Q:
How has film has developed since it first started out, and what factors have been most predominant to its change?
Film is one of entertainments highest grossing industries to date, with millions of people aspiring to become actors, directors or to have some kind of affiliation with it. People spending vast amounts of money to go see the most anticipated films coming out on the big screen in a cinema, and then later buying a digital copy in the form of a DVD and Blu-Ray so to watch it in the comfort of their own home. But where did it all begin you wonder? Throughout this essay I will be looking at the development of film, how it first started out, and what factor’s have been most predominant to it’s change.
The film industry first began, some say, when the first movie camera was invented, which was in 1888 by Frenchmen Louis Le Prince, and it currently exists as an exhibit within the National Media Museum which is situated in Bradford, Enlgand. Mr. Prince also created one of the first and oldest surviving film sequences in existence (as noted by the Guinness Book of Records) known as ‘The Roundhay Garden Scene’. Shot at twelve frames a second and at approximately 2.11 seconds long, it is simply four of Mr Prince’s friends/family (including Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley, Harriet Hartley his son Adolphe Prince. Sarah Whitley, his mother in law, died ten days after the scene was taken.) walking around Oakwood Grange in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Here is a link to a Youtube clip of said video "www.youtube.com/embed/0tDLO7VByUc" The video has been looped six times, enabling you to see how the frames work and such. Upon the success and worldwide attraction to Louis Le Prince’s invention, many other men tried to create their own cameras in an attempt to better their predecessor. One of these men was none other than Mr. Thomas Alva Edison (inventor of the lightbulb), and his team, who created a contraption known as a ‘Kinetoscope’. The downfall for this was only one person was able to access the image via a small peephole after inserting a coin, and so it’s value commercially was not very high. Being both inventions are present in the National Media Museum as exhibits, this is rather solid evidence of the existence of both contraptions as well as their existence. After Mr. Edison, several other men attempted to make their own contraption that would projected images in a sequence of movement such as Charles Francis Jenkins and his joint partnership to Thomas Armat where they created the Phanatoscope, The Lumiere Brothers, and many more. The Lumiere Brothers and their invention the Cinematograph (essentially where the term cinematography derived from) came to be in 1895, and was mainly made from a sewing machine. Where it was a lot slower than that of the ‘Kinetoscope’ at threading film it made the movement seem a lot more fluid, and thus was a step above that of Edison’s invention. From this we can state one of the first factors that helped the development of film was the human race’s competitive nature to out do one another, as after Louis Le Prince success the other inventors could have left it, but as they all saw a potential breakthrough in technology and enough attraction to the product commercially, they all tried to invent their own so to be the man who was famous for the invention and the pioneer of photography and film.
Before all that though several devices, such as Stroboscope’s, Phenakistoscope’s and zoetrope’s, had been invented way back in the 1830’s (although its actually estimated that they may have been well around in 100 AD in prehistoric China a long with shadow puppetry) which made cartoon drawings give off the appearance that they were moving. This was one of the first forms of animation, and although both animations and films development were rather parallel, they’re paths didn’t cross until later on in the 20th century, but that is all yet to come later on. Again this is quite valid information as my friend actually has a cartoon strip designed for a zoetrope as well as video evidence of it in motion, so this is a first hand source as he has been taught the art of creating movement using such a device. Here is said video; His animation he made was how a snail turned into a snake, but where it loops it seems like the snake reverts back and crawls back into its shell. Its not really the story that’s important, but rather the mechanics of how it work. "www.youtube.com/embed/jh5u0SVSxbU
The first commercial use of film was within carnivals and fairs where it acted as a novelty to entertain paying customers briefly, as well as in temporary storefronts and travelling exhibitors. Standing at less than a minute long and with very little technique, so no camera angles or effects, the films were often one scene of something from everyday life, such as a public event or sporting event of some kind, and the genre was most often slapstick, to keep the audience entertained. The movie industry was slowly starting to develop, with fictional stories being created and re-envisioned via different types of cameras and such, and so in the period between 1894 and 1929 came the birth and subsequently the death of the ‘silent era’. Due to synchronization problems with sound and picture, all films during this time were a black and white motion picture with no dialogue, but a backing track of music added after the recording was made. As for the character dialogue, it was written down after they had spoken on what was known as a ‘title card’ so the audience could read what the actor was saying after it had be said. Although considered a thing of the past nowadays, silent movies were very popular back in the day with the most popular one’s grossing $10,000,000 -$5,000,000 at a time, as well as many famous one’s still be being digitally re-mastered today such as ‘Le Voyage Dans la Lune’, a twenty minutes silent film about people travelling to the moon by firing the ship out of a cannon, and ‘Nosferatu’, where German actor Max Shreck plays the lead role of Count Orlok in F. W. Murnau thrilling masterpiece. Much like today many stars were born out of it, the most notable being Greta Garbo, Max Linder, Harold Lloyd, William S. Hart, Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish and American clowning legend Charlie Chaplin. Here is a link to a copy of the entire film ‘Le Voyage Dans la Lune’ but with a dub ovr narration, dictating what is going on as well as different music in the background accompanying it www.youtube.com/embed/1eVtv1YyzOU" This information validity is questionable as it has come from Yahoo, which is site where anyone can contribute to, and although concurring with other sites, it could be a little inaccurate. But the industry continued to progress and many breakthroughs were made, and so in 1927, ‘The Jazz Singer’ came out, and was the first feature length motion picture with synchronized sound sequences. Its success meant a new era of ‘talkies’ and a decline in the production of silent films, and it wasn’t long before the film industry was once again revolutionized for in 1934 a film known as ‘The Cat and the Fiddle’ was the first film to feature colour. Although it was only the end sequence that had the three reel Technicolor to it, it still was a benchmark, and not long before an entire film would be in colour, and so sure enough, in 1935, the film Becky Sharp was made, and it was the first film to be in full Technicolor. There had been a lot of speculation that the ‘Wizard of Oz’ was the first film in colour, but being that was made in 1939, four years after Becky Sharp, and the fact this is the original Becky Sharp trailer stating the fact it was the first film in colour, puts that theory to rest. www.youtube.com/embed/a-P_Ira6kgE" The technology progression only got more and more sophisticated with the colour getting more and more improved as the years went by, as well as computer generated images being brought into real life pictures in the late 20th/21st century (CGI), and more recently motion capture, which is present in the 2004 film ‘The Polar Express’ with Tom Hanks. George Lucas’ million dollar franchise Star Wars was the first film to have CGI in it, and Steven Spileberg’s 1993 masterpiece, Jurrassic Park was the first film to have a computer generated animal, or specifically dinosaur. The debut of deputy Sheriff Woody and his compadre Buzz Lightyear alongside him in ‘Toy Story’ in 2005, was also the marking of the first full length film to use CGI. The development of computer generated images in films, cut down the amount of productions needing a set, as the animators would go out on location, and the re-create the landscape digitally, and by using implements such as green screens, the actors would have to imagine they were actually there on location, not in the studio. Thus the progression of technology was another key factor to the development of the movie industry, as nowadays CGI, special effects and motion capture are all techniques used to enhance the cinematic experience, and to create something visual stunning for the audience.
Pixar (founded in 1986 by Steve Jobs), and Dreamworks (founded in 1994 by Stephen Speilberg); two major studios that specialize in the production of feature length cartoons, more recently three dimensional or 3D ones, but neither of these would be around if it wasn’t for the birth of animation. One of the first 2D animations (which is how they all initially started before going 3D) was Gertie the Dinosaur. Created by Winsor McCay in 1914, Gertie the Dinosaur was a hand drawn animation in which a brontosaurus interacted with a live man on screen. The movie was in black and white and had no sound as it was created during the silent era. Having seen the animation and also noted its low quality, John Bray and Raoul Barre both opened studios in the same year, (Bray Productions and Barré Studio) employing animators to produce films on a much larger scale, and thus this was infact the beginnings of the first stepping stone towards the studio system within 2-dimensional, or 2D as it most commonly known, animation. Another man responsible for creating a well known and friendly character was Otto Messmer and his animated feline friend Felix in 1919, who was also the first re-occuring animated character also. Here is a video of Messmer explaining how Felix came to be. This is a reliable source of information as it is being recollected and coming from Otto Messmer himself www.youtube.com/embed/b90WxpQbnJM" But the biggest pioneer of the animating world was none other than Walt Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) who was responsible for both the first full-length animation with sound, which was also the first Mickey Mouse animation, called ‘Steamboat Willie’ in 1928 and the first animation with colour known as ‘Flowers and Trees’ in 1933 as part of his ‘Silly Symphonies’ collection. By this time Disney had already followed suit and founded ‘Walt Disney Studios’. But that wasn’t where it stopped as Walt Disney wanted to push the boundaries of 2D animation even further and he did so as in 1937 he made the first, of many, full length cel animated feature film which was none other than the classic ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and out grossed it’s budget by a whopping 123% ( The budget was £1,499,000 and film grossed a total of £184,925,486). With the whole thing being animated, it meant that the actors weren’t seen on screen and so the term ‘voice acting’ was coined. Animation is another major factor to the development of film, especially for those designed at younger audiences, as Walt Disney’s classics, and both Pixar and Dreamworks creations are all family favourites as well. A lot of this information I got from my brother, who is an animation student at the University of Creative Arts in Rochester, and being this is his field of studies, is quite a reliable source.
With all these various achievements being made as well as ground breaking films being introduced to the public, surely they deserve recognition for their work? Well sure enough on May 16, 1929, at a private brunch at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in the Blossom Room (price being of $5 a ticket) the first Academy Awards were held, now officially known as The Oscars. Margaret Herrick coined the name Oscar after stating the statue resembled that of her Uncle who, funnily enough, was called Oscar. A journalist Sidney Skolsky then referred to it as the Oscar in 1934, which then led to the Academy referring to it as the Oscar as well, and thus in 1939, the name was changed. Being this information is from a comment on a message board; its validity is questionable, although having said that the same answer is on various sites, so it must come from a reliable source somewhere. Originally comprising of only seven categories which were; Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Adapted Screenplay; and running for only 15 minutes to an audience of 270 people, the Academy Awards was the first accolade ceremony of it’s kind. Being this occurred during the end of the silent era, naturally a silent film won the awards, in the form of ‘Wings’, and this was in fact the only silent film to win the ‘Academy Award for Best Picture’, that was until ‘The Artist’ stormed the Oscars only two years ago and won, along with being victorious in four other categories (including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for French Actor Jean Dujardin) and receiving five nominations as well. This then led to the formation of the HFPA (or the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) a collection of journalists who make decisions on who wins the Golden Globes, the second biggest U.S accolade ceremony, which started up in 1944. There are now, over 200 plus different types of awards in film, almost forty of which are from the United States alone, as well as the major British ones such as the ‘British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Awards of the BAFTA’s, and the British Independent Film Awards. With artists getting the recognition they deserve and making their name in history by getting the different accolades and awards, I feel this is also a factor in the progression of film, with more people aspiring to follow in different actor’s footsteps by joining the industry, especially now the production value of films and actor’s wages has gone up ten-fold, and it being a well paid job if you are successful enough, although it should be done for the enjoyment not the money.
‘Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn’ said Rhett Butler (portrayed by Clark Gable) in the infamous ‘Gone With The Wind’ in 1939, and at first glance this seems like a fairly harmless piece of dialogue, except it is believed it is this very line that caused a spark within the film world and subsequently a surge in the scrutiny of provocative scenes and the birth of censorship within films. Here is the section within the film where he utters the phrase www.youtube.com/embed/GQ5ICXMC4xY". Having said that, this was not the first film with what was considered a curse word in it, for nine years before John Wayne’s ‘The Big Trial’ saw him say ‘They always told me women were damn funny’, damn being the curse word as its questionable blaspheming, as well as it possibly being even further back into the silent movie era when damn was used. With different laws and codes being put in place to prevent the use of foul language such as the ‘Motion Picture Protection Code’ enforced in 1934, but was later abandoned in 1968 for the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system or the MPAA film rating system for short. From its formation the rating system changed a number of times but as it stands the American rating system is as follows; G which means ‘General Audiences’ so all ages are admitted. PG, meaning Parental Guidance; Some material may not be suitable for children and its up to the parents to decide whether the child should be watching it or not. PG-13, Parental Guidance 13, Parents are strongly cautioned; Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. R – Restricted; Under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian. And finally NC-17 means No One 17 & Under Admitted. And the British Board of Film Classification (or the BBFC) follows exactly the same rating system just with different names like; Universal, Parental Guidance, 12A, 15, 18 and Restricted 18, with the exception that we have one extra one in the form of the ‘15’ certificate. A traffic light system was used to rate trailers also, warning the public of it’s rating before purchase or viewing the whole product. Green was U, Amber was the middle mark so 12A and Red was likes of 18 certificate movies. This helped keep foul language and nudity away from young audiences, and made sure it was only viewed by those mature enough. The only problem this created is filmmakers started using the foul language more often, and what was socially accepted as a swear word became more and more lenient in time due to the influence of the film work, and so although censorship is a factor that changed film, you could also argue it changed society as well, making a much bigger impact on the world in general. [http://www.nfvcb.gov.ng/statistics.asp?cat=1 ] On this link to the National Film & Video Censors Board, or the NFVCB for short, there is a list of the different ratings for all the films rated currently this year. You will observe that there are almost 100 films certficated at 18, but measly 1 at 12. This shows to me that the films are getting more violent and more provocative, and although certificated, probably overstepping the boundaries, and infact should probably be a 21 or 18X+ (even though both those ratings do not exist for films or video games).
Much like the animation world did, the studio system was put in place for the film industry also. In early 1910, the Biograph Company sent director D. W. Griffith and his acting troupe, which consisted of actors and actresses like Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore and many others, to the west coast where they started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there Griffith filmed the first movie ever shot in what is now know as ‘Hollywood’ called In Old California, a documentary about 19th century California. Again the validity of the information is questionable, due to the fact it is on a forum once more, but he has two separate more official sources, so there must be truth in there. To escape Thomas Edison’s imposed fees on equipment and as well as hearing about Griffiths success many filmmakers headed west to Hollywood and in 1912 Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, two of the major film production companies were all founded, and later on in 1918 Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1924, in 1926 Columbia Pictures was founded and, as briefly mentioned beforehand, Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1934 and 20th Century Fox the year after. The big five at the time were; MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros , RKO and Fox as they had most of the stakes, although now things have changed, especially as RKO (or Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures) became defunct in the year of 1959 and this year the top five studios included Bueno Vista at number one (beating Warner Bros) and Universal Studios (beating Paramount and 20th Century Fox) at number three. In less than forty years, Hollywood was blossoming, and was it soon approaching what was later known as ‘The Golden Age’. With the industry forever expanding, and getting more and more attention, it was getting more into the public eye and media, with magazines such as Coronet publishing various articles on new and upcoming flicks, and trailers being created and shown in the cinema, the public were for forever in the know for new releases, so it is clear the media and the production of films on a more industrial scale was also a rather key factor to the development of film, as it was no longer a small and regional thing but rather becoming a broadcast in a sense.
In the late 20’s a device known as the television, or T.V for short, was invented by a Scottish engineer by the name of John Logie Baird, and were available for commercial use and soon became a commonplace within family homes. Families were able to watch films from the comfort of their own homes when it was on by various broadcasting channels around the world. But, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that people were able to purchase their favourite films on a digital copy, or what is known as a ‘home video’. ‘Home video’ began in the form of a VHS (Video Home System) as developed by the Japanese electronics company JVC, which later upgraded to DVD’s in 1995 as distributed by companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Philips, and Blu-Ray in 2003. The different between the two is that Blu-Ray uses a blue-violet laser as opposed to the red laser used on DVDs, which in turn allows Blu-Ray discs to hold a lot more information on them than DVDs. This increase in the amount of information that can be stored on a disc allows you to put High-Definition movies on a disc and not run out of space, since the average HD movie takes up to about fifteen to twenty GB of space. With the internet also taking over, many methods of digital distribution are sought via various websites like Netflix and LoveFilm which offer monthly subscriptions for the viewers to access their film libraries. This portable way of keeping your favourite films meant you wouldn’t have to keep going to the cinema, and so the demand for films to be of higher standard increased, but with the birth of ‘home video’ coinciding with the progression of technology, the demands were seamlessly reached inevitably. Although much later, home video was still a big factor in the development of film. Here is a chart of the sales and rentals of VHS, DVDs and Blu-Ray (home entertainment) from 1981-2010. You can see that although they had been developed people didn’t start buying DVDs or Blu-Ray until a couple years after, possibly because they didn’t trust it for whatever reason.[ http://www.screendigest.com/www/reports/2010629b/10_07_evolution_of_home_entertainment_chart.gif ]
From social benefits such as the media which globally took over on mass scale, to human factor’s such as competitive nature, there are many varying reasons as to why the film industry has been shaped and moulded to what we see today, but out of it all the main one in my eyes, was the progression of technology, as it all improved technically the devices were implemented to help create the most effective viewing experience, and give the filmmakers audience a performance they would remember. Without technology, we would still be very enjoying acting just via the means of live theatre and films would seize to exist but in someone imagination. I’ve discovered and unearthed some information about the world of film, the initial devices that were invented as primitive camera, the setting up of the studio systems and so on, but it is a much more complex field with so many more things that happened to help its development, and should you want to discover more about this, there are several sites and books that will lead you to the information, and I look forward to seeing your discoveries documented like mine.
Information on Louis Le Prince;
http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/09/27/roundhay-garden-scene-1888/
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collection/Cinematography.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDLO7VByUc
Information on Kinetoscope;
http://inventors.about.com/od/kstartinventions/a/Kinetoscope.htm
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collection/Cinematography.aspx
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/movingpics/movingpics9.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9618679/The-Lumiere-Brothers-celebrating-the-first-light-in-the-motion-picture-industry.html
Information on Charles Francis Jenkins and Luminere Brothers;
http://www.bairdtelevision.com/jenkins.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9618679/The-Lumiere-Brothers-celebrating-the-first-light-in-the-motion-picture-industry.html
http://www.funfotos.com/charlesfrancisjenkins.html
Information on Stroboscope’s, Phenakistoscope’s and zoetrope’s;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4B3FHHt_k8
http://www.randommotion.com/html/zoe.html
http://danm.ucsc.edu/~dustin/zoetrope/O'Hara_zoetrope_Lesson_Plan_01.pdf
Information on ‘Silent Era’;
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~ryahnke/film/cinema1.htm
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SilentAgeOfHollywood
http://voices.yahoo.com/10-highest-grossing-silent-films-all-time-10876655.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eVtv1YyzOU
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/a/jazzsinger.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2011/nov/06/ten-best-silent-movie-stars-in-pictures
Information on the animation history;
http://vegalleries.com/gerthistory.html
http://www.cinemamuetquebec.ca/content/bio/8?lang=en
http://trueclassics.net/2013/02/09/pioneers-of-animation-bray-productions/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b90WxpQbnJM
http://www.felixthecat.com/history2.htm
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=89284
http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=26612
http://www.stikkymedia.com/blog/history-cgi-movies
Information about the Oscars;
http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/about/history.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1533/why-is-the-oscar-called-the-oscar
http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/1st.html
http://www.goldenglobes.org/history/
Information about the censorship;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031381/faq#.2.1.2
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/X+Rating
http://www.nfvcb.gov.ng/statistics.asp?cat=1
Information about the studio system;
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoldenAgeOfHollywood
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/
http://www.ealmanac.com/1843/numbers/the-big-five-movies-studios/
Information about T.V, DVD and home video;
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/john_logie_baird_and_television.htm
Being my essay was about films, and there are many websites with video uploads, most of my information not written on a text based website was from places like YouTube, or a real human source in the form of my brother, who is an animation student at university so gave me some information when it came to Walt Disney and such.
