This document provides a history of cinema and discusses important developments and innovations in the medium. It covers the early innovations that enabled motion pictures, pioneers like Méliès and Griffith who developed editing techniques, experimental filmmakers like Dalí and Buñuel. It also summarizes the introduction of sound films and major directors from various countries, the rise of special effects with digital technology, and the growth of video and digital art.
2. First experimental color film
Screened under pretenses of
advertisement during suppressive Nazi
regime
Cinema is a mass art closely monitored
by those in authority.
Creative people have been making
experimental films for generations.
Oskar Fischinger. Circles. 1933–34.
Film still.
3. 1
The Birth of Cinema
Cinema
• Production of movies as an art or
an industry
•
Logical extension of photography
Illusion of motion made possible
by persistence of vision
Eadweard Muybridge
•
Commissioned to capture horse’s
legs to settle bet made by Leland
Stanford The Horse in Motion
• Proved Stanford correct
• Documentation improved by
faster exposure mechanisms
Zoöpraxiscope
• First primitive cinema
4. 1
The Birth of Cinema
Film
•
First practical film camera invented in
1891 (Edison Labs) Used a long strip
of film
• Electric motor fed through a camera
at 16 frames per second
Cinema a popular entertainment medium
by 1890s
• Short movies, usually less than 10
minutes long
• Few accepted cinema as an artform
• Film camera seemed like a mere
recording device
•
Early filmmakers tried to make
movies look like filmed theatrical
performances
• Early films were silent projections
Eadweard Muybridge. The Horse in
Motion. 1878.
Photographs.
5. 1
Silent Cinema: Innovations and
Techniques
Power of cinema comes from ability to
reconstruct time
Cinematography
• The art of photography and
camerawork in filmmaking
Georges Méliès
•
Pioneered dissolves between scenes
• Voyage to the Moon
• Astronauts find a culture on the moon
Films enjoyed worldwide attention
Georges Méliès. Le Voyage dans la lune.
(Voyage to the Moon). 1902.
Film still.
6. 1
Film editing
In which the editor selects the
best shots from raw footage and
reassembles them into
meaningful sequences
DW Griffith
Used parallel editing
First to use close-up, long shot
D. W. Griffith. Intolerance (The
Modern Story). 1916.
Film still (Belshazzar's Feast).
7. 1
Sergei Eisenstein
Further developed Griffith’s
techniques
Skillful use of montage
Combining a number of brief
shots to represent distinct
but related subject
matter
The Battleship Potemkin
Realistic portrayal of tragic
event
Close-ups and long shots
gave audiences a sense of
fear and tragedy
Sergei Eisenstein. Battleship
Potemkin. 1925. Selected
frames from “Odessa Steps”
sequence. Film stills
8. 1
Dalí and Buñuel, Un Chien
Andalou
Silent with musical
accompaniment
Sequence of seemingly
irrational events
Overall theme of unrealized
sexual desire
Inspired hallucinogenic feel of
later music videos
Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel.
Un Chien Andalou (An
Andalusian Dog). 1929.
Film still
9. 1
From the Talkies to the Seventies
• Hollywood
Production site for vast majority of the
world’s movies in the 1930s
Motion Picture Production Code
Attempt to regulate moral content of film
Forbade profanity, nudity, sexual activity,
drug use, interracial relationships, criticism of
clergy
Gone with the Wind fined $5,000 for "Frankly,
my dear, I don't give a damn."
Films lacking MPPCA approval had no chance
of wide distribution.
• Citizen Kane, 1941 Landmark in cinema
Orson Welles coauthored script, directed,
played leading role
Thinly veiled biography of William Randolph
Hearst
Unprecedented cinematic devices
Extreme angles Clever editing
Orson Welles. Citizen Kane. 1941.
Film still
10. 1
Film noir
Brooding black-and-white films
usually dealing with murder
Popular in 1940s Hollywood
The dark side of the American
Dream
Raymond Chandler Detective
stories
Detour
Main character ends up a
murder suspect
Edgar G. Ulmer. Detour. 1945.
Film still
11. 1
Foreign directors making
groundbreaking movies
Akira Kurosawa
Japanese
Adapted European plays and stories
through his own vision of traditional
Japanese theater
Throne of Blood
Retells Macbeth in ancient Japanese
setting
Western directors have adapted or
remade Kurosawa’s movies
Akira Kurosawa. Throne of Blood.
1957. Film still
12. 1
Foreign directors making
groundbreaking movies
Federico Fellini, La Dolce
Vita
Told non-Hollywood stories
Foreshadowing today’s
critiques of mass media
Advent of the world
paparazzi, from character
Paparazzo
Federico Fellini. La Dolce
Vita. 1961.
Film still.
13. 1
Experimental Cinema
By 1960s, artists who made movies
considered work “underground”
Separation between artists and directors
as complete as it would ever be
Stan Brakhage
Early leader in underground cinema
movement
Began painting directly on raw film and
then scratching through it
Filmed birth of a child in 1959
Subject forbidden by Production Code
Dog Star Man
Most famous movie
No clear plot- theme of the creation of
the universe
Stan Brakhage. Dog Star Man. 1964.
Film still.
14. 1
Experimental Cinema
Kenneth Anger, Scorpio Rising
Experimental but influenced
mainstream
Documents rituals of a Brooklyn
motorcycle gang
“Biker movie” genre
Kenneth Anger. Scorpio Rising.
1964.
Film still
15. 1
• The Seventies
Decline of Production Code in 1960s – greater freedom
Directors re-thought old genres Robert Altman, The Long Goodbye
Robert Altman. The Long Goodbye. 1973.
Film still.
16. 1
The Seventies
Blaxploitation movement
Studios employed African-
American directors and actors
Gordon Parks, Shaft
Proved successful with white
audiences as well
Showed gritty urban life in
Harlem with new clarity
Gordon Parks. Shaft. 1971.
Film still
17. 1
Special Effects and Digital
Cinema
Special effects
Merge old techniques with
new technology of
computers
George Lucas and Lucasfilm
Ltd.
Increased use of computers
in editing
Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo
del Toro
Spanish-American
production
Intersection of fantasy and
reality
Exhibits imagination helping
us cope with adversity
Guillermo del Toro. Pans
Labyrinth. 2006.
Film still.
18. 1
Special effects
Shift from traditional film to digital
cinematography is nearly complete
Star Wars Episode I–The Phantom Menace,
1999
First to combine film and digital
cinematography
Strongly influenced the adoption of digital
projection equipment in theaters
• Evolution to digital has important
implications
• Special effects draw audience interest
• Facilitated by speed of digital production
Facilitates uniform worldwide distribution
Ridley Scott, Prometheus
• Shot using multiple digital cameras
Opened in 49 countries over a ten-day
period
Scenes seamlessly blend human actors
with digital animation
Ridley Scott. Prometheus. 2012.
Movie still.
20. 1
• Virtual reality is latest
technical innovation in cinema
Movies either animated or shot
live with three-dimensional
cameras
Viewers wear headsets to see
action in panorama
Many viewable on smartphones
Janicza Bravo, Hard World for
Small Things
Puts viewer in back seat of a
convertible as it drives through
South Central Los Angeles
Janicza Bravo. Hard World for
Small Things. 2016. Still from VR
movie.
21. 1
Video Art
Unique characteristics of video
Instant feedback Inexpensive
cassettes
Storage Erased Re-recorded
Early videos were simple
No editing was possible
Medium best suited for private
screenings for small groups
• Nam June Paik, Video Flag Z
84 television screens resembling
American flag
Old Hollywood films flicker
across screens
Nam June Paik. Video Flag Z. 1986.
Multimedia, television sets, videodiscs,
videodisc players, and Plexiglas modular
cabinet.
74” × 138” × 18-1/2”.
22. 1
Digital Video Art
New technologies of flat screens and
DVDs
Line between video art and
cinematography has blurred
Matthew Barney, CREMASTER Cycle
Elaborately symbolic storylines
Apprentice passes through obstacles at
the Guggenheim Museum
Matthew Barney. CREMASTER 3. 2002.
Production still.