Film History Chapter One
Edison and Dickson never found out how to synchronize images and sound. True or False?
True.
What was very popular to film in pre-cinema?
Vaudeville Performers who were dancers, magicians, comedians, acrobats, and other types of performers.
Edison assigned who to do something that would animate photographs?
W.K.L. Dickson
What is a movie studio?
When an entertainment company grows big enough to have its own production facilities--from offices and sound stages to props, costumes, and editing rooms, we call it a studio.
Who was Alice Guy-Blache
A secretary for the French film company Gaumont, who went on to become head of production. First known female filmmaker who also opened her own studio.
Explain how the Cinematographe functioned and why it was a better machine than Edison's Kinetograph.
1. It was light enough for someone to carry. 2. It was operated by a hand crank, which meant that it didn't rely on electric power. 3. It could develop film it shot and it could also project the film.
What was the kinetograph?
The world's first motion picture film camera.
What were some of the limitations of the Kinetoscope?
1. It could only show films to one person at a time. 2. Held 40-50 feet of film, which meant movies could only be about sixteen seconds long.
What were the limitations of the Kinetograph?
1. Big and clunky--heavy to move 2. Only one person could view film on it at a time. 3. Required a lot of light to see images well. 4. Each Kinetograph movie was only one single uninterrupted shot.
What did Edison and Dickson invent?
1. The Kinetograph--The world's first motion picture camera. 2. The Kinetoscope--A peep show style of machine that let a single person view a film.
How did films by Edison and the Lumiere Brothers compare?
1. They were silent films. 2. They had no sound. 3. They were single shots. 4. Black and white 5. They lasted less than one minute.
The MPPC forbade films longer than . . .
16 minutes. One reelers were all that was allowed.
What year was the MPPC broken up?
1918 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
What was George Meleis's masterpiece?
A Trip to the Moon. It inspired filmmakers to make longer, more complicated stories.
Who was Etienne Jules Marey?
A french photographer who studied physiology and his training led him to capture motion studies of birds in flight and of athletes in action. He is also known for inventing the Chronophotographic Gun which could take bursts of photographs. In fact, 12 per second.
What is a feature film?
A movie with a running time long enough to be considered the principal film of a program. They typically run 70-130 minutes.
What did the Independents do?
Because they were boxed out by Edison, who controlled everything along with the MPPC, including filmstock, they rolled out of town and went Hollywood. It was a good place because it offered sunshine for 300 plus days throughout the year and it also had diverse film locations.
What was the name of the first movie production studio and why was it given this name?
Black Maria-- named after a local expression for police vans and paddy-wagons because it was said to be hot, stuffy, and very uncomfortable.
How do you pronounce cinematograph?
Cine-Mattah-Graph
What did the Lumiere brothers invent?
Cinematograph--A lightweight all-in-one device that made movies and exhibited them.
What is the exhibitor and its purpose?
Companies that provide film to audiences. Example: Movie services like Hulu and Netflix or theaters.
What was Edison's purpose for creating the Kinetoscope?
Edison wanted to develop a coin operated machine that allowed images to go along with music and speech.
Who developed the rules and language conventions of film?
Edwin S. Porter.
Who helped produce celluloid film rolls?
George Eastman-- The owner of Kodak.
What was the name of the person who started the special effects revolution?
George Melies (Mel-EE-Ayes)
What was Edwin Porter known for?
He brought movement of the camera into the fold, which is how we got the pan and the tilt. He also became the head of Edison's studios and edited a lot of film, which allowed him to discover cross cutting or parallel action.
What did Edison do to modify his studio?
He built a retractable sunroof on circular railroad tracks and it could spin around to find the sun's light.
What didn't Edison forsee in regard to filmmaking?
He did not forsee the power of projecting film to large audiences. He also didn't think those who were artists should be making film. It should be left up to technological experts.
Who was D.W. Griffith?
He was a failed actor who became a director. He is famous for innovating how films could be shot and cut. In addition, he is also known for pioneering financing of the feature length movie.
What biographical history do we know about Edwin S. Porter?
He was a touring projectionist and part of his job was to assemble various actualities and short films into longer feature programs.
Where was George Melies born and what was he known for before filmmaking?
He was born in Paris in 1861 and was famous for being a masterful magician. A couple of the effects he pioneered were 1. Double Exposure--layering two exposures on a single image, creating a ghostly effect. 2. Split Screen-Take a shot, rewind, cover the other half of the frame and shoot new footage. His films were simple and there wasn't much variation with camera movement or angle. The films were typically shot in one take and were more about effects and tricks than story although there were exceptions to this.
Why was Etienne Jules Marey integral to the early contributions pre-cinema?
His invention of The Chronophotographic Gun inspired Edison to create the Kinetoscope.
What breakthrough occurred that allowed filmmakers to begin to understand movement in film?
In 1872, Leland Stanford, the former governor of California and horse race aficionado, made a bet with another big wig that a horse at full gallop raises all four of its hooves off the ground at some point. To settle the bet, he hired, a British photographer and inventor named Eadward Muybridge to find photographic proof. So, Muybridge set up twelve cameras along a racetrack, each triggered by a trip wire to capture a still image of a horse in motion. His set of photos was something brand new. Rapid motion broken down into frozen studiable moments. Stanford won the bet because there were a couple of images where the horse's hooves didn't touch the ground at all. This began a wave of motion studies for photographers and inventors worldwide who began using these technologies to break down continuous motion into individual images.
How is Cross Cutting used today?
In superhero movies it is used to create suspense in intense action scenes and in thrillers it is used to juxtapose the pursued and the pursuer.
What was the movie studio, distribution, and exhibitor process like in the early days of cinema?
In the early days, companies were vertically integrated. That means the student owned all of the companies. It was a monopoly and it was at its height from 1907-1913.
What was the Cinema of Attractions?
In the entire first decade of film, movies were used to show off interesting performances by Vaudeville Entertainers and actualities.
He also used what other type of shot . . .
Insert shots- Close ups of objects or hands to show something is important in a key moment.
Describe Edison and W.K.L's relationship before the MPPC was formed.
It had eroded and W.K.L. Dickson created his own company called Biograph.
Why was Birth of a Nation important?
It paved the way for feature films.
What is Parallel Action (Cross-Cutting?)
It's the idea that film can cut back and forth between two or more events that are happening simultaneously in the world of film.
What is the distributor and its purpose?
Its job is to market the movie to its audience, book the films onto screens and deliver to theaters. In other words, they get the films out into the world.
In 1894, a Canadian entrepreneur named Andrew Holland opened the first . . .
Kinetoscope Parlor in New York City, charging 25 cents per person. Shortly after, these parlors began opening up all over the United States. Phonographs played while people viewed films on these devices. The parlors made almost all of their money on concessions just like movie theaters today.
What did the Kinetograph need a lot of to record an image?
Light.
What was the MPPC and why did it form?
Motion Picture Patent Company. It formed because Edison finally got tired of suing his competitors. He saw himself as the Godfather of film and felt overentitled. But he got tired of fighting everyone off, so he asked Biograph and eight other production companies to join him, forming what was known as The Trust and they monopolized film.
Were silent films really silent?
No. In fact, bands were hired to play, orchestras might play, otherwise phonographs were used and piano players may even play at film showings. Some films were even released with scripts so actors could perform lines of dialogue or read voice over narration.
Did the MPPC sell their films to exhibitors?
No. They leased them, retaining the rights so they could control and when and where they would be shown.
Most films were 10-16 minutes long and these were called . . . .
One reelers.
What was his biggest achievement?
The Birth of a Nation.
What two devices did Thomas Edison invent that were important to film in the pre-cinema era?
The Kinetograph, which was the world's first motion picture film camera and the Kinetoscope, which was a peep show style device that let people watch movies.
What was the first film to use cross cutting successfully?
The Life of an American Fireman-Made in 1902. An American Fireman rescues his wife from a burning building. The other film he used this in was The Great Train Robbery.
How were the films created by the Lumiere Brothers and Edison different?
The Lumiere Brothers filmed actualities like factory workers leaving work and a train arriving at a station while Edison used stage performers.
What was one of the Lumiere Brothers most popular first films they projected?
The Train Arrives at La Ciotat Station.
What was Edison's next invention he discovered called?
The Vitascope. It was a projector.
Companies looked at Henry Ford's mass production model and tried to copy the _______________ process.
The assembly line process.
D.W. Griffith is credited for . . .
The close up-- cutting to a shot of a characters face in a moment of high drama.
Birth of a Nation marked . . .
The end of the silent short era.
Why weren't longer films working initially?
The film strips kept tearing inside of the projector.
Why was the film criticized and why is D.W. criticized?
The filmmaking is brilliant, but the movie shows that D.W. Griffith was a master of cinema and incredibly racist at the same time for the way he portrayed blacks and the KKK in the film.
Where was the first film production studio and who owned it?
The first film production studio was opened in West Orange, New Jersey by Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson.
What else was Thomas Edison known for inventing?
The light bulb and the phonograph--a device for mechanical recording and for reproducing sound.
What inspired them to create the Cinematographe?
They thought they could build something better than Edison's invention.
What is the purpose of a movie studio?
This is where films are made by the production company.
Why was the Chronophotographic gun and Zoopraxiscope important?
Those inventions set up Thomas Edison and a scientist who worked for him named, W.K.L. Dickson to invent the Kinetograph.
Why did he use extensive flashbacks?
To add to characters and their stories.
Who is credited for the first public screening of a motion picture and where did it happen?
Woodville Latham. An American Chemist and Kinteoscope owner who projected a film of a boxing match in May 1895 to a crowd was technically the first, but the credit usually goes to the Lumiere Brothers.
Who helped fix the problem with the film strips breaking and what was this called?
Woodville Latham. He created The Latham Loop, which helped remedy this problem by allowing filmmakers to use longer film strips in camera without tearing and breaking.
What does Cinematographe mean?
Writing with movement.
What projection device did Muybridge create?
Zoopraxiscope--an early device used to show images in motion.
