History Of Film

1. History Of Film Pre-1920s 1930s 1950s 1970s 1990s 2000s 1920s 1940s 1960s 1980s Emily Jones

2. Pre-1920s • Inventors and Scientists found that still pictures played one after the other created the illusion of movement and was first described by British physician, Peter Mark in 1824. After this discovery, there were the inventions of optical toys and shadow shows, such as: • The Thaumatrope (1824) • The Fantascope (1832) • The Praxinoscope (1877)

3. The Thaumatrope The first version of an optical illusion toy.

4. The Fantascope (Spindle viewer) Series of separate pictures that create stages of an activity. When spun it creates a moving picture.

5. The Praxinoscope A refined version of the Zoetrope with mirrors at the center of the drum instead of slots.

6. 1920s Throughout most of the decade, silent films were the main product of the film industry. The Kid (1921) Camera movements were very restricted and noisy and heavy movie cameras had to be kept in sound insulating booths with soundproof covers to avoid picking up the noise of the camera on the soundtrack. Soon though, inventions such as squeak-proof dollies and microphones hung from booms would help solve these problems.

7. 1930s Films could now use colour through the use of the Technicolor system. It was created using a special camera that required three strips of film, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow. When the 3 strips were consolidated, the final image was in colour. http://technicolor.umwblogs.org/

8. 1940s • This is the decade there were huge advances in film technology, like: • Sound recording • Lighting • Cinematography Film by Roger Manvell, Pelican Books, 1946

9. Rope (1948, Hitchcock)

10. 1950s The decade of Cinerama, 3D, cinemascope and other widescreen formats. • Cinerama – Paramount’s wrap-around, big screen debuted in 1952. It required 3 cameras, 3 projectors, interlocking at 146 degrees and a four-track stereo sound. The first film that used the cinerama process was This is Cinerama in 1952.

11. How the West Was Won (1962)Used Cinerama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0GieJ9QZr4

12. The Robe (1953) The first film released commercially in Cinemascope. • Cinemascope – Used a simple anamorphic lens (invented by optical designer Henri Chretian) that created a widescreen effect with a ratio of 2.35:1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjrkQ2rMqTg

13. The House OF Wax (1953) • 3D – Special polarized, ‘stereoscopic’ cardboard glasses worn by the viewers made the action jump off screen. The first full-length 3D film was Bwana Devil in 1952. However 3D was very expensive and turned out to be unsuccessful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b96x2Qdm5E

14. 1960s In 1967, Sony introduced the first portable video system, the Sony DV-2400 that had a maximum recording time of 20 minutes. It was a two-piece set that consisted of a large black and white camcorder and a separate record-only VCR unit. It was clunky and heavy and was usually operated by a crew of 2 (one to shoot with the camera and one to hold the VCR), however it was light enough for one person to carry it around. http://www.internetvideomag.com/Articles-2006/112706_historyofcamcorders.htm

15. 1970s In this decade, the steadicam was used for the first time (by Haskell Wexler in Bound for Glory in 1976). It was also the year of the f/x blockbuster, Jaws (1975), which used a huge mechanical shark. Audiences had seen special effects before, but this was a whole new level of realism. http://www.denofgeek.com/misc/181793/worst_sfx_no17_jaws_1975.html

16. 1980s A new feature on camcorders was Auto-Focus. Digital effects were used for the first time by director Nick Castle in The Last Starfighter.

17. 1990s Digital camcorders were introduced to main stream Hollywood by George Lucas in 1999 in his film Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Productions could now use computers to edit and delete unwanted film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6hOlI9cg4o

18. 2000s Improved 3D returned in the early 2000s with films such as Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003) and The Polar Express (2004). 3D started to become much more common later in the decade in films like the hugely popular Avatar (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Alice In Wonderland (2010). Films were manipulated on the computer in order to make them 3D until Panasonic created the first ever 3D camcorder in 2010.

19. Directors

20. Early Film Pioneers – Charlie Chaplin After becoming an official player in the Fred Karno Repertoire Company in 1910, Chaplin became an immediate hit with the American audiences from his character in a sketch called “A Night in an English Music Hall” and was offered a motion picture contract in 1912. When his contract ended in 1917 he decided to become an independent producer and busied himself with making his own studios at Hollywood. In 1921 he came out with The Kid, a six-reel masterpiece, in which he introduced one of the world’s greatest on-screen child actors, Jackie Coogan. Chaplin financed, produced, wrote, acted, directed and composed the soundtrack to all of his films.

21. Classic Directors – Alfred Hitchcock Hitchcock started his film career in 1919 illustrating title cards for Paramount’s Famous Players-Lasky studio in London where he also learned scripting, editing and art direction. In 1922 he became an assistant director and in the same year directed an unfinished film, No 13. His first complete film as a director was The Pleasure Garden in 1925. He was a brilliant technician who always managed to blend sex, suspense and humour perfectly. His breakthrough film was The Lodger in 1926 and in 1929 Hitchcock made his first sound film Blackmail.

22. Psycho (1960) is about a secretary, Marion Crane, who hides in a motel after stealing from her employer and the aftermath of her encounter with the motel owner, Norman Bates. It is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most well known films, which was received by audiences with shock and amazement. The famous shower scene particularly, effectively builds up suspense and tension with the music and manages to show the famous scene without showing anything gory but instead just showing the illusion through montage.

23. Auteurs – Steven Spielberg At the age of 13, Steven Spielberg received a lot of praise after winning a contest for his short film “Escape to Nowhere” in 1961. He then gained attention of major Hollywood studios with his short film Amblin, which also won numerous film festival awards. But his first major film was The Sugarland Express (1974), a film which made him a rising star. However, the film that made him an international superstar among directors was Jaws (1975). Spielberg also directed popular films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and produced other hugely popular films like Back to the Future (1985).

24. One my favourite Spielberg films is Catch Me If You Can (2002) about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, manages to successfully con millions of dollars by posing as various different people. This film is an interesting and very entertaining true story and is brilliantly directed. DreamWorks SKG Following many years of success, Spielberg created DreamWorks SKG with producers Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. The company has been responsible for distributing more than 20 films and producing more than 150 films.

25. Pioneers of New Technology – James Cameron James Cameron got his first professional job as art director, miniature-set builder and process-projection supervisor on Roger Codman’s Battle Beyond the Stars in 1980. He debuted as a director with Piranha 2: The Spawning the following year. In 1984, he wrote and directed The Terminator, which was a huge success. After this came a string of successful sci-fi films such as Aliens (1986) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). In 1997, Cameron directed, produced and edited the film Titanic which took in approximately $25.5 million in its first weekend. It then quickly became the top-grossing film of all time, taking more than a billion dollars worldwide overall.

26. However, in 2009 James Cameron’s next film overtook his previous record. In June 2005 it was announced he was to be working on a script he had written in 1995, Avatar. It was going to be a film almost completely computer-generated with the use of “performance capture” and it was going to be entirely 3D. On it opening weekend, Avatar was able to pull in a domestic gross of $73 million, and added to its international takings the grand total was $232 million making it the highest grossing film ever. Avatar is definitely one of the best films I’ve seen so far. The story line is fun and interesting for all ages and unlike some of the 3D films I had seen • before, practically all of the film is 3D. With a mixture of romance, action and fantasy and the amazing flowers and floating islands of Pandora this is a film that really stands out. However, without the 3D, I don’t think it would have been so popular nor do I think it would’ve grossed as much with tickets for 3D screenings accounting for more than 80% of US earnings and 65% elsewhere.

27. Directors - Sources Charlie Chaplin http://charliechaplin.com/biography/articles/21-Overview-of-His-Life Alfred Hitchcock http://hitchcock.tv/bio/bio.html Steven Spielberg http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/bio http://www.stevenspielberg.co.uk/ James Cameron http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000116/bio http://www.filmmakers.com/artists/cameron/biography/page3.htm http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6902906.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/26/avatar-sinks-titanic-record http://www.pastapadre.com/2009/12/21/avatar-opening-weekend-box-office-results http://www.filmshaft.com/avatar-opening-weekend-report/