The History

of Cinema
 The History
» A movie theater or movie theatre (also called a cinema, movie house, film
house, and film theater or picture house) is a venue, usually a building, for
viewing films or movies. In the US, theater has long been the preferred
spelling, while in the UK and elsewhere it is theatre.
» However, many US theaters opt to use the British spelling in their own names,
a practice supported by the National Association of Theatre Owners, while
apart from North America most English-speaking countries generally use the
term cinema. The latter terms, as well as their derivative adjectives
"cinematic" and "kinematic", ultimately derive from Greek’ movement",
"motion". In the countries where those terms are used, the word "theatre" is
usually reserved for live performance venues.
» Colloquial expressions, mostly applied to motion pictures and motion picture
theaters collectively, include the silver screen (formerly sometimes sheet)
and the big screen (contrasted with the smaller screen of a television set.
Specific to North America is the movies, while specific to the UK are the
pictures, the flicks, and for the facility itself the flea pit (or fleapit).
» Screening room refers to a very small theater, often a private one, such as
for the use of those involved in the production of motion pictures or in a
large private residence.
 The Seven Ages of Film

Pioneering Age
1896 - 1912
 The Seven Ages of Film
The Silent Age
1913 - 1927

The emergence of
Hollywood
World War I and the
exodus from
Europe
 The Seven Ages of Film
The Transition Age
1928-32

From Silent to Sound

 The Seven Ages of Film
The Hollywood
Studio Age
1932 - 1946

Domination by the
Studio
Genre movies
World War II
 The Seven Ages of Film
The Internationalist
Age
1947 - 1959

Hollywood Studio
decline
The challenge of TV
 The Seven Ages of Film
The New Wave Age
1960 - 1980

From France to the

world
Technological
innovation
Small scale productions
Strong social / political
value to film.
 The Seven Ages of Film
The Mass Media Age
1980 - present

Film & movies as part of

the global
entertainment /
communications
media
Digital production
 History
Mechanisms for
producing moving
images had been
demonstrated from
the 1860s. -
zeotropes
praxinoscopes
kineoscopes
 History
These relied on the
“persistence of
vision” to provide an
illusion of movement
if the images were
moved at sufficient
speed past the
viewer.
 History

The development of the motion picture projector and film

stock allowed the development of film.
Early motion pictures were static shots showing an event or
action with no editing or other cinematic techniques as
this series showing a nude walking demonstrates.
 History
» Early films were a visual art until the late 19th century
when they developed into a narrative with a series of
scenes linked together to tell a story.
» Scenes were broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes
and angles.
» Camera movement was used to add to the story
development.
» Music was used to create mood using a pianist / organist
using either sheet music or a score as they accompanied
the screen action.
 Film History
» The first audience to
experience a moving film
did so in 1895. The film, by
the Lumiere brothers was
called “Workers leaving
the Lumiere Factory
(1895)”
» Their film “Train Entering
the Gare de Ciotat
(1895)” caused people to
faint with fear as the train
loomed from the screen
into the theatre
auditorium.
» These films did not carry a
story or narrative - they
merely showed a moving
image on the screen.
 Film History

A colourised still of the Train

Entering the Gare de Ciotat
Station.

» August (1862-1954) & Louis

Playing petanque (1895) (1864-1948) Lumiere
 Film History - Melies
» Realising the potential of a
good story George Melies
( 1861-1938) utilised film to
create fantastic stories
that took his characters
and audiences to the
moon and beyond.
 The changing process of cinema
» The changes in film process
involve several factors.
» George Huaco indentifies
four factors:
1. Current events &
achievements. (political
climate)
2. The creativity of the film-
makers who influenced the
team of crafts-people
involed in the films.
3. The technical
developments that could
be exploited.
4. The capacity of a sufficient
audience to appreciate
the results.
 Changing process of cinema
» The division between film and
movie creates two views of quality
and purpose.
» MOVIES = This is a commercial
differentiation = popular
entertainment with a mass
circulation of copies of the movie.
The audience being largely
passive.
» . The product of an industry
dominated by the producer
(money) in which there is no
individual film-maker but a team
under the producer’s control. (The
studio system.) The director is hired
to create the movie from the script.
The final version is, however, the
responsibility of the Producer and
Editor.
» The director of a movie is known as:
metteur en scene = an interpreter
of a score / script.
 Progressions - The Silent Film

» Film makers experimented with the use of the camera to develop

new techniques that would enhance their ability to tell a story.
» 1913: Giovanni Pastrone (Cabiria) moved his camera laterally
and slightly above the level of the forreground thus changing the
perspective of the audience from that they’d previously had in
the Luniere films.
» 1923: Carl Mayer directing Last Laugh for F.W.Murnau
proposed a forward movement of the camera at
dramatic moments as if to thrust the audience into the
action.
 Progressions - The Silent Film
The man who exploited this change was D.W. Griffith (1875-
1948. USA) whose film “The Birth of a Nation (1914) created
an explosive examination of the development of the American
nation from the Civil War.
The films until then were
narrative and anecdotal this
followed several threads of
narrative - the friendly families
in the North & South, political
events in Washington, warfare
with friends in opposite camps,
exploitation of the South, white
& black, carpet baggers from
the North and the rise of the Ku
Klux Klan.
 Progressions - The Silent Film
Griffith’s success was also his undoing. His films - Intolerance -
The Mother & The Law and The Fall of Babylon put him into
debt. As a result Financiers ceased to regard the film-makers as
the king-pins of production and decided to build up the film-star in
their place - to put control in the hands of the producer, aided by
his team of organisers and writers. (The Hollywood system).
This favoured the movie over the film and reduced the risk for the
banks.
It also meant that the actor was out of place in the movie world as
his / her versatility would make them unrecognisable and
therefore valueless commercially.
But they also introduced the langage (french = way of speaking)
of the film- long shot / mid shot/ close-up and their
variations.These terms allowed the editor to construct a movie or
film to produce identified reactions from the audience.
 Progressions - The Silent Film
» F.W.Marnau (1888-1931) influenced the film
making process with the introduction of the
design tool - the storyboard. This is a script
visualised by drawings of every basic change
of camera angles in the film.
» Marnau was influenced by the swing to the
right in Germany post W/W I where business
took advantage of the high inflation rate to
mass produce films at cheap rates.
 Progressions - The Silent Film
» The storyboard design focus introduced
techniques like “visual punning” that (e.g)
involved showing the passage of time by
tracking towards a candle flame then
dissolving into a lighted gas jet or electric bulb
from which they would track away to the next
sequence of the story.
» This technique was replaced by nouvelle
vague that introduced jump cuts to show or
allow the passage of time and space.
» This was known as “kultur-film” in Germany.
» World War I signaled the advance of the
movie from the USA. This was because while
Europe was fighting a four year long war,
costing 10 million dead, the Americans only
fought for six months at a cost of 115,000
dead. The 10 years of prosperity in the USA
allowed the industry to gain dominance.
 The Advent of Sound
» Sound and film were slow to
accommodate each other.
» Sound technology was
clumsy and difficult to link to
the speed of the film.
» Sound made it difficult to film
in the open air, to film
without interfering with
lighting, without interfering
with the way the actors
spoke and with the number
of cameras able to be used.
» Sound forced film to adapt
and develop new narrative
techniques.
Sound
» Historical events and the
sound film.
» The depression (1929-35)
encouraged the
development of the
conventions of the
gangster movie (the
urban western ) and
comedies that saw
ordinary folk standing up
against corrupt big
business.
» World War II encouraged
the development of the
propaganda film and
again helped the USA
gain dominance of the
movie making business.
» The impact of the
technology is seen in
Citizen Kane (Oson Welles
1941)
History
World War II
Studios became
propaganda machines for
the War Effort.
Films patriotic and focused
on concerns of those on
the home-front as they
worried over those on the
battle field as the stills from
“Freedom Comes High”
(1943) shows
 New Wave 1960-80
The death of the Studio system » The New Wave allowed
had international effects the nascent European Film
allowing the industry a time to recover
re-emergence of competition from the US domination
from Europe - particularly that had emerged as a
Sweden,France and Britain. result of WWII.
The collapse of the Studio
System also encouraged the » However the resurgence
Film Festival circuit giving a of USA post 1980 meant
screen to films made outside that European film-makers
of the USA conglomerates. moved into TV production
- particularly in the UK.
 History- The Mass-Media age
1980 -2000+
1) A horizontal control of the media with the Media Conglomerates able to
exploit Film, TV, Books, CD, record, DVD publication for mass profit.
2) Individual contracting systems for “talent” rather than salaried staff
favored by the Studios. Actors, Directors, Technicians contracted for
single movies.
3) The advent of the “Blockbuster” disaster genre as the Conglomerates look
to mass saturation marketing and maximised profit.
4) Smaller Production houses move into specialised niche audience
orientated films e.g Woody Allan
This has changed the face of the Film Industry - particularly in terms of
production and distribution.
» Modern Film industry has cross fertilisation from other nationalities”
industries: e.g. India, Asia & Australasia.
» Examples of films: Bride & Prejudice: Bollywood interpretation of
classic English text Pride & Prejudice. A similar cross fertilsation
happened with Vanity Fair.
» Matrix utilised effects from Asian film: Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon.
» Utu, a NZ film, was effectively a Western transposed into a NZ
setting.