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The history of the film industry
The history of the film industry
History of filmmaking
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Once a pond a time, long long ago, there where several motion picture production studios – RKO, Warner Brothers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artist, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures and Columbia Pictures that controlled 90% of the film industry in America since the invention of motion pictures. These production houses cranked out films by the masses to quince young America’s thirst for entertainment. Most of the film had very similar plot, themes and actors. Each studio house would put their spin on the story to make it their own. Sometimes rival studio would release the same types of film on the same day to attract customer from viewing another studios film. I think it wasn’t until the invention of the production designer position that studios started to form their identity. In the late 1800’s, theater was how most people saw entertainment. Smaller theaters where littered all across small town America, with major theater in heavily populated cities. The major theater where heavily decorated and going to one was a treat, the performances where spectacles of amazement for the time. The colorful costumes, live music and realistic backdrops where a sight to see. People would sand in line for hours just to get a change to view some of the more popular stage plays at the time. In the late 1800’s photography was born and not too long the first picture where produced. The first film where merely still images, when flipped in a sequence order, the stills looked as if they where moving. Film goers where first leery of this new technology but over time they embraced it and wanted more. As like with any new technology, film started to evolve. Synchronized sound was now being introduced to silent films. The first... ... middle of paper ... ... and miniature building, quicker, easier and more cost effective to make countless storyboards for a film. In today’s film industry the Art Department is mostly computerized. There are countless graphic designer, motion capture designer and visual designer at the ready that can produce a world on a computer screen in half of the time it would take for Menzies to do his sketches. The independent film company has the choice to pick his Production Designer - PD, where in the old studio system, the system told the director whom they would have to work with and to stick to the studio vision of the film. PD’s now have the power to express the visions that they want and not force to produce. With the PD’s freedom to express their vision, the film industry production value has risen to new heights. If a production designer can dream it, their team can bring it to life.
In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.
The silent era in film occurred between 1895 through 1929. It had a a major impact on film history, cinematically and musically. In silent films, the dialogue was seen through muted gestures, mime, and title cards from the beginning of the film to the end. The pioneers of the silent era were directors such as, D. W. Griffith, Robert Wiene and Edwin S. Porter. These groundbreaking directors brought films like first horror movie and the first action and western movie. Due to lack of color, the silent films were either black and white or dyed by various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Now, we begin to enter towards the sound era and opposed to the silent era, synchronized sounds were introduced to movies. The classic movie, The Jazz Singer, which was directed by Alan Crosland, was the first feature length film to have synchronized dialogue. This was not only another major impact in film history, but it also played a major part in film technology and where film is right now.
Before talking films were big people were fascinated with the idea of moving pictures in the
The decade was largely dominated by silent films, but the creation of movies with sound followed afterwards. These innovations greatly improved the movies and made them more immersive and exciting for the viewer. Soon after the invention of sound in movies, the silent era movies...
...ion, there have been many amazing contributors to help in the evolving of film editing techniques and technology since it all started in the early 1900s. Danny Boyle sets the example for the modern film society about how directors should look at their work. Lev Kuleshov set the bar when he created the Kuleshov Effect of juxtaposing images together, creating a subtext to the audience. In the early1900s, Edwin Porter made the first narrative film which is a type of film that has been used most commonly ever since. The history of film has changed drastically ever since it has started. Changes in technology and styles of film are completely different today than when it all started only a little over a hundred years ago. Though, film is not done changing. It won’t be long until another talented director comes a long and sets the bar higher for how a film should be done.
The Studio System Key point about the studio system could be: Despite being one of the biggest industries in the United States, indeed the World, the internal workings of the 'dream factory' that is Hollywood is little understood outside the business. The Hollywood Studio System: A History is the first book to describe and analyse the complete development, classic operation, and reinvention of the global corporate entities which produce and distribute most of the films we watch. Starting in 1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930.
Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54
Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. In narrative structure and film style, Welles challenged classical Hollywood conventions and opened a path for experimentation in the later 1940s. Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography and Welles’ use of low-key lighting are often discussed aspects of the movie. True, these were areas of innovation, but when watching the movie in class I was particularly struck by the use of camera movement, or “mobile framing” as described in Film Art. In this historical analysis, I will take a detailed look at how Welles and Toland use camera movement to develop and challenge the Hollywood style. By referring to other movies viewed in Professor Keating’s class, including The Cheat, Wings, Applause, Double Indemnity, The Last Laugh and Bicycle Thief, this paper traces one aspect of innovation and diffusion in the movie many call the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane.
This New Wave aesthetic solidified film as a mainstream artform, stressing that film was carefully crafted similarly to literature. Individual directors, or auteurs, were expected to “author” their films in much the same way that an author would write a novel. This auteur theory and its accompanying aesthetic became the backbone of the French New Wave and was what drove innovation. Breaking free from the screenwriter, producer, and studio driven systems of the past, and putting the creative power back in the hands of the director was seen as a crucial step in solving Cahiers’ perceived problems with French cinema before the movement.
Technology is a central issue surrounding film making from the times of Charlie Chaplin's silent films to today's modern and computer-animated films such as George Lucas's Star Wars. In addition there have been a system of changes in computer, phone and video enhancement which has propelled vast amounts of information knowledge to the public at a rapid rate.
With many different genres and types of filmmaking, it can result in a large variety of stories and conflicts. Nevertheless, film has always brought people together as a society. If there is one thing everyone can notice about films is the achievement in style and directing. The three directors talked about in this paper are the most successful at delivering a breathtaking style and direction to their films. Baz Luhrmann, Wes Anderson, and Martin Scorsese have produced and directed films over decades and each film as impacted not only the United States but worldwide. With the unmistakable trademarks that each director has, it is very easy to feel sucked into the world in which they are shaping around you and the story. Because of these three directors, the film world and industry has been revolutionized for many centuries to come.
The art of filmmaking has been around for over a hundred years and now has over a hundred different specialized jobs in its field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “key grip, gaffer, best boy, boom operator, and director of photography are just a few of the jobs in the field of filmmaking that are essential to the process of creating a movie or TV show” (From Script #1). But before any of these people are able to get a job, they must go through an average of four years of college in order to specialize in film (Zeke). Filmmaking is a very complex and involved career that is crucial to the pursuit of happiness on earth and the telling of history.
The introduction of sound to film started in the 1920’s. By the 1930’s a vast majority of films were now talkies. ‘If you put a sound consistent to visual image and specifically human voice you make a “talkie”’ (Braun 1985 pg. 97). In 1926 Warner Brothers introduced sound to film but, other competing studios such as FOX, didn’t find it necessary to incorporate sound to their motion pictures production, as they were making enough money through their silent movies. Warner Brothers decided to take what was considered a risky move by adding sound to their motion picture, a risk taken, as they weren’t as successful in the silent movie department. But this risk paid off with the hit release of ‘The Jazz Singer’ in 1927. Though sound in films was then acceptable and successful it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it became feasible to the public as sound was introduced to cinema by the invention of Cinerama by Fred Waller. The Cinerama used 35mm film strip and seven channels of audio.
Offering the unique ability to visually and audibly convey a story, films remain a cornerstone in modern society. Combined with a viewer’s desire to escape the everyday parameters of life, and the excitement of enthralling themselves deep into another world, many people enjoy what films stand to offer. With the rising popularity of films across the world, the amount of film makers increases every day. Many technological innovations mark the advancement of film making, but the essential process remains the same. Pre-production accounts for everything taken place before any shooting occurs, followed by the actual production of the film, post-production will then consist of piecing the film together, and finally the film must reach an audience. Each step of this process contributes to the final product, and does so in a unique right. The process of film making will now start chronologically, stemming from the idea of the story, producing that story into a film, editing that footage together, and finally delivering that story to its viewers.
The Role of Computer Generated Imagery in the Film Industry Computer Generated Imagery is the special effects used in motion pictures to create a visual depiction of an illusion that can not be easily created in real life. Directors of major motion pictures have been using these technologies since the early days of the personal computer. Early on, when and special effects were in their beginning stages, it was difficult to make efficient and effective effects that are well accepted by the movie critics and the general public. An evolution of special effects and the introduction of computerized animation brought the standards for movie effects to a higher level. The development of new methods of Computer Generated Imagery for less money and more effective than in the past has allowed even fairly low budget movies to incorporate such technology.