FMP Essay:

The beginning of moving image began in 1891 with the creation of the Kinetoscope, this
piece of technology was a prototyped, the machine allowed for one person at a time to view
moving images for the first time ever. This was invented and created by the Edison
Company. Cinema developed, in Paris 1895 the ‘Grand Cafe’ was having the first paying
customers, showing short minute long films through the Lumiere brothers and their
Cinematographe, who are renowned as being the inventors of cinema.

By 1906, colour was first introduced, this was only done subtly through stencilling and
toning onto black and white films, as colour progressed, the British Kinemacolour process,
which was the original and first working motion colour process, this process changed the
way films are portrayed today. Sound also was beginning to be introduced in this era, and
for the first time by Warner Brothers and their Vitaphone system, however it had many
flaws and was shown to be very unreliable however it set the path, for the development of
sound production.

The 20’s brought the introduction of the most prestigious film awards in the Academy
Awards, which is still regarded as the ‘big’ one in terms of film awards shows. It consisted of
12 awards with 25 films being nominated for the awards. With 10 films winning over the 12
awards. Now the Oscars have developed to having 24 for different categories and a variety
of different films being nominated across the board, and over 50 films getting nominated
doubling what it was 91 years ago.

The development of moving image and cinema quickly increased, as by the 1930’s, cinemas
were now show full feature length films, also having audio which was completely
synchronised, really showing the dedication that people had to the fast production of films
and how fast they can make such significant changes, with the limited resources that they
had compared to later. In 1935, Technicolor was introduced which was a colouring process,
which saturated levels of colour, it was so successful it was used for a number of decades
after.

The 40’s and 50’s is when cinema became exceedingly popular, and it was now being looked
at as more of a day out and entertainment as films were developing and having more of a
plot and good storylines rather than focusing on just ‘having a film’ it was more trying to
show off what they had produced. However, as popularity increased for the cinema,
television began to gain popularity. This resulted in lots of money being lost in the film
industry, due to the amount of entertainment being produced for television. This sparked
the idea for film company to make films for television, which resulted in huge success and
still being done today even with big streaming services. 1942 brought Citizen Kane, which
one of the first films that truly explored camera angles/shot types, and trying to tell a story
through the angles. This was a film that changed the way films were produced and was a
great inspiration for aspiring film makers around the world.

As the film industry developed the 60’s introduced a few more genres, and films became a
bit more rock a and roll as the 60’s era began to change, with different music and people
being rule breakers and reckless, so as this happened films change catering to different
audiences, the late 60’s also brought the introduction of age ratings which prevented
younger audiences watching more explicit films. This progressed into the 70’s, where the
limits of violence, sex and strong language were dropped allowing more mature films to be
shown at cinemas, which obviously appealed to the older audiences. This resulted in film
producers being able to have no limits in what they made and allowed for more creative
productions to be brought into cinemas.

The 70’s was also a massive and iconic era for film with numerous major film titles, which
are still absolutely, huge and massively iconic, for example Jaws came out in 1975, and was
huge at the time and was one of the first big horror films. Another big film that was released
in the 70’s was The Godfather, which is regarded as being one of the best films of all time,
and started the ‘mafia/gangster’ genre of film. And finally, the first Star Wars released which
was the start of one of the biggest film franchises having millions and millions of fans
worldwide. It was also a era of some massive actors who have numerous accolades for their
success, such as Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen and Al Pacino. However, with all this
success it brought films with less effort to them and basic storylines, this was done so big
film companies can be successful by making not as good films, and looking as making money
and it being a business, which ruined the quality of intentions of some film companies.

During the 80’s and 90’s, action/adventure and comedy became the most popular genre,
this is because, they were both enjoyable films to watch and also quite ‘simple and easy’
storylines, which became predictable, however they were and still are very enjoyable to
watch. Also in the 80’s was the beginning of very basic CGI and VFX, the first full feature
length film being Toy Story in 1995. The 90’s also was the start of Quentin Tarrintino’s
feature film directing career, with Reservoir Dogs (1992) later that decade going on do the
screenplay and direct Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. Pulp fiction is still looked at as an
extremely iconic film due to its story line and complete unpredictability that Tarrintino is so
well known for.

The 2000’s was a revolutionary time for the film industry and film companies and filmed
started to use a VFX and CGI which truly changed the way that films were portrayed, this
was due to the amount of money that was being fed into the film industry now and the
number of different, multimillion dollar film companies, producing multiple films annually
making millions if not billions of dollars. Avatar was a landmark in film and broke record
after record, also being the highest grossing film of all time until Avengers Endgame last
year, maintain that record for ten years. The film was so big due to the incredible effects
and amount of CGI used, allowed James Cameron to create a whole new reality which
looked incredible on screen, especially in 3D, which had never really been done before.

Most recently, the film industry has not had many juristic changes from the 2000’s, bar film
companies throwing a lot more money at producers, knowing they will make their money
back. One of the most significant changes in the last decade is the ability to stream your
favourite films online, this has changed the film industry as it makes movies accessible and
has buried the idea of buying /renting a DVD instead a few clicks and you’ve got it. The
obvious and most popular platform for this is Netflix which for a £7.99 monthly fee gives
you access to hundreds if not thousands of films old and new available to everyone.
Moreover, due to their vast success they have been able to produce their own films that
don’t go to the cinema and are just straight on the app. For example, with most recently
‘The Irishman’ directed by Martin Scorsese, as originally being funded by Paramount until
they were stepped aside and Netflix picked up the film giving them $200 million to finish the
film. However, stream films online came with its flaws and has now allowed for almost
every film ever produced to be illegally watched and streamed online, even for films in the
cinema, this allows for film production company to lose out on millions of dollars, and is
predicted by 2022 for a loss of $52 billion dollars in total to be lost due to piracy of films.

Other companies that has started to fund for short films and even some feature films to be
produced is YouTube, although it is not to the extent of Netflix and Amazon Prime it is still a
good start and is giving smaller creators/directors/producers a massive platform to show off
their work too.

In summary, from the late 80’s the film industry has developed a massive amount from
starting with one person being able to view a few moving images at a time to globally the
film industry being worth over $100 billion dollar business. Moreover, visually the difference
is massive from being able to see every pixel on the screen at a slow jittery frame rate, to
super smooth and incredible quality, which you can watch at cinema and at home through
4K as well as 3D televisions, allowing you to have the experience of a cinema at the
comfort of your home, however 3D televisions did not take off as much as expected and
ended up not being as big as hyped up as they were.

Ben Varley