Brief History of Film

Time & Motion

Paleolithic drawings of animals / superimposed images indicate motion / 32,000 B.C.E.

Time & Motion

Rouen Cathedral (End of Day, Full Light, Sunny Day), Claude Monet, 1893-94, oil on canvas

Time & Motion

Mobile Sculptures, Alexander Calder, 1893-94, oil on canvas

The History of Moving Images1878 – Eadweard Muybridge – motion studies (series of still

images documenting animals and people in motion)

Horse Galloping, Eadweard Muybridge, 1878, Collotype

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Muybridge_race_horse_animated.gif

The History of Moving Images

A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times. A disk or card with a picture on

each side is attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twisted quickly between the

fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image due to persistence of vision.

The History of Moving Images

A flip book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next,

so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion

or some other change.

The History of Moving Images

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.

It’s name comes from Greek and means the “wheel of life.

Alimation, a Film Featuring Food Zoetropes

Alimation by Alexandre Dubosc

The Invention of Film – Brief History

1. Film depends on “persistence of vision” phenomenon

2. Celluloid film was invented by George Eastman which

allowed to string single images together – 1888

3. Thomas Edison created 1st motion picture – 1894

4. Brothers Lumiere invented

a movie projector - 1895

What is Persistence of Vision?

Persistence of vision is the ability of the eye to retain

the impression of an image for a short time after the image

has disappeared.

The Invention of Film

1st Public Exhibition of a Movie Picturehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk&feature=related

The Creation of The Movie Studios

1. Studios began to take shape – 1910s

2. Movies can be produced on a larger scale

3. All aspects of the movie industry are under one

roof: directing, producing, writing scripts, filming…

4. A concept of a “Movie Star” is created

5. The job of a producer becomes increasingly important

One of the 1st Commercial Films

Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick, 1939, MGM Studios, Hollywood, CA

Filmmaking Vocabulary

1. “Shot” - an unbroken sequence of movie frames

2. “Pan Shot” – camera moving from side to side

3. “Traveling Shot” – camera moving back to front

4. “Cross-Cutting” – two or more shots are alternated

to foster the advancement of the story

Montage in Movies

What Does Montage Mean?

The word montage comes from the French verb monter “to put together”.

Montage is often associated with time-based media.The word can be used to describe a wide range of creative practices that include photography, film, and sound.

Techniques can include but are not limited to:• Repetition• Juxtaposition• Sequencing• Appropriation• Manipulation

Ex: Juxtaposition

When we see 2 shots placed next to each other, our mind automatically creates the connection between them.

What Does Montage Mean?

“Although digital editing is usually used to create a seamless virtual space, this does not have to be its only goal.

Borders between different worlds do not have to be erased… individual layers can retain their separate identities rather then being merged into single space; different worlds can

clash semantically rather than form a single universe.”

- Lev Manovich

Montage & Parallel Action

DW Griffith (1875-1948)

• Was an American film director and cinema pioneer

• Best known as the director of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

• His films made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques (parallel action). Their immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the feature- length film

http://mikjohnston.blogspot.com/2011/01/understanding-montage-and-parallel.html

The Birth of a Nation, DW Griffith

• a silent movie about the life of 2 families during the Civil War

• was highly controversial due to a very racist portrayal of African American men and the KKK as a leading force in the war

Collision Montage, Soviet Cinema

Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948)

• Was a pioneering Soviet film director and film theorist

• Is often considered to be the “Father of Montage”

• Best known as the director of silent films: The Battleship Potemkin (1925); October (1927)

Collision Montage, Soviet Cinema

Sergei Eisenstein – placed special emphasis on the art of editing. He believed that editing has to be dialectic (development is stressed through a back and forth movement between opposing propositions):

The conflict of two ideas produces a wholly new idea: a synthesis.

In film terms, the conflict between shot A and shot B is not AB but a qualitatively new factor – C.

Collision Montage, Soviet Cinema

Transitions between shots should not be flowing, but sharp, jolting, even violent.

For Eisenstein, editing produces hard collisions, not subtle linkages. A smooth transition, he claimed was an opportunity lost.

Collision Montage, Soviet Cinema

Dziga Vertov (1896-1954)

• Was a Soviet pioneer documentary film, newsreel director and cinema theorist

• Was mostly known for his expressivefilm editing techniques (or ‘montage’)

• He assembled clips of film without regard for formal continuity, time, or even logic itself to achieve a ‘poetic’ effect which would grab the viewers

The Man With a Movie Camera, 1929

This highly experimental silent documentary presented urban life in Odessa and other Soviet cities

- told a story in a non-linear way

- started as a database of clips

- introduced cinematic techniques such as double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, extreme close-ups, etc.

Man With a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, 1929, (Movie Still)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgK-ErMIuEM

Dziga Vertov & His Films

Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel

DalÍ and Buñuel (film director) had first met in Madrid in

1922, when they were students at the Royal Academy of

Fine Arts.

They produced two films

together – Un Chien Andalou

(1929) and L’Âge d’Or (1930).

Both are Surrealist in nature.

Movie StillsWatch the entire movie here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLhu3Ea1G_4

Un Chien Andalou, Dali and Bunuel

Luis Bunuel

In one of his interviews, Buñuel stated that the

goal of the film had been to “make visible certain

subconscious states which we believe can only

be expressed by the cinema”.