The History Of Film

1. The History Of Film From the beginning, where it all started…

2. 1834 was the time of the zoetrope, I was a childs entertainment toy that was literally a drum with drawings inside, once you span the drum the drawings would move round causing an optical illusion of the drawings moving. One picture would go in-between each slit in the drum, to allow light in, so if there were 12 slits in the drum, there would be 12 pictures. One thing that was very effective with the zoetrope, was it could be enjoyed by several people at once as each person would watch through the slits in the side. http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/moving_toys/optical_toys/zoetrope/index.html Tarzan piece with the zoetrope http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQdV2k77eSA&NR=1&feature=fvwp Man on a penny-farthing

3. Sturm Lantern 1676 Triunial Lantern1890's A Metamorphoser Lantern Over the period of a little more than 200 years the Magic Lantern developed from basic projectors such as the Sturm Lantern, capable of producing small, dimly lit images to the magnificent Triunials, manufactured by J H Steward, W Butcher and Son, or W C Hughes. In the hands of someone who knew what they were doing, these fabulous machines could produce huge, brightly coloured, wonderfully entertainment for hundreds of people. Even animation came through these machines where changing the slide very fast

4. Thaumatropes came along during the Victorian times in the 18 hundreds (1800’s) and were very popular as toys, the most famous one’s you would either recognise or have already seen would be either a tree on one side, and leaves on the other, another recognisable one is a vase and flowers but the most famous one you will ever see is of a bird and an empty cage, once spun repeatedly with the string it would seem the bird is inside the cage as of persistence of vision, a film where this one can be seen is Sleepy Hollow by the director Tim Burton, in the film you will see the character Icabod Crane (Jonny Depp)repeatedly playing with the Thaumatropes The 1800's

5. 1894 The history of film began in 1894 when the “motion picture projector” was perfected and the first films were shown to the public. This was made possible by the invention of kinetoscope by Thomas A. Edison and by George Eastman's film for “roller photography.” A motion picture projector, drawn as a rough interpretation

6. 1903 In around 1903 the first or one of the first feature films, it showed the incredible train robbery of 1903, one of the opening scenes was of the robber or a robber in the heist with him shooting right towards the audience and screen, this then implied to American viewers of the film that killing can be fun, whilst the rest of America looked at it and were appalled.

7. 1913 In 1913 the first Indian film was realised under the name of being created by Bollywood, Bollywood films are pretty easy to follow even if you don’t speak the language, they released around 20-30 films annually and create enough of a profit that they haven’t gone out of business to this day.

8. Throughout the early history of film in around 1926, distribution theatres owners would hire orchestras to attend film showings and provide soundtracks for the backing. The original peter pan poster for the silent film with the symphony orchestra 1924 In 1924, The orchestra’s history gave the conductor Hunsberger the idea to put a symphony orchestra to the background music of a silent peter pan film, this then created the idea of putting a musical program to the backing of a silent film.

9. Later in the 1920’s the French film maker, Georges Melies, he was the first to employ people to change the costumes and change the sets, until that time movies were only a few minuets long, later on during the year before the first world war, the double reel film camera was created, allowing films to be longer than a single reel film resulting in a film longer than 15-20 minuets.

10. In 1927 paramount pictures brought a huge area of land, approximately around 2700 acres in 1927, it was a mountainous backdrop that has a long line in film history across the ages. Paramount pictures used it for 20 years just for the oak groves, creeks and canyons for shooting Westerns like "Wells Fargo" and "Man from Wyoming." The area was also used and passed for China in "The Adventures of Marco Polo" and Missouri in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." In those days, the Paramount Ranch/area was five times the size it is now and boasted five permanent sets. 1927 http://www.newbasinblues.org/PDF%20Maps/Paramount%20Ranch%208-08.pdf For a picture of the massive 2700 acre ranch click the link

11. 1926-27-28 One of the first uses of synchronized sound was in the film “Rin – Tin – Tin” (August 1926) it had the first uses of sound effects with no dialog, such as background noises (trains, wind, flame roaring) when first shown on broad way, there was people assumed back stage, that spoke and sang for the film. In addition and to further development was “The Jazz Singer” (6th October 1927) it had part singing and part talking, in further development was the film that was the first all talking film. “Lights Of New York” (July 1928 realised by warners)

12. 1929 In 1929 the biggest medical disaster to happen in the nations history, in the late morning of the 5th of May 1929, when nitrate X-ray film in the cellar of the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic ignited by spontaneous combustion. It caused major loss to film directors who lost their work in this explosion. The film was in storage vaults in a small brick-lined room near the clinic's furnace. Flowing upward through the ventilating system and pipe tunnels, the deadly nitrogen dioxide gas produced by the smouldering film penetrated to many of the clinic rooms before it finally exploded in a thundering roar.

13. Pre 1930's In the period before the 1930’s, the films cameras where so inefficient that the actual camera man had to crank the film round at a steady pace to expose the film and get the print. But, when it came to showing the film, motor wound projectors were quite convenient. And in the 1920’s the first cameras with the standard 24 frames per second for projecting films Filming still became un-reliant and unstandarized as the camera man only wound the film to a standard rate he felt comfortable with, so consequently the recording speeds were depending on the camera man. An experienced cameraman was capable of filming an entire film at approximately the same speed, yet often variations were made in the recording speed for dramatic effect. Decreasing the number of cranks, for example, exposed fewer frames and therefore when projected at the standard 24 frames per second it created what was known as the frenzied action that characterized much of the Vaudeville cinema. The vaudeville cinema was around in the 1880’s to roughly around the 1930’s, it was established in America and Canada and was of a theatrical genre and revolved around different, separate and unrelated acts.

14. For the entire 1930’s and before films were all silent and had captions appear on a black screen to see what was being said, subtitles didn’t come along for a while to come in the future, into the 1930’s the introduction of sound came along  Into around 1993 an invention came along that provided synchronous sound and dialog, it was based on a radio and could amplify sound in the theatre, initially there was two ways to record sound, the first being not as efficient or effective was recording to a separate disc and synchronise the sound to the film, the second being more efficient and popular, was the use of being able to record sound to the actual celluloid film. Initially the actors had to stay close to the stationary microphones and the cameras had to be encased to muffle the sound of the camera and surroundings due to the fact sound use to hinder the film making process (cause issues), the cameras had to be encased as their motors would make noise and the film would pick it up, so sound caused a big issue which was then resolved in later years with the help of technological advances. 1930's

15. The use of sound showed viewers which companies had power over others (and wealth) this then dominated screens for years with the companies being famous and staying on screens for many, many years. Such companies consist of – Fox Studios (later 20th Century Fox), Leow’s Incorporated (later Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer), Paramount, RKO, and Warner Bros.

16. Technicolour 1930+

17. It was also during the 1930’s that colour was introduced as a proper item, with the use of Technicolor system, Technicolor was created through the use of a special camera that ran 3 strips through it, one strip in red,one strip in blue,and one strip in yellow.Once the 3 strips were combined/consolidated the film was in full colour, such films that were exaggerated these colours were. “Gone With The Wind” (1939) and “The Wizard Of Oz” (1939). One film that used colour before sound and before Technicolor became well known was “The Black Pirate” (1926) it uses colour, but no sound so consequently has captions.

18. The 1940’s was the beginning of the “neorealism” it was the first of the Italian movements, it focused on the non-fictional aspects of film in the Italian society. Further into the future, filmmakers would look to this movement as inspiration for their own films. As this movement was based on the Italian heritage, other film makers would sometimes make their own films depicting their own home countries, sometimes known as a “slice-of-life” 1940+ Neorealism A Slice Of Life

19. A main highlight of the 1950 was the introduction of films being filmed with special lenses and viewed by the audiences with special glasses; this was the introduction of 3-D. Hollywood realised around 35 of these films to the public during the time it was around, the audiences were intrigue at first but soon became “bored” with the idea and lost its popularity and interest, so consequently Hollywood dropped it. 1950

20. later into the 1950's Later into the 1950’s a technique that was realised and introduced to the public was the ability to view films in wide screen, and wide screen format. This was introduced to distinguish movies from being watched at home on the TV and to attract and lure them to the theatre again, the first of this technology that was introduced was the “cinemascope” it used a special lens to compress wide screen footage on to an ordinary 35mm film reel. A second lens would later be placed on the projector to decompress the footage but make the picture wide screen format. All this technology for wide screen format was then replaced later by the panavision system, which didn’t require special lenses.

21. Into the 1950’s a few French film critics created what they called “New Wave” the new wave believed that the film directors/creators were overly devoted to the written aspects of the film, they sought in some ways to reconceptionalize film techniques. One such example of this Jean-Luc Godard, who introduced the jump-cuts, temporal cuts to disrupt the continuity of a scene. 1950's The New Wave

22. D N K a e I s u n e o 1960 1960, the German movement, much like the Italian and French “Neorealism” “New Wave” The German movement was known as the “das neue Kino” translated to say “The New Cinema” the major aspects of the new cinema were what Germany had endured through history and hardship.

23. The 1970’s was the ere of one of the most well known types of film. “Blockbusters” if it had to be specific and focus on one film, it would be “jaws” jaws broke the mold and system in about 7 major different ways, the first. In just using unknown actors, it was a known fact all majour films, and soon to become blockbusters, had to have well known actors or a recognizable cast, but jaws used complete strangers to the film world. Secondly, and more importantly, it used something that was completely out of the ordinary. A full size, metal, and functionally mechanical robot shark, audiences had seen special effects, but not models, this revolutionised the film industry, thus was born the ere of the f/x Blockbuster. A few years later this was recreated again with one of the most well known films of our time, “Star Wars” it captivated audiences again with the special effects being able to portray emotions such as romanticising some scenes and causing much action, this created a new formula and brought much “cash” to Hollywood! 1970

24. By the mid-1970’s a new formula to increase income came alone, instead of films being shown one by one in cinema’s as they came out, a set time where films would be shown together in cinema’s, so one group at a time, this aloud the opportunity to see popularity of the film and increase the amount of money take in at one time, this formula for success still is around today. The Mid 1970's

25. In 1978 a new device was developed called “The Steadicam” it was a camera mount that instead of being attached to a tripod or dolly, it was attached to the actual cameraman, it aloud films to be done where-ever the cameraman could walk or run instead of relying on there being tracks or the camera being stationary, one of the latest examples of the Steadicam is in the new Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan in the Battle of Normandy sequences. 1978

26. Independent Film Makers 1970-1980 The only majour change that occurred between the 1970’s and entire 1980’s was the rise of new mediums. In the 1980’s cable companies exploded, wiring the country with new entertainment possibilities. Through this occurrence it provoked the introduction to independent filmmakers, up until this time independent film production had trouble finding an audience, but now it could be shown to all audiences as cable opened up many opportunities.

27. The 1990’s, the digital age, this was the biggest movement of our time as everything was replaced. CD’s replacing vinyl and tapes, DVD’s becoming increasingly popular and camera’s and camcorders, meaning that filming became incredibly portable, over the years cameras and camcorders became sharper and sharper as well. Hollywood is not to be left out, in fact they are far ahead in this with the editing technology, yes editing was available since the 1980’s but not until the 1990’s did it become to the standard now, high-schools even started purchasing high grade editing software and made it possible to edit films in a new way, special effects have come along way as now with help from computers we are able to massively change the cost effect and even change how we view the film, in how we view the footage we can add effects to increase the visual entertainment. And in a way for being cost effective, computer are now used to help delete the mistake and help only pick the best cut, or bits of each cut and edit them together. 1990's Digital !

28. One of the main pioneers of the digital ere/age would be George Lucas. Realising the first start wars film in theatres using a digital projector, (no film reels needed) and convincing people he would film the next “2” on completely digital camera’s and being realised in a completely digital theatre. It is now clear to Hollywood and the rest of the world in film that digital is the next evolution in film.

29. In the 2000’s besides all the major disasters and financial economy falling to pieces, film technology went through the roof with one main event right at the end of the 2000’s with the major hit film “Avatar” James Cameron announced the creation of the film in 1996 after the film titanic, and was going to start production in 1997 and planned to finish in 1999. A lot earlier on we found he wrote an 80 page mini-script for the movie in 1994. Cameron soon decided that available technology would not be available to properly create his vision, so he decided to put off making the film. Filming then re-began in 2005. The language development started in 2006 and other technology was available. After a while the films realise date was announced for the film to be out on either 17th or 18th of December 2009. The film took around 15 years to get into cinemas and around 4 years to generally film, the film cost around $280 million for the production, plus marketing costs. Says “The Los Angeles Times”but in the end made a massive profit of nearly 1 billion dollars and broke the record of titanic (this happened in only the 3rd week). The film made so much that they re-realised it in cinemas with extras on the 27 august 2010 and from the original run time of 162minuets, with the extras has only gained a few minutes and now is 171 minutes. With only 9 minutes of deleted scenes 2000

30. -Camera picture and information http://www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/cinimage.html http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmotionpictures.htm -Sites for motion picture history http://www.google.co.uk/#q=history+of+film&hl=en&sa=X&tbs=tl:1,tl_num:100&prmd=ivb&ei=AheaTOPSDISQjAfA7q0p&ved=0CGgQywEoBA&fp=b434a202b0983279 http://library.thinkquest.org/29285/history/ http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/collections/toys/moving_toys/optical_toys/zoetrope/index.html www.magiclantern.org.uk/lanternhistory.html Help with the Avatar Information http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_did_it_take_to_make_the_film_avatar http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/ http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/how-much-did-avatar-really-cost.html Resources

32. Charlie Chaplin, an early pioneer of film making, he was never really introduced or influenced into film making, he just followed his own path and went for something new, in his case that meant become a film actor and later director. Some of his key films over his life were possibly his most famous films and the films that got him well known as an actor, then a director: “City Lights” one of the first if not the first sound movie. Hence it was one of the key films in the Charlie Chaplin era. Another film would be “A Great Dictator” where he plays a duel role and uses dialog for the first time, these would probably be a couple of the many famous movies by Charlie. One other film that should be mentioned would be “The Gold Rush” it got nominated, and won two academy awards. One for Best Sound Recording, and secondly for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. This film was about Charlie searching for gold as the name implies, it involves a careful balance of slapstick and romantic tenderness. An Early Pioneer Charlie chaplin Of Film

33. I think a critical review of one of his films would have to be on “The Circus” The Circus is one of the “Little Tramp's” most emotional and intense roles, as well as one of Charlie Chaplin's funniest silent movies. One of the key scenes is the chase scene with Charlie and the pickpocket from the circus being chased by the police. After this scene running through the hall of mirrors, Charlie finds himself in the centre stage and is unintentionally hilarious. Later the ringmaster auditions him for a role to find he can’t be funny on purpose. I wouldn’t actually know how to make the film any better as all Charlie’s films are funny in his own unique way so changing it would make it like somebody else’s, so keeping it in his own style is best. The Circus My Critical Review

34. Alfred Hitchcock, one of the classic directors creating some very memorable thriller films such as, “The Birds”, “Dial M For Murder” and possibly more famous, “Rear Window” or “Vertigo” but one film I think Hitchcock is most famous for would be his hit film “Psycho”. Hitchcock was a master of suspense, he could build it up to the point where you were on the edge of your seat and psycho was a great example of that. He was influenced into the film industry, from right when he started in 1919 illustrating title cards in silent movies. He learnt new skills and eventually rose to assistant director in 1922. That year he got the chance to finish an unfinished film, “no. 13” or “Mrs. Peabody” he then developed his skills further and created his first film “The Pleasure Garden”. Alfred Hitchcock A Classic Director

35. Some of Alfred Hitchcock’s key films would easily be his first proper film “The Pleasure Garden”, his most famous films, “Psycho”, “The Birds” and “Vertigo”, in all these films he lives up to his expectations and reputation of being the master of suspense. One of the most famous scenes of his films and very recognizable to this day is the shower scene from Psycho, and the music played in the background! My Critical Review I think a good film to write a critical review on would be his 2nd or even no.1 hit film “Psycho”. The film lives up to the expectations and more of Hitchcock’s reputation of being the master of suspense; on multiple times in the film he has you on the edge of your seat and just waiting for the scene to have happened. He uses very good music in the film, which helps build the suspense for example the famous shower scene where as the music builds in volume and picks up speed informs us of something about to happen. But, in opinion I think the film could have been improved by more focus of specific scenes, in terms of either build up to that scene happening, or when it happens make it last longer with either more suspense or more drama as it is a thriller film.

36. George Lucas An Auteur Of Film-making George Lucas. An auteur of filmmaking. He was influenced into the film industry through his late teens and early 20’s. He claims to have chassed girls and raced cars all through high school, he then quotes “I was a hell raiser, I lived, ate, and breathed cars, that was my passion” it was in the late years of junior college he continued his passion and even worked in pit lanes. It was through this he met Haskell Wexler who introduced him to film and eventually Lucas found his new passion and joined the university of southern California’s film department thanks to help of Mr. Wexler. It was in university that he became the head of his film classes. Some of his key films came when he was in university. His first proper movie was in university and won many awards and accolades, his first feature length film was THX-1138. He then later looked into special effects and focused on his idea of “Star Wars” in terms of producing, not directing, Lucas also produced all three of the Indiana Jones movies; Temple of Doom, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Last Crusade. All directed by Steven Spielberg. In 1977 Lucas made his first Star Wars Film, it changed everything and inspired many of young filmmakers. He then announced that he would make 2 more all in digital.

37. My personal opinion on the Star Wars Trilogy would be that they defiantly improved the world of filmmaking. They were a new revolution on how we viewed digital and special effects. At the time they were made at 1977 plus, they were state of the art special effects and as mentioned above, revolutionized the film world, but on a critical view they could be made better by just generally remaking them now in the 20th centaury with the new development of technology. My Critical Review Of Star Wars

38. Tim Burton. A pioneer of new technology. Tim is my all time favourite director. He has created a lot of films that have inspired me. Just like me he was influenced by another director, but didn’t focus on the director, but the actor in the films “Vincent Price” he was drawing cartoons from when he was a kid and his talent was recognized by a garbage company when he won a competition for a “do not litter” poster. He later went to work with Disney as practically an apprenticeship, and helped in the making of “The Fox And The Hound”. Although Disney was a lot less gothic than his usual work “Vincent” for example, he stayed working until the end of that film. Some of Tim’s key films would easily be his earliest, his most famous, or the newest. In terms of earliest you could have his early animations such as “Vincent”, “The Many Adventures Of Oyster Boy”, “Stain Boy” or “FrankinWeenie” all done when Tim had just discovered animation and was developing his skills and knowledge. Other key films that can be referred to as most famous, one would easily be his hit animation “The Nightmare Before Christmas” or the Batman quadrilogy and probably “Edward Sizzorhands”. His early work was good as you could see how Tim had and has developed and from his most famous you can see why they are and what to expect from Tim’s new work or work even to come.

39. Finally his newest work being either “9” a movie all animated as usual but made with little sown creatures carrying the soul of an elderly man and the spirit of mankind in the war against machines, or the newest one to date, “Alice In Wonderland” where it is pretty much a remake of the old film except a mix of reality and animation with the real characters acting with the green screen to then be made to look like working with the Cheshire cat and the white rabbit. My Critical Review For a critical review I would have to go with one of the films I dislike by Tim Burton, I would probably go with “Mars Attacks” this film can be made very critical just in the fact that its not Tim’s style, it was very out of the ordinary and by that I mean not the ordinary way that he does his films, so a general way to just make the film better overall would easily be to either add more “Tim” or change the way that it was created, so change the story or even add more to it.

40. Group 1 – Charlie Chaplin – early pioneers of film http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/extraordinary_exiles/Charlie_Chaplins_star_on_rise_again.html?cid=12814 http://www.allmovieportal.com/b/charliechaplin.html http://www.clown-ministry.com/index_1.php/articles/the_circus_charlie_chaplin_merna_kennedy_dvd_review/ Group 2 – Alfred Hitchcock – classic directors http://hitchcock.tv/HFAQ/FAQ.html http://hitchcock.tv/bio/bio.html Group 3 – George Lucas – auteurs http://www.scribd.com/doc/6438858/george-lucas-and-his-influence http://www.lucasfilm.com/inside/bio/georgelucas.html http://thetorchonline.com/2010/08/25/whos-more-hated-george-lucas-or-m-night-shyamalan/ Group 4 – Tim Burton – pioneers of new technology http://www.listal.com/list/tim-burtons-movies http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000318/bio Resources