3. A Brief History of Movies
Early Movie Technology
• At a minimum of 24 fps, one can achieve persistence of
vision
• Peep shows
• Thomas Edison’s kinetograph and
kinetoscope, (1889)
Vitascope (1896) led to nickelodeons
.
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
4. A Brief History of Movies
• Edison created the Motion Picture Patents
Company, known as The Trust.
• Made deal with film patent holder George
Eastman to limit access to film
• Chilling effect on film production in New
York
• Filmmakers move west to California
5. A Brief History of Movies
The Star System
• 1920s, theater owners begin to demand
stars, and studio heads see an opportunity
• Block booking
• Blind booking
7. Racism and Innovation
• D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915)
introduces perfected close-up, fade out,
flashback and montages. It also depicts black
people as subhuman and glorifies the Ku Klux
Klan.
• Leni Riefenstahl: Brilliant filmmaker, but films
were made to promote the Nazi cause.
10. A Brief History of Movies
Hollywood’s Golden Age (1930s)
• efficient studio system and global influence of
film art combined with the development of
sound and color
11. A Brief History of Movies
• Throughout the 1930s and 1940s moviegoing
became part of American culture, and genres
begin to form.
• Mafia films: Little Caesar (1930)
• Horror films: Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi
• Comedies: Marx brothers’ Duck Soup (1933)
• Color is perfected: Gone With The Wind and
The Wizard of Oz, both produced in 1939.
• Special effects: King Kong (1933) and The
Invisible Man (1933).
12. A Brief History of Movies
Black cinema
• Black citizens were not allowed in “whites-
only” theaters. Centered in Harlem, these
films featured all-black casts and were shown
in theaters in black neighborhoods throughout
the country.
• Oscar Micheaux
• Sidney Poitier
14. A Brief History of Movies
Reacting To TV
• By early 1960s more than 90 percent of American homes
have TVs.
• Better sound and better screens, such as Cinemascope.
• High-budget spectaculars
• Gimmicks: 3-D effects, Smell-o-Vision, vibrating chairs
• Adult themes: sex, drug use, violence
• 1955 Hollywood begins releasing made-for-TV movies
• Today, companies own both TV and movie studios
17. A Brief History of Movies
Adapting To New Media
• 1980s and (VCRs)
• MPAA tried to kill the VCR
• In 1983 the Supreme court ruled in the Sony
Betamax case that video recording for private
use was not an infringement of copyright.
• VCRs create whole new industry for movie
studios: the rentals
• DVDs 1996, then come recordable DVDs and
downloads, now iTunes store
19. A Brief History of Movies
Adapting To New Media
• Downloading leads to pirating and illegal
distribution: Morpheus, Kazaa, bittorrent
• In 2003, movie companies devised methods for
encrypting DVDs
• Online services: MovieLink, iTunes, Netflix
• Digital editing
• Digital distribution to theaters allow showing of
concerts, sporting events and huge savings over
canisters of film
• Is this the future of theaters? Who pays for the
upgrades?
24. Understanding Today’s Movie Industry
The People In The Credits
• Executive producer
• Line producers
• Director
• Writer
• Editor
• Cinematographer
• Art director
• Continuity supervisor
• Key grip
• Gaffer
• best boy
25. Understanding Today’s Movie Industry
Distribution
• Marketing window an opportunity to sell, rent, or
license a product to a different type of customer
• Domestic theatrical
• 1997: first time studios made more money from
theaters in other countries than in the U.S.
• Pressure from other governments/audiences can
influence which movies get a green light and can
affect content
27. Understanding Today’s Movie Industry
Exhibition
• Art theaters show experimental, avant
garde and foreign films.
• Multiplexes
• Megatheaters
28. Understanding Today’s Movie Industry
The Audience
• In the 1930s and 1940s entire families went to the
same movie.
• Studios target young white males with action-
adventure and female nudity because research
shows that young men usually select the film for
a date, and that 75 percent of the audience is
white.
• Summer provides the largest audience, followed
by holiday season
29. Controversies
• Effects Of Movie Viewing
• Docudramas
• Violence
• Sexual behavior and casual sex on screen
• Drug use/smoking
• Stereotyping
• Government censorship
• MPAA rating system (1968)
30. Chapter 6
Movies: Magic From The Dream Factory
Chapter Outline
• History
• Industry
• Controversies
Editor's Notes
D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915) introduces perfected close-up, fade out, flashback and montages. It also depicts black people as subhuman and glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Leni Riefenstahl: Brilliant filmmaker, but films were made to promote the Nazi cause.
D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation introduces perfected close-up, fade out, flashback and montages. It also depicts black people as subhuman and glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Leni Riefenstahl: Brilliant filmmaker, but films were made to promote the Nazi cause.
Jazz Singer 1927 film in blackface first film with sound.Warner Brother’s The Jazz Singer featuring Al Jolson: first full-length sound feature. only 354 words of spoken dialogue and a few songs
