Film History - Module 1 Notes

Module 1: The Origins of Film

Course Description

  • Film 100 introduces the analysis of film form and content, aesthetics and meaning, and history and culture.
  • Explores the diverse possibilities presented by the cinematic art form through an examination of a wide variety of productions, national cinemas, and film movements.
  • Topics include modes of production, narrative and non-narrative forms, visual design, editing, sound, genre, ideology, and critical analysis.

Spectators vs. Film Analysts

Spectators
  • Passive viewers who follow the narrative and perceive the movie without a specific goal.
  • They allow the film to lead them, viewing film as entertainment and pleasure.
Film Analysts

  • Active viewers who use structures to interpret movies.

  • They watch, listen, observe, and look for structure, performing analysis on the film.

  • Observe film in the larger context of art and society.

  • Film is an object of study meant to be understood.

  • Analysts ask "why" questions:

    • Why is that camera angle used?
    • Why was that color in so many scenes?
    • Why was the scene edited in that way?
    • Why was this film made at this time?

  • Answering these questions leads to a deeper understanding of filmmaking, history, and humanity.

  • Film (and art) is a reflection of the time and place it was made.

Film Analysts vs. Film Critique
  • Analysts dig for deeper meaning within film.
  • Film critique explores the art of making a film, such as discussing bad CGI or excellent camera work.

Roger Ebert

  • He was both an analyst and critic.
  • Many other great writers write for his website.

Film Crew Roles

Producer
  • Finds the material or script.
  • Finds the financing or money.
  • Hires the main talents (stars).
  • Hires the director or works closely with the director.
Director
  • Makes the movie.
  • Spends all the money.
  • Often the public face of the film's production.
Producer & Director Teams Examples
  • Joel and Ethan Coen (the Coen Brothers): Joel produces, and Ethan directs most of the time.
  • Kathleen Kennedy has produced many of Steven Spielberg's films.

How Films Are Classified: Genre

  • A way of cataloging films that are similar in theme, story structure, plot, look or design, or character type.

  • Examples:

    • Comedy
    • Drama
    • Horror
    • Romance
    • Western
    • Science Fiction
American Genres

  • Two uniquely American genres:

    • Musicals (e.g., Singin’ in the Rain (1952))
    • Westerns (e.g., The Great Train Robbery (1903))
Narrative Film
  • A film that tells a story.
  • Experimentation exists but is usually not commercially successful.

What Determines if a Film Is Good or Bad?

  • Is it financially or commercially successful, or a good representation of the art and craft of filmmaking?
  • Commercially successful is a ratio between how much it cost to make and how many tickets were sold.
  • Example: Black Panther (2018) budget was 200200 million and it grossed 2.192.19 billion (as of 5/25), which is a fantastic ROI.
Awards, Festivals, and Institutes
  • Awards: Academy Awards or BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts).
  • Festivals: Cannes Film Festival or Tribeca Film Festival.
  • Institutes: American Film Institute or British Film Institute.

Origins of Film

  • Humanity is hardwired to tell stories; moving pictures were the next progression in storytelling.
  • A motion picture is a series of still frames, 2424 still images or stills a second.
  • Brains process these still images as movement.
Persistence of Vision
  • The human eye perceives these frames as fluid motion.
  • Peter Mark Roget first explained this in 1824, stating that the retina can “remember” an image for a fraction of a second after it has been removed.
The Magic Lantern
  • Christiaan Huygens developed this in 1645, growing in popularity through the 1800s.
Zoetrope
  • A cylinder that holds a series of photographs or drawings that spins.
  • Spectators look through slits, and the images seem to move.
Still Photography
  • By the 1830s, still photography was being experimented with.
  • One of the first recorded images: “View from the Window at Le Gras” created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827.

Leland Stanford and Eadweard Muybridge

  • Leland Stanford: A lover of horses and gambling, governor of California, real estate mogul, and built a railroad empire.
  • Stanford bet 25,00025,000 that a horse had all four hooves off the ground while galloping.
  • Eadweard Muybridge: A scientist and inventor, he helped Stanford prove his observation.
  • Muybridge used a series of still cameras triggered by wires to capture images of a horse galloping.
  • Stanford won the bet, but Muybridge charged him 50,00050,000 to conduct the experiment.
  • Muybridge designed a way to playback his test results and designed this as a way to spin the wheel and get the illusion of movement

Jules Marey

  • Wanted to improve on Muybridge's work.
  • Developed a "gun camera" in 1882 to move with the subject.
  • Marey's rifle-style camera attributed to the phrase "taking a shot" or "on a shoot".

Thomas Edison and the Kinetoscope

  • Edison: American inventor and business person.
  • He invented the phonograph and the lightbulb.
  • Phonograph parlors were profitable, but had no images; Edison wanted to add a visual element.
George Eastman
  • Invented roll film in 1888, a missing ingredient in the moving picture.
Edison and Dickson
  • Thomas Edison and his chief engineer W.K.L Dickson collaborated.
  • They designed the first motion picture camera called the Kinetograph.
  • First film on record at the Library of Congress: Edison kinetoscopic record of a sneeze, January 7, 1894, titled Fred Ott’s Sneeze (6 seconds).
Black Maria
  • Edison's studio, the first American film studio, built in 1893 in New Jersey.
  • The building could be turned to follow sunlight.
Kinetoscope
  • Or peephole viewer.
  • 50 feet of film lasting 30 seconds.
  • It cost a penny and people got to see a short film.
  • This was a solo experience, with no group viewing.
Penny Arcade
  • Became very popular and were run mainly by Eastern European immigrants.
  • Edison realized the potential for money-making.
  • All of them want to be entertained. And you didn’t have to speak English to enjoy it!
Controversial Content
  • Sex and violence were the most popular!
  • Edison’s The Kiss (1896) was the earliest example of censorship in cinema.

The Lumiere Brothers

  • Auguste and Louis Lumiere.
  • Their father owned a factory that produced photographic equipment and film.
  • The brothers had seen Edison’s movie camera and got ideas to make their own invention.
Cinematographe
  • They brothers improved on Edison’s invention as this was both a camera and a projector!
  • December 28, 1895, the world's first commercial movie screening occurs at the Grand Cafe in Paris!
  • The first screening was shown to 33 people, one week later 2,000 people per night were coming to see the film!
Actualities
  • Short documentaries of everyday life produced by the Lumiere Brothers.
  • The brothers are often referred to as the grandfathers of documentary filmmaking!
Arrival of a Train
  • Some viewers were so frightened they ran out of the theater!
  • They didn’t understand what projected film was!

Alice Guy Blache

  • She was a French Filmmaker.
  • She is also the first female director and the first person to direct a narrative or story with film!
  • The Cabbage Fairy (1896) is the first narrative film.

George Melies

  • He was a magician by trade who would be the Father of Special FX.
    Started the first film production studio.
Visual Effects
  • The fade or dissolve
  • Time lapse
  • Stop motion
  • Multiple exposure
  • Matte shot
  • And many more!
Hugo (2011)
  • Based on a 2007 book, Director Martin Scorsese made a great film about George Melies called Hugo!

Edison and Vaudeville

  • Edison wanted to project films as well and saw tremendous profit to be made.
  • Films were projected in Vaudeville houses, which did double duty with variety shows.

Edwin S. Porter

  • Porter worked at the Edison studio.
  • Up until this time films looked like recorded theater or stage plays.
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
  • Porter directed it and it changed film forever.
  • It is the first action film and also the first western!
  • It was the number-one film in the country for nine years!
  • It would demonstrate the power and profitability of filmmaking.