FINE 12b Film History

• Hand-tinting (Edison, Melies, others)
• too painstaking & expensive
• Technicolor:
• 1922: Technicolor "2-strip" process used red and green filtered film - problematic & expensive
• 1932: Technicolor "3-strip" process used red, green, & blue filters - still expensive
• 1952: Eastman Kodak "Eastmancolor" 3 color layers on one film
• 1974: Last Technicolor film: The Godfather II

Next: Collaboration in Film - Cinematography & Editing

Film History

Last word on Color:

• Until newer technologies were developed, color films were difficult and expensive to make:
• 1947: 10% of all US movies were color
• 1954: 50% of all US movies were color
• 1979: 96% of all US movies were color
• Studios embraced color in the 1950's to combat popularity of television
• Color can be used symbolically, emotionally, psychologically

Beginnings

1834: Zoetrope

• "zoe" = life
• "trope" = wheel
• "zoetrope" = wheel of life
• Popular parlor toy in mid-1800's
• Discovery: images must change faster than 10 images per second

Sound

The problem with

Edison's kinetoscope:

The Wizard of Oz (Fleming) - 1939

• Silent films were never really silent
• Problem was in getting the sound to be synchronized with the film
• 1927: "The Jazz Singer" introduced synchronized sound to the public
• 1929: "The Broadway Melody" - the first "all talking, all singing musical"
• Intro of sound feared by some

Silly Symphony: Flowers and Trees (Disney) - 1932

Color

One of Edison's most famous films: "Serpentine Dances"

• features famous dancer Annabelle Moore
• made in 1895 with hand-tinted color

Inventions and Innovations: 1888

• George Eastman invents flexible paper for developing photographs - film
• Thomas Edison (who has already invented the light bulb and the phonograph) decides to invent a device that will show moving pictures to accompany the phonograph music
• Edison purchases Eastman's flexible film stock (called Kodak) and designs the "kinetoscope" with his assistant, W.K.L. Dickson
• Dickson has the idea to cut the film into strips and punch holes in the edges so it can be pulled through the machine by gears with teeth

The Jazz Singer (Crosland), 1927

Modern Times (Chaplin), 1936

First Public Show

• December 28, 1895
• Grande Cafe, Paris
• 33 customers / 1 franc each
• 10 films by the Lumieres on the program - each film approx. 50 seconds long
• Entire show lasted 25 minutes

Adding Sound to Film

• Not always easy - experimentation
• Silent films continued until 1936+
• Actors' transition sometimes problematic
• Scene from "Singin' in the Rain"
• Kelly & Donen, 1951

"Actualities"

Voyage to the Moon - 1902

• Lumiere Brothers' name for their early films
• No stories, just scenes of everyday life
• "The Baby's Meal" - 1895
• "Arrival of a Train" - 1895

Uses of Music in Film

• Edison places extensive copyright restrictions and patents on his inventions, so the French government seeks to start its own film industry
• The Lumiere Brothers - photographers
• Cinematographe - 1894

European Developments

Georges Melies - 1861-1938

• Set mood
• Add to realism
• Eliminate silence or background noise
• Anticipate events
• Manipulate viewer emotions

Can music change your perception?

• Family business: boot-making
• Interests: art and theater
• Training: stage magic
• 1888: bought a theater, produce and performed in popular magic shows
• 1895: was one of the 33 customers at the Lumiere's first show at the Grande Cafe - he was hooked
• 1896: began producing films - 531 films in 18 years - all types, all genres

Georges Melies - Pioneer

Film techniques included stop-motion, multiple exposure, time-lapse, dissolve, superimposition, zoom, cross-cutting, and match cuts