Media Studies 120

A Brief History of Film

 

  1. Roots: Machines, Action and Actors

 

  1. If you were a teen in 1898, you would have been entertained by a MAGIC LANTERN SHOW. From the early 1700’s, scenes had been painted on glass and projected on a wall or sheet, using a candle or a lantern as a light source.

 

  1. In 1834, George Homer popularized a device that simulated movement called a ZOETROPE. (see slide) In fact, the earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 A.D. by the prolific inventor Ting Huan. Driven by convection, Ting Huan's device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top, from which were hung translucent paper or mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device spun fast enough. (from Wikipedia)

 

  1. You might decide to head out to the local VAUDEVILLE THEATRE (even most small towns had them). Here you would see live entertainment from traveling entertainers who specialized in this. Vaudeville flourished in the years between 1850 and 1900, though it lasted for years after that. Many film actors started their training and careers here.

 

  1. The Revolution Begins & Escalates

 

  1. The demise of Vaudeville and its traveling entertainers was soon to come, for in 1899, William Dickson, working for Thomas Edison’s famous laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, invented the first successful motion picture camera. Edison’s team produced a KINETOSCOPE, a device for viewing films. (See Kinetoscope Parlour & Fred Ott’s Sneeze). One person at a time could look through a peephole in the top of a box, while turning a crank to make the film loop move and thus simulate action. These PEEP SHOWS were very popular, so much so that stylish parlours were built to house the machines.

 

  1. In France, two brothers, LOUIS & AUGUSTE LUMIERE, invented a camera which could not only take a picture, but could also project it onto a screen. It was called a CINEMATOGRAPHE. (See L’Arroseur arosse )

 

  1. Vaudeville houses began renting these early machines and using them to attract audiences in conjunction with their live performers. The usual choice in these cases was Edison’s early motion picture projector called the VITASCOPE.

 

C. The Revolution Organizes

 

  1. As film projectors became more readily available, back rooms of stores and businesses (and any other available free space) became projection rooms. These spaces were the origins of the NICKELODEONS, where one could see a film all day long for a nickel. (These short films were shown continuously from morning to night).

 

  1. These nickelodeons served many of the poor and immigrant peoples who were flooding into North America at that time, and by 1908, there were over 10,000 nickelodeons in the US. In fact, the success of these silent films was because there was no language at all to deter the viewer from understanding and enjoying the films.

 

  1. As the popularity of the medium grew, so did production companies grow to meet the ever-increasing demand for more product. Production companies were founded in the eastern U.S. to meet the demand. However, because of the poor weather and the growth of TRUSTS, many independent companies headed for California to make their motion pictures or “movies”. TRUSTS are motion picture companies that held patents for film making and projection technologies that prevented any other new companies from making motion pictures.

 

D. The Stars

 

  1. Motion picture companies from the start were reluctant to name their featured players to the public. They knew that name recognition would drive up salary demands from these “stars”. However, audiences began to identify and name their favorites. “Let’s go see the Biograph Girl or Bronco Billy” eventually led to the realization that it was often the actor who attracted audiences to the movies. For example, Carl Laemmle, a producer of early films, hired away the BIOGRAPH GIRL, Florence Lawrence, from Biograph Studios, and used her popularity and name to attract people to his films. This phenomenon was the root of the star system and the accompanying salaries we see in film today.

 

  1. Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous actors from this era and still known today, benefited from this system.

 

His salaries:

1913:                                 $150/ week

1914:                                 $1250/ week

1915:                                 $10,000/ week

1916:                                 $1,000,000 for 8 short films made in 18 weeks. He was 27 years old, and there was no income tax!

E. A New Revolution

 

  1. Keep in mind that all of this discussion is about film without a soundtrack or SILENTS. Film with sound was being developed, but most makers of motion pictures saw the combination as a gimmick only, because of the over-whelming acceptance and success of the silent motion picture. They were also reluctant to add to the expense of film production which would result from the addition of sound.

 

  1. Silent films were accompanied by music almost from the time that they began to tell a story. At first, a tinkling piano would be used to add to the emotion of the film, but as time passed, special musical scores were written that would use the piano and a small band; eventually, especially in larger cities and venues, full and extravagant orchestrations for elaborate musical scores would be played live by large symphony orchestras.

 

  1. And these movie theatres were large. Many of them featured marble foyers, balconies and boxes, plush seats, ornate decorations, huge chandeliers, elaborate staircases, and French, Oriental or Persian motifs. For example, did you know the beautiful Imperial Theatre in Saint John with its Italian Renaissance décor opened in 1913 for the performance of vaudeville AND silent movies?

 

  1. Despite the resistance to change in the film industry, WARNER BROTHERS STUDIO, relatively small at the time, was looking for a way to increase film sales. It bought GENERAL ELECTRIC’s sound system known as VITAPHONE and made movie history with a movie called THE JAZZ SINGER in 1927, and changed the course of film-making forever. Though experimentation with film sound had been happening in the industry for a few years before this, The Jazz Singer is acknowledged as the first TALKIE, or film with a synchronized, pre-recorded soundtrack that included dialogue.

 

  1. Some great careers were lost by this change to sound pictures. Some great studios and directors were lost as well.

 

  1. However, the movie-making business only flourished with the change and became major businesses with highly structured organizations. Most of the big companies strove to make, market and house their own films, and many successfully did so.

 

F. The Industry Grows & Matures

 

  1. With their success came criticism, and thus began the business of the CRITIC. Almost from the beginning of the silent film days, studios faced harsh criticism from critics concerning the use of sexuality, violence, crime, and general moral values depicted in films. Of course, this criticism has continued, now levied at TV and video games as well as film.

 

  1. The motion picture companies banded together in the 1920’s to hold off government controls and hired WILL HAYS in 1922 to “keep movies clean”. In 1930, his office developed the Motion Picture Production Code which banned what they considered to be sexually suggestive acts in movies (even the showing of double beds), as well as language considered offensive. The code demanded that movie lawbreakers be punished.

 

  1. As the years went by, this code was softened, until in 1939, Rhett Butler is allowed to utter in contempt to Scarlett O’Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!” In 1953, the movie THE MOON IS BLUE used the word “virgin”; by the 1960’s, movies such as BULLIT could use a few “blue” words and violence in general became more prevalent. Today, the movie code with which we are familiar is a labeling system which classifies films as G, PG14, 14A, 18A, R or X.

 

G. Canada’s Contributions

 

  1. Canada has always been a major market for American films. It has also contributed many important film stars and film moguls. Names that have become a bit misty with time include Jack Warner, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Marie Dressler, Mack Sennett, Deanna Durbin, Harold Russell, Walter Huston (father of Angelica Huston), and Louis B. Mayer (one of the M’s in MGM Studios). More recently, people may know the names of Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Thomas Chong, Michael J. Fox, Brendan Fraser, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Eric McCormack, Leslie Nielsen, Rick Moranis, Matthew Perry, Keanu Reeves, William Shatner, Kiefer and his father, Donald Sutherland, Victor Garber, Pamela Anderson, Margot Kidder, Carrie-Anne Moss, Catherine O’Hara, Meg Tilley, Anna Paquin, as well as many more. Famous directors or producers include James Cameron, Norman Jewison and Lorne Michaels.

 

  1. Canada has had an agency for making documentaries and short features since 1939 called the NATIONAL FILM BOARD. In 1988, NFB was working with a budget of over 70 million dollars, and has in its years produced hundreds of award-winning documentaries and short subjects. Sadly, funding over the years has been slashed from the NFB’s annual working budgets, and produces many fewer films than it did in its heyday. A recent well-known documentary produced by the NFB that exemplifies the standard of excellence achieved by the NFB is 1999’s successful THROUGH A BLUE LENS.