Understanding Film: Chapter 2

Universal Studios

Carl Laemmle, went bankrupt a few times until his son and someone else saves them, little three studio

Clara Bow

The "It" girl and America's first sex symbol, defined flapper image in the 20's

Edwin Porter

The Great Train Robbery (1903), used location shooting, camera movement, and cross-cutting, director

Mutoscope (1894)

arcade attraction that featured a large, circular-bound flipbook in a device with a handle, monetized animation, there are the stupid little cartoon books that you can flip through

Errol Flynn

best known as a swashbuckler, starring in films like "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk," and "Captain Blood"

MPPDA (Motion Picture Producers and Directors Association)

came up with the restriction on movies that governed what they could or could not contain

Film Noir

comprised the "dark" moody American films of the 1940s; often focused on detectives or similar themes

the Lumiere Brothers

designed the cinematographe, made the first motion picture to be shown in public, made a lot of money, made the first film with a story

MGM

dominant in the 30's, did "prestige" pics in technicolor like Gone with the Wind or wizard of oz

Carl Laemmle

founder of Universal Studios and started crediting actors like Florence Lawrence, called "uncle"

burlesque

give an imitation that ridicules; imitate mockingly, racier

Will Hays

head of the Motion Picture Association who had the power to review and ban any questionable material in films

Mary Pickford

known as "America's sweetheart," she was married to actor Douglas Fairbanks and was one of the original partners in United Artists

Praxinoscope (1877)

like zoetrope but without slits, still allowed more than one person to view it

Columbia

little three studio, borrowed talent from other studios, cowboy films, shorts, cartoons

United Artists

little three studio, operated on agreements with independent start/producers, fought established practices in Hollywood, formed by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and DW Griffith

20th Century Fox

most successful studio, produced extremely slick and entertaining pics, special effects

The Maltese Falcon

the movie that began the film noir genre in 1941

block booking

the practice of requiring exhibitors to rent groups of movies (often inferior) to secure a better one

1934

the year that the production code grew teeth

Abbot and Costello

these actors were a legendary comedy team that came to prominence in the early 1940s with the film Buck Privates. Popular on state, on TV, and in radio and film, this duo's signature routine was "Who's on First"

United States v. Motion Picture Patents Company

trust was illegal with Sherman Anti-trust act

Phenakistascope (1831)

first REAL animation device to demonstrate the fluid illusion of motion, cardboard disk attached to a handle with images on one side and slits cut into the disk when a mirror was held up and spun you could see the animation

Florence Lawrence

the Biograph girl, first movie star

two strip technicolor

the first commercial use of color in films was this

The Moon is Blue (1953)

the first movie released without a code seal, but played in theaters to some success

The Jazz Singer (1927)

the first movie that had sound, dialogue, and music

The Office of War information

the government agency charged with overseeing and coordinating the national media/propaganda campaign at home and abroad in order to present a strong and coherent vision of the reasons America was at war

Vitaphone

the largest and most successful producer of sound-on disk technology produced by the Warner Brothers

Lon Chaney

"A man of a thousand faces," he starred in Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame, his break out role was "The Miracle Man"

The Trust

1908, an organization formed by Thomas Edison in order to control and regulate the making and exhibiting of motion pictures through patent lawsuits, people went to Hollywood to escape them

Hays Code

1930, the more official rules then the do nots and be carefuls, listed like literally everything and the reasons for what movies could or could not have, ignored a lot

Mutual Film Corp v. Industrial commission of Ohio

A Supreme court case that resulted in the ruling that films were pure commerce, therefore not entitled to protections under the First Amendment

Futurists

A form of art that focused on the future, had an admiration for technology and speed and youth

"B" picture

A low-budget, non-prestigious movie that usually played on the bottom half of a double bill

Katharine Hepburn

A twentieth-century Aerican acress. She has appeared in films over several decades and won Academy Awards in 1933, 1967, 1968, and 1981. She often co-stared with Spencer Tracy. The Philadelphia Story and The African Queen are two of her best-remembered pieces.

William Kennedy Dickson

Edison's assistant who combined Edison's lightbulb, Goodwin's celluloid, and Le Prince's camera to create an early movie camera, the kinetograph, and its viewing system, the kinetoscope

Joseph Breen

Head of the Production Code Administration, stricter than hays code, films needed a certificate of approval before release, post-code

Mae West

Her unbridled sexuality, sharp double entendre, and racy film scripts earned her the ire of conservative and religious groups throughout her career.

The Marx Brothers

These brothers made up one of the most successful comedy teams of all time, in films like Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, and Horse Feathers.

Humphrey Bogart

This actor's father was a renowned Park Avenue doctor, and his mother was a successful commercial illustrator, but he ended up first on the stage, then on screen, where he became associated with gangster and film noir roles in "The Maltese Falcon" "The Big Sleep" and "Casablanca"

Paramount

This studio was considered the most "European" of American production houses, with many of their director's, technicians, and craft people having emigrated to America to flee the Nazis. head was Adolph Zukor

George Melies

used cinematic effects for the first time, came up with like fantasy, A Trip to the Moon

1930

what year was the production code introduced

The wolfman

written by Curt Siodmak, and the movie was a metaphor for the decent German people who turned into monsters (Nazis) under Hitler

1932

year that 3 color started to be used but was expensive so it was only used for big movies

RKO

• Smallest of the major studios • Financially unstable • Best known for Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals, literary adaptations, and Katherine Hepburn vehicles • Also became the exclusive distributor of films produced by Walt Disney • Best known production of the 1930s was King Kong (1933)

Eadward Muybridge

an English photographer who was able to photograph pictures of horses, 1878 developed a series of 12 images that showed a horse in motion, show them consecutively there was a horse galloping

Don't & Be Carefuls

a set of guidelines that attempted to give filmmakers some idea of what to keep out of their films in order to avoid running afoul of state censor boards

magic lantern

a simple form of image projector used for showing photographic slides, the one in Tarzan, 17th century

Charles Chaplin

The most popular silent film star and played the Little Tramp.

Rita Hayworth

Little Margarita Carmen Casino began her show business career as a dancer but worked her way into films, first as a dancer then into more dramatic roles, often as a quintessential femme fatale. She had a storybook marriage to Prince Aly Khan from Pakistan

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

Louis Le Prince developed is own camera and shot this very first motion picture, 24 frames per second

Cinematographe

Lumiere brothers' device that both photographed and projected action

Clark Gable

actor, 1939 starred in "Gone With The Wind"; black Hattie McDaniel, also in a movie, becomes first black to win a major academy award

vaudeville

stage entertainment made up of various acts, such as dancing, singing, comedy, and magic shows, family-oriented

Warner Brothers

studio of the working class, "social problem" films

Poverty Row Studios

studios that produced their own films, independent, republic studios was the best one

Rudolph Valentino

America's first male sex symbol, he introduced America to the tango in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Black Maria

America's first motion picture studio, owned by Edison

Douglas Fairbanks

American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer best known for his roles in silent films, in a lot of adventure films, married to Mary Pickford

Birth of a Nation (1915)

An American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. The film was a commercial success, but was highly controversial owing to its portrayal of African-American men as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic force. It is is also credited as one of the events that inspired the formation of the "second era" Ku Klux Klan. Despite the film's controversial content, Griffith's innovative film techniques make it one of the most important and influential films in the commercial film industry.

Boris Karloff

An actor who is most well known for playing Frankenstein in 1930s. ,Born William Henry Pratt in the UK, this actor came to Hollywood and toiled in a variety of odd jobs before becoming one of the earliest stars of the Universal Horror pantheon. He also did the narration for Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas

December 7, 1941

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Big Five studios

MGM, Warner Brothers, 20th century fox, Paramount, RKO; owned all three parts, vertical integration, made films, distributed them, owned theaters

Dorothy Arzner

One of the first and most powerful female directors in Hollywood, she invented the boom mic for actress Clara Bow

Bette Davis

Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen + the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Jezebel (1938) Dark Victory (1939) The Old Maid (1939)

Otto Preminger

The director who first bypassed the production code seal of approval process and hired someone who had been blacklisted

Touch of Evil (1958)

The golden age of noir enjoyed a long run and ended with this film

James Cagney

United States film actor known for his portrayals of tough characters (1899-1986)

Lillian Gish

United States film actress who appeared in films by D. W. Griffith (1896-1993) such as birth of a nation

Little three studios

Universal, Columbia, United Artists, controlled production and distribution but no theaters

"A" picture

a bigger film that had a higher budget and was more prestigious

one reeler

a film is called this when it is 8-12 minutes long

United States v. Paramount Pictures

a landmark case which abolished the studio system of vertical integration, and outlawed black booking and full line forcing

bluebird film

a middle-tier film, possibly a low-grade "A" picture

Carole Lombard

movie star that helped sell war bonds

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle

one of the leading comedians of the silent era, the accusations the he killed a girl at a party derailed his career

Thaumatrope (1824)

paper disk with images on both sides and spin it to see them together, like a bird in a cage

full-line forcing

producers of a strong brand sometimes sell it to dealers only if the dealers will take some or all of the rest of its line

Kinetscope

put music to films, shown in parlors owned by Edison and you would pay to watch a one minute motion picture

Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory (1895)

shown at the first public, paid film presentation, first successful instances of film projected upon a screen for an audience, made movies a big business for the Lumiere brothers

Zoetrope (1834)

similar to the phenakistoscope except for no mirrors, there was a cylinder with slits in it and a paper in the middle, allowed more than one person to view the animation at the same time