MOVIE

CINEMA
FILM
Movies is slang for a motion picture.
Film is the medium on which motion
pictures are fixed.
Cinema is from the French
cinématographe which comes in part from
the greek kinema, meaning movement.
Pre-Film Techniques

SHADOW PUPPET

MAGIC LANTERN by
Christiaan Huygens
Pre-Film Techniques

KINETOSCOPE by
Thomas Edison

INTERNAL DETAILS OF A KINETOSCOPE

 CAMERA OBSCURA

The Latin name means

“dark chamber,” consisted
of small darkened rooms
with light admitted through
a single tiny hole. The result
was that an inverted image
of the outside scene was
cast on the opposite wall,
which was usually
whitened.
The First Motion
Pictures
THE HORSE IN MOTION by Eadweard Muybridge, 1878
Leland Stanford was bored. In 1872, Stanford was a wealthy robber baron, former
Governor of California, and horse racing enthusiast with way too much time on his hands.
Spending much of that time at the track, he became convinced that a horse at full gallop
lifted all four hooves off the ground. His friends scoffed at the idea. Unfortunately, a
horse’s legs moved so fast that it was impossible to tell with the human eye. So he did
what really wealthy people do when they want to settle a bet, he turned to a nature
photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, and offered him $25,000 to photograph a horse mid
gallop.

LELAND STANFORD

Six years later, Muybridge perfected a technique of

photographing a horse in motion with a series of 12
cameras triggered in sequence. One of the photos clearly
showed that all four of the horse’s hooves left the ground
at full gallop. Stanford won the bet and went on to found
Stanford University. Muybridge pocketed the $25,000
and became famous for the invention of series
photography, a critical first step toward motion pictures.
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE
 THAUMATROPE invented
by John Ayrton Paris

PRAXINOSCOPE invented
by Émile Reynaud

ZEOTROPE invented
PHENAKISTOSCOPE invented by William George Horner
by Joseph Plateau https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNxUXajnbnY
 The First Motion Pictures
• 1893 - 15 years after Muybridge won
Stanford’s bet, Edison had built the first “movie
studio,” a small, cramped, wood-frame hut
covered in black tar paper with a hole in the
roof to let in sunlight. His employees
nicknamed it the Black Maria. One of the
first films they produced was a 5 second
“scene” of a man sneezing.
• There was just one problem: the only way to
view Edison’s films was through a
kinetoscope, a machine that allowed a single
viewer to peer into a viewfinder and crank
through the images. The ability to project the
images to a paying audience would take
another couple of years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wnOpDWSbyw
The First Motion Pictures
1895, over in France, Auguste and
• In
Louis Lumiere invented the
cinematographe. Antoine Lumière, father of
Auguste and Louis Lumiere, attended an
exhibition of Edison’s Kinetoscope in Paris.
Upon his return to Lyon, he showed his sons
a length of film he had received from one of
Edison’s concessionaires; he also told them
they should try to develop a cheaper
alternative to the peephole film-viewing
device and its bulky camera counterpart, the
Kinetograph. While the Kinetoscope could
only show a motion picture to one individual
viewer, Antoine urged Auguste and Louis to
work on a way to project film onto a screen, Lumiere Cinematographe
where many people could view it at the same
time.
The First Motion Pictures
• Auguste began the first experiments in
the winter of 1894, and by early the
following year the brothers had come
up with their own device, which they
called the Cinématographe. Much
smaller and lighter than the
Kinetograph, it weighed around five
kilograms (11 pounds) and operated
with the use of a hand-powered crank.
The Cinématographe photographed and
projected film at a speed of 16 frames
per second, much slower than Edison’s
device (48 frames per second), which
meant that it was less noisy to operate
and used less film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4
The First Motion Pictures
• Alice Guy-Blaché was a pioneer of
the French and American film industries
during the silent era and the first
woman to have a career as a director,
yet her work and career have largely
been overlooked throughout history.
Alice Guy-Blaché was working as a
secretary at a photography company
when she saw the Lumieres’ invention
in 1895. The following year she wrote,
directed and edited what many consider
the first fully fictional film in cinema https://vimeo.com/474174504
history, The Cabbage Fairy (1896).
 The First Motion Pictures
• But it was George Melies who became the most
well-known filmmaker-as-entertainer in those first
few years. Melies was a showman in Paris with a
flare for the dramatic. He was one of the first to see
the Lumieres’ cinematographe in action in 1895 and
immediately saw its potential as a form of mass
entertainment. Over the next couple of decades he
produced hundreds of films that combined fanciful
stage craft, optical illusions, and wild storylines
that anticipated much of what was to come in the
next century of cinema. His most famous film, A
Trip to the Moon, produced in 1902, transported
audiences to the surface of the moon on a rocket
ship and sometimes even included hand-tinted
images to approximate color cinematography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLVChRVfZ74
Evolution of Movies
 Moving Image 1824-1894
• The moving image began in 1824, which was the
beginning of the art of cinema. Sir John's
invention, the thaumatrope, consisted of image
flashes that were placed in front of your eyes to
see the stop motion of continuous images.
• Other devices created in this era were:
• The 1820s: Thaumatrope
• The 1830s: Phenakistoscope and Zoetrope
• The 1870s: Praxinoscope
• The 1890s: Kinestocope (Era ends in 1894)
Pioneer Era 1895 - 1910
• This era started the film world without being a
filmmaker since they had no experience in
filmmaking. These films ran for only 5 minutes
with stunning visual effects. However, it
pioneered the cinema world with recordings of
newsreels and documentaries. In 1902, George
Melies introduced the proposal of narrative films
where the plot of the film and its dialogues were
explained. Illustration from a scene from A Trip to
the Moon (1902).
 Silent Era 1911 - 1929
• It was marked as the dawn of cinematography
with great productions. The Lumière Brothers
invented cinematography and took over the era
that would usher in the cinematic art we know
today. Although this era ended in 1929 with the
Talkie Era, it is important to highlight the creation
of Hollywood in 1910 giving production to period
films and well-known actors of the time. Silent
Era Movies: City Lights, Charlie Chaplin (1931).
The Talkies 1929 - 1938
• This era was the beginning of great scripts and
dialogue in movies. Hollywood together with
Warner Bros. created the first experiment with
background vocals and more ambient sounds
with the film "The Jazz Singer". This was a
tremendous step in the evolution of movies and
the inception of the horror genre and monster
films. The Talkies Movies:
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) Illustration from The
bride of the Monster(1935)
 Golden Era 1939 - 1954
• Between 1939 and 1954, World War II brought
great classics to the restructuring of Hollywood;
the assistance of improved technology for the
time ushered in the colour films and started the
genres of comedy, science fiction, gangster films,
and slapstick films. Also, during this period,
Indian cinema made its appearance and gained
popularity. Golden Era Movies:
• Singing in the Rain (1952)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Change 1955 - 1976
• More than an era, it was a change in the cinema
world. It broke conventional thinking by changing
the way films were viewed in terms of interesting
story structure, editing, screenplay, etc. The
cinema viewing experience and the screen was
developed in order to enhance to a new era. It
was the time of productions and classics that are
seen today and are known by young people and
grown-ups alike. Change Movies:
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• Cash On Demand (1961)
 Dawn of Modern Era 1977 -
1990s
• Thanks to the technological advance of the
computer, it was possible to achieve effects that
were mind-blowing and revolutionary for the
time. In particular, films like Star Wars showed
that Hollywood could make a production of such
magnitude for the art of cinema, making the film
a classic and creating prestige to science fiction.
Also, it triggered the disaster era. Dawn of
Modern Film:
• Star Wars (1977)
• The Goonies (1985)
• The Witches (1995) Illustration from IMDb, Star Wars
Episode IV (1977)
New Millenium Era
• Films created from the beginning of 2000 to the
present. The world of cinema is now a major
business worldwide, creating great competitions
in the most renowned production companies.
Nowadays films have a deep background in which
a new film is created by remaking films belonging
to other eras or those works of literature that
have not been discovered. However, great
directors of the era have made excellent films
that have given value to this era. Illustration from
Warner Bro. Joker (2019)
The Philippine Film
History
Early History of Philippine Cinema
• Filipinos started making movies in 1919. The film
industry in the Philippines began through the initiative
of foreign entrepreneurs. Two Swiss entrepreneurs
introduced film shows in Manila as early as 1897,
regaling audiences with documentary films lips
showing recent events and natural calamities in
Europe. Not only that but the arrival of the silent films,
along with American colonialism, in 1903 created a
movie market. But these film clips were still novelties.
They failed to hold the audiences’ attention because of
their novelty and the fact that they were about
foreigners. When two American entrepreneurs made a
film in 1912 about Jose Rizal’s execution, the sensation
they made it clear that the Filipino’s need for material
close to their hearts. This heralded the making of the
first Filipino film.
 Early History of Philippine Cinema
• The credit of being the first Filipino to make a film goes to
Jose Nepumuceno, whom historians dub as the
“Father of Philippine Movies”.
• Nepumuceno’s first film was based on a highly-acclaimed
musical play of that day, Dalagang Bukid (Country Maiden)
by Hemogenes Ilagan and Leon Ignacio. In those early
years of filmmaking, enormous capital was needed to keep
up with the Hollywood industry. Despite its weak points,
Hollywood provided the Philippine film industry with
examples that the early filmmakers followed. It is not
surprising that many of those same genres set so many
years ago still appear in contemporary Philippine films. But
it was difficult to match Hollywood style in those days with
the meager capital set aside for the developing film
industry. Ironically, the same people who helped the film
industry develop as a form of expression were the same
ones who suppressed this expression.
Early History of Philippine Cinema
• The early years of Philippine film, starting from the 1930s, were a time of
discovering film as it was at that time still a new art form. Stories for films
came from the theater and popular literature being, as they were, “safe”,
with the filmmaker being assured of its appeal. Nationalistic films were also
in vogue despite early restrictions on films being too subversive. Early film
producers included “wealthy Spaniards”, American businessmen and
Filipino landlords and politicians. It is not surprising that…pre-war
Philippine movies…were inhibited from expressing their views that might
question the establishment and were encouraged instead to portray the
love and reconciliation between members of different classes…
Early History of Philippine Cinema
• Starting with Dalagang Bukid, early films dug into traditional theater forms for
character types , twists and turns in the plot, familiar themes and conventions
in acting. This set the trend of Philippine films based entirely on immensely
popular dramas or sarswelas . Besides providing ready materials, this device of
using theater pieces ensured an already existing market. From the komedya of
the sarswela, the typical Filipino aksyon movie was to develop. The line
dividing the good and the bad in the komedya was religion with the Christians
being the good and the Moors representing the bad. In present movies, the
line that divides the two is now law or class division.
Filipino Films During World War II
• The Japanese invasion put a halt to film
activity when the invaders commandeered
precious film equipment for their own
propaganda needs. The Japanese brought their
own films to show to Filipino audiences.” The
films the Japanese brought failed to appeal to
audiences the same way the Hollywood-made
movies or the locally-made films did. Later on,
Japanese propaganda offices hired several
local filmmakers to make propaganda pictures
for them. One of these filmmakers was
Gerardo de Leon.
 Filipino Films during Japanese Occupation
• This period turned out to be quite beneficial to the theater industry.
Live theater began to flourish again as movie stars, directors and
technicians returned to the stage. Many found it as a way to keep
them from being forgotten and at the same time a way to earn a
living. In 1945…the film industry was already staggering to its feet.
The entire nation had gone through hell and there were many stories
to tell about heroic deeds and dastardly crimes during the 3 years of
Japanese occupation. A Philippine version of the war movie had
emerged as a genre in which were recreated narratives of horror and
heroism with soldiers and guerillas as protagonists…audiences still
hungry for new movies and still fired up by the patriotism and hatred
for foreign enemies did not seem to tire of recalling their experiences
of war.
Filipino Films during Japanese Occupation
• The 1940s and the war brought to Philippine film
the consciousness of reality which was not
present in the preceding films. Filmmakers dared
to venture into the genre of the war movie. This
was also a ready market especially after the war.
Movies such as
• Garrison 13 (1946),
• Dugo ng Bayan (The Country’s Blood, 1946),
• Walang Kamatayan (Deathless, 1946), and
• Guerilyera (1946) ,
• told the people the stories they wanted to hear:
the heroes and the villains of the war. The war,
however, had left other traces that were less
obvious than war movies that were distinctly
Filipino.
Golden Age of Philippine Films in the 1950s
• Critics now clarify that the 50s may be
considered one “Golden Age” for the
Filipino film not because film content
had improved but because cinematic
techniques achieved an artistic
breakthrough in that decade. The
1950s was a time when films matured
and became more “artistic”. The
studio system, though producing film
after film and venturing into every
known genre, made the film industry
into a monopoly that prevented the
development of independent cinema.
 Golden Age of Philippine Films in the 1950s
• The decade saw frenetic activity in the film
industry which yielded what might be regarded as
the first harvest of distinguished films by Filipinos.
Two studios before the war, namely Sampaguita
Pictures and LVN, reestablished themselves.
Bouncing back quickly, they churned out movie
after movie to make up for the drought of films
caused by the war. Another studio, Premiere
Productions, was earning a reputation for “the
vigor and the freshness” of some of its films. This
was the period of the “Big Four” when the
industry operated under the studio system. Each
studio (Sampaguita, LVN, Premiere and
Lebran) had its own set of stars, technicians and
directors, all lined up for a sequence of movie
after movie every year therefore maintaining a
monopoly of the industry.
Decline of Philippine Film in the 1960s
• There was “rampant commercialism and artistic decline”.
In the 1960s, the foreign films that were raking in a lot of
income were action pictures sensationalizing violence and
soft core sex films. To get an audience to watch films, (the
independent) producers had to take their cue from these
imports. The result is a plethora of films…giving rise to such
curiosities as Filipino samurai and kung fu masters, Filipino
James Bonds and…the bomba queen.
• The notorious genre of bomba was introduced and from
that day forward has been present in the Philippine film
scene ever since. The studio systems came under siege
from the growing labor movement which resulted in labor-
management conflicts. The first studio to close was Lebran
followed by Premiere Productions. Next came Sampaguita
and LVN. The “Big Four” studios were replaced by new and
independent producers who soon made up the rest of the
film industry.
Decline of Philippine Film in the 1960s
• The decade also saw the emergence of the youth revolt best
represented by the Beatles and the rock and roll revolution. They
embodied the wanting to rebel against adult institutions and
establishments. Certain new film genres were conceived just to
cater to this “revolt”. The “teen love team” revolution. “Nora
Aunor and Vilma Santos, along with Tirso Cruz III and Eddie
Mortiz as their respective screen sweethearts, were callow
performers during the heyday of fan movies.
• Another kind of youth revolt came in the form of the child star.
Roberta (1951) of Sampaguita Pictures was the phenomenal
example of the drawing power of movies featuring [these] child
stars. The film genres of the time were direct reflections of the
“disaffection with the status quo” at the time. Action movies
with Pinoy cowboys and secret agents as the movers of the plots
depicted a “society ravaged by criminality and corruption” .
Movies being make-believe worlds at times connect that make-
believe with the social realities. These movies suggest a search
for heroes capable of delivering us from hated bureaucrats,
warlords and villains of our society.
 Filipino Bomba Film Genre
• The national democratic movement presented its
analysis of the problems of Philippine society and
posited that only a social revolution could bring
genuine change. The bomba film was a direct
challenge to the conventions and the norms of
conduct of status quo, a rejection of authority of
institutions in regulating the “life urge” seen as
natural and its free expression “honest” and
“therapeutic”.
• Looking beyond the obvious reasons as to the
emergence of the bomba film, both as being an
exploitative product of a profit-driven industry
and as being a “stimulant”, it can be analyzed as
actually being a “subversive genre”, playing up to
the establishment while rebelling and
undermining support for the institutions.
Philippine Films during Martial Law in the 1970s and 80s
• From the decline in the 60s, films in this period now dealt
with more serious topics following the chaos of the
Marcos regime. Also, action and sex films developed
further introducing more explicit pictures.
• In terms of comparisons, the Old Society (or the years
before Martial Law) became the leading symbol for all
things bad and repugnant. The New Society was supposed
to represent everything good – a new sense of discipline,
uprightness and love of country Accordingly, the ideology
of the New Society was incorporated into local films.
• Marcos and his technocrats sought to regulate
filmmaking. The first step was to control the content of
movies by insisting on some form of censorship. One of
the first rules promulgated by the Board of Censors for
Motion Pictures (BCMP) stipulated submission of a
finished script prior to the start of filming. When the
annual film festival was revived, the censors blatantly
insisted that the “ideology” of the New Society be
incorporated into the content of the entries.
Philippine Films during Martial Law in the 1970s and 80s
• Martial Law declared in 1972 clamped down on bomba films
as well as political movies critical of the Marcos
administration. But the audience’s taste for sex and nudity
had already been whetted. Producers cashed in on the new
type of bomba, which showed female stars swimming in
their underwear, taking a bath in their camison (chemise), or
being chased and raped in a river, sea, or under a waterfall.
Such movies were called the wet look. One such movie was
the talked-about Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng
Lupa (The Most Beautiful Animal on the Face of the Earth,
1974) starring former Miss Universe Gloria Diaz.
• However, the less-than-encouraging environment of the 70s
gave way to “the ascendancy of young directors who entered
the industry in the late years of the previous decade…”
Directors such as Lino Brocka, best remembered for his
Maynila, Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila, In the Claws of
Neon Lights, 1975), Ishmael Bernal, director of the Nora
Aunor film Himala (Miracle, 1982) and Celso Ad. Castillo,
whose daring works portrayed revolt, labor unionism, social
ostracism and class division, produced works that left no
doubt about their talent in weaving a tale behind the
camera.
Philippine Films during Martial Law in the 1970s and 80s
• Another welcomed result that came from martial rule was
the requirement of a script prior to filming. This was an
innovation to a film industry that made a tradition out of
improvising a screenplay. Although compliance with the
requirement necessarily meant curtailment of the right of
free expression, the BCMP, in effect caused the film industry
to pay attention to the content of a projected film production
in so far as such is printed in a finished screenplay. In doing
so, talents in literature found their way into filmmaking and
continue to do so now.
Philippine Films after Marcos
• It can be justified that immediately after Marcos escaped
to Hawaii, films portraying the Philippine setting have had
a serious bias against the former dictator. And even while
he was in power, the militancy of filmmakers opposing the
Martial Law government especially after the assassination
of Ninoy Aquino in 1983, accounts for the defiant stance
of a number of films made in the closing years of the
Marcos rule.
• Films such as Lino Brocka’s Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (My
Country: Gripping the Knife’s Edge, 1985). Marilou Diaz-
Abaya’s Karnal (1984). Mike de Leon’s Sister Stella L.
(1984).
Contemporary Philippine Film
• Despite our completion of 100 years of
cinema in the Philippines, the same
problems plague us now just as it had
when film was still a relatively new art
form. The phrase “poorly made” is fitting
to describe the quality of films being
churned out by the film industry year by
year. There have been few exceptions to
the rule.
• Presently, films are primarily made for
profit, lacking any qualities to redeem
itself. Studies show that Hollywood films,
with its high technology and subject
matter, are being preferred over local
films. It is no wonder – for films now are
“too profit-oriented…[with] corrupting
morals and…dubious values…sticking
with formulaic films”
Contemporary Philippine Film
• Genres that have been present for the past few decades are being recycled
over and over again with the same stories. The teen love teams of the fan
movie are still present with incarnations of love teams of yesteryears. Now
instead of “Guy and Pip” are “Judy and Wowie”. The bomba film is still
present, now having grown more pornographic and taboo.
• Presently, we are seemingly engaged in a vicious cycle – of genres, plots,
characterization and cinematic styles. We are unconsciously, or rather
consciously, imitating, copying from the much more popular American
films. And when we are not copying, we are reverting back to the same old
styles. From the massacre movies of late, the teen-oriented romantic-
comedies and the anatomy-baring sex flicks which are currently so popular,
it seems Philippine cinema is on a down spiral. Still, some films been
successes and not only financially. Hopefully, Philippine cinema in the new
millennium would produce films as good and better than the ones before
it.
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/the-history-of-film-timeline/
https://uark.pressbooks.pub/movingpictures/chapter/a-brief-history-of-cinema/
https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6e/entry-3899.html