Technological Advancements in the Film Industry.

To better understand short films before my Final Major Production I have been tasked with
researching into the notable events and breakthroughs that define the film industry today.
This new understanding gathered from doing research into certain people and certain
events will help us as we can use a deeper understanding to create a better and professional
production. To start research I looked into specific technological advancements and then
moved on to specific people who pushed the industry forward.
In late 1884, Thomas Edison spent time working on a new device he was creating. This
device was called the ‘Kinetoscope’. This new technology had achieved something never
done before, it let the used record a few seconds of footage and would be able to be played
back when looking through a small peephole. The most notable video was 2 and a half
seconds long and it featured a horse running. Edison did this by cutting a few still shots
together and playing them with a small light in quick succession. Due to its strange viewing
experience many people thought it was a trend that would pass over, mainly being used in
fairs and circuses. Thankfully however, in Paris 1895 the Lumiere Brothers went to a
showing of the Kinetoscope and where astounded by Edison’s new technology. The two
brothers returned back to their hometown, Lyon and started work on their very own video
recording camera. The Lumiere Brothers already had experience in this area as when Louie
Lumiere was just 17 he created the ‘Dry plate’. Their Father, a painter turned photographer,
already owned photo plate factories however his business was failing until the creation of
the Dry Plate by Louie. This boosted their family business to the point where they were
creating 15 million plates a year. Now after seeing the Kinetoscope they started work on
their very own creation, The Cinematographe. This new invention worked by running lines
of film at 16 frames per second through a light, which would in turn project the footage
through a small tube and then onto a wall. This new camera was all powered through a
crank on the side which meant it could be used anywhere. Not only this, the camera was
also three in one, It could record, develop film (using Louie’s dry plates) and project footage.
This was massive for the time and was a big upgrade from the single viewing experience of
the Kinetoscope. This invention was a huge technological advancement for the film industry
as it influenced many inventors and filmmakers and pretty much created the industry as a
hole.
The use of effects is a staple in modern movies nowadays, as a lot of movie makers use CGI
to even replace protagonists, however over 100 years ago this was unheard off. Movies
would usually feature up to 15 seconds of regular life, these being things like trains coming
into the station or the outdoors and wilderness. This all changed in 1895 when Georges
Méliès saw a showing of the Lumiere Brothers Cinematographe. This new technology of
moving images inspired Méliès to create his own camera to improve his stage magic and
vice versa. Unfortunately it wasn't so easy as the Lumiere brothers were not looking to sell
the cinematography just yet. Taking this in his stride Méliès decided to reverse engineer a
Anamatagraph. Eventually Georges was successful and he created his very own version of
the Cinematographe. This was a big challenge however within a few years he was making his
own films. Georges big contribution to film industry came a while after this however, he was
filming an average day in France when his camera jammed up and stopped working, he
tinkered with it and got it working however when he watched the footage back he noticed
something very strange. The footage started with a horse and carriage walking past when
the footage quickly cut to show a herse. What had happened was the camera stopped
filming halfway through the film and then started again once he had fixed it. This lead
Méliès on a journey to revolutionise the film industry as he started to use this new
technique of adding scenes to each other to create some complete fantasy stories full of
fantastical monsters and far away lands. His most famous work was ‘A Trip to the Moon’, it
features scientists going up to the moon, encountering aliens and coming back home. This
doesn't sound that crazy however the visuals for this film were out of this world at the time
as Méliès used his dramatic stage magic sets to create things like the moon's surface,
dragons and the most famous rocket in the moon's eye. Without Méliès we could well be
still watching trains coming into the station instead of over the top cgi movies, or at least
not have the many movies Georges Méliès inspired.
One of these filmmakers that Georges Méliès inspired was a young Edwin S. Porter. Porter,
born in 1870, was a touring projectionist, working first hand with Edison in 1900, and
eventually was put in charge of Edison's studio in New York. At this studio Porter was fully in
charge he would come up with the stories, work the camera, direct and assemble sets
however when Porter saw ‘A Trip to the Moon’ in 1902 it inspired him to create his very
own full length movies and within a year, Porter (using the studio he was set in charge off)
made ‘Life of an American Fireman’ and ‘The Great Train Robbery’. ‘Life of an American
Fireman’ was the first movie he created and it was the first movie that featured parallel
editing. Parallel editing is so common in movies nowadays that you probably don't even
notice it, what it entails is two separate scenes happening simultaneously, cutting back and
forth from scene to scene. The movie is about a Fireman who is dreaming about his wife and
daughter when the fire bell rang and he has to save them both from a burning building. This
film was well made and critically acclaimed however his most famous piece of work is ‘The
Great Train Robbery’. This movie is about a group of criminals who knock out a train
controller then move on to rob a train full of passengers in a classic heist movie style. At this
point many people thought the movie was finished however it carries on with a little girl
finding the knocked out controller and reviving him. The movie then takes a turn when we
are taken to the law enforces as they hunt down the train robbers and eliminate them. This
movie was revolutionary at the time because not only did it have an exciting narrative it also
featured the first tilt and pan shots. This was so big at the time that it was the first huge box
office hit. This lead to investors finally putting money into permanent cinemas. Without
Edwin S. Porter many people wouldn't have started to take cinema seriously and we
wouldnt know about the proper grammar for film, this being tilt shots, pan shots, in action
shots and parallel editing.
Now over 10 years since the release of ‘The Great Train Robbery’ the first colour camera had
started to be developed. They called it the technicolour and it used ‘Process 1’, this would
let the user film in red and green using a new photographic chemical developing process.
This new technique was unfortunately rather faulty and it wasn't until the new developing
technique that colour films actually started to look good and take off. This brand new
technique was called ‘Two Strip’ or ‘Process 3’. This was introduced in 1922 and works by
running three separate stripes of film over each other. The first being cyan, yellow, and
finally magenta. This would give off a dreamy look and is most famous for it use in ‘The
Wizard of Oz’. This completely changed the industry as now colour movies where becoming
a staple in modern culture however it wasn't until the late 30s and early 40s that the
footage was of a good quality. At a similar time to all of this (1920s) the very first movies
accompanied by sound where being released. This was thanks to the Vitaphone made by
Warner Brothers. This new technology lets the user record a full soundtrack and a script to
go along side the movie. Unfortunately, like the technicolour the technology was very new,
big and unreliable so many saw it as a trend that wouldn't work. This was until 1927 when a
streamlined and better version of the Vitaphone was released. It was made by Lee de Forest
and he named it the movietone. This new technology lets filmmakers record sound straight
on to the film which was a big improvement. Nevertheless history repeats itself and in 1939
a whole new sound and video camera was released by Edward C. Wente. Without these
huge developments in film there would be a lot more prominent black and white silent films
nowadays.
The most notable director from the 40s was a young Orson Welles. He was made famously
well known when he starred in his own radio drama, ‘The War of the Worlds’. This radio
drama was about aliens invading the planet and its said that it was so good and realistic that
people believed it was real. Years later however he was set in charge of his own movie,
Welles had been given full creative control which was unheard of at the time. The movie he
went on to make was called ‘Citizen Kane’ and it changed movies and the film industry for
ever. The film was about a wealthy newspaper magnet. It starts with Kane, played by Orson
himself, on his deathbed reminiscing the word ‘Rosebud’. The rest of the story is told
through flashbacks and through people he once knew, these being people like Kane’s
second wife, his manger and his co journalist. This storyline was extremely controversial at
the time of release as there were many people living this kind of life which meant certain
newspapers where biased. Not only the story made this movie so popular however as the
filming techniques, editing and sets where truly mesmerizing. Welles used Matte painted
pictures to surround sets to create a larger more inspiring shots. An example of this is a
scene where we see a stage that is surrounded by paintings of huge crowds. If you didn't
know it was a painting however you would think it is real, this technique was then used for
years, even in films like ‘Star Wars’. Welles really believed in getting the camera in the
action, so he would design sets around the camera to get an absolute perfect shot, that
being stuff like making holes in the ground to get a perfect low angle shot or having mics
and lights in the ceiling to get good sound and lighting. A good example of Welles attitude
towards filming is in a scene where we see a very young child Kane playing outside in the
snow, the camera then backs out through the window to reveal Kane's parents inside, the
camera keeps panning backwards through a table to its resting spot. To make this shot work
Welles had to specifically design a table that would split in half to allow the camera to pass
through then be placed back together. Without Orson Welles influence on films and movie
making, many movies could still feature the same theatre style filming know for the 30s and
20s.
Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most well known and famous movie makers ever and is most
known for 'Psycho'. Hitchcock had mastered suspense and shock and truly knew how to
manipulate an audience into thinking one thing to only completely subvert it and show
another thing. This however was most noticeable in his most infamous movie, Psycho. In
Psycho we follow Lila Crane, a young lady who works as a secretary. She embezzled
thousands of dollars from her employer, then goes on the run, and stops at a remote motel
run by a man under the control of his mother. This film was huge when it came out as it was
very controversial as half way through the film the lead character is killed whilst naked in
the shower. Without Hitchcock we wouldn't have many of the films it directly influenced like
texas chainsaw massacre and the Silence of the Lambs, we also wouldn’t have many of the
genre breaking movie we have nowadays as this film changed what it meant to be scary.