

Lots of candy bars popular during 1920s, including the Reese’s and milky way