History of Film History of Mass Communication

What is a Motion Picture  Series of still pictures rapidly projected on

a screen in such a way that the viewer perceives smooth motion.

Development of the Motion Picture  By WW1 (July 1914), the motion picture

was a fully developed form of entertainment with audiences in the millions, whereas television existed only crudely in early laboratory experiments

Technology for Film   Photography (Daguerreotype, Flexible Film, Box Camera)

  Illusion of Motion (Visual Persistence, Wheel of Life)

  Capturing and Projecting Motion with Film (Motion Picture Camera, Vitascope,

Kinetoscope)

Photography  French Artist & Inventor, Louis Daguerre

Chemist Joseph Niepce created best method for photography

Daguerreotype Louis Daguerre (1839)   “Each picture was made on a polished

copper plate that had been coated with gleaming silver. In the total darkness, the silver coated plate was exposed to iodine fumes, which formed a thin coating of light sensitive iodine on its surface. When the well protected plate was placed in camera and then briefly exposed to a strongly lighted scene, the pattern of light and dark entering the lens of the camera altered the silver iodide. Chemical baths then fixed the image to the plate.” (DeFleur & Dennis. 1998)

Practiced Art to Hobby  By 1880s, George Eastman developed

and marketed flexible celluloid film and a simple box camera

Illusion of Motion  Motion pictures do not move!

 Series of still pictures rapidly projected on a screen in such a way that the viewer perceives smooth motion.

Visual Persistence (Dr. Peter Mark Roget 1824)   The brain will persist in seeing an object when

it is no longer visible

  We ‘see’ an image for a fraction of a second after the thing itself has changed or disappeared.

  If we are presented with one image after the other, the visual persistence of the first image fills the time lag so they seem continuous

Wheel of Life (Phenakistoscope)  Large disk on which a series of drawings

showing a person or animal in progressively different positions was mounted.

 By rotating the disk and viewing the drawings through an aperture as the ‘wheel’ turned, a person could ‘see’ smooth motion.

Motion Picture Camera

 William Dickson (assistant to Thomas Edison) developed the first practical motion picture camera

Vitascope

 Thomas Edison & Assistant Thomas Armat developed in reliable projector system and obtained US patent for the ‘Vitascope’.

 Wastefully projected forty eight frames per second whereas sixteen frames would provide the illusion of smooth motion

Kinetoscope (Thomas Edison)   Moving pictures peep show device   For a nickel, a single viewer could turn a crank,

look inside the machine and see a brief film on a small screen

  Edison’s approach did not catch on , in the end the industry developed along the lines of the traditional theater model

  By 1896, Edison was projecting motion pictures to the public for the first time in America

Thomas Edison

One to Two Reelers

 By 1903, both American and European producers were making ‘one reelers’ that lasted 10 to 12 minutes and told a story.

 By 1905, two reelers were becoming increasingly common, lasting up to 25 minutes

The Nickelodeon (Harry Davis & John Harris1905)   The Nickelodeon was the first type of indoor

exhibition space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures

  Usually set up in converted storefronts, these small, simple theatres charged five cents for admission and flourished from 1905 to 1915

  ‘Nickelodeon’ was named from the nickle (US 5 cent coin and the Greek word odeion (roofed over theatre)

Movies for the Middle Class  Nickelodeons brought movies to the

urban poor.  Attractive theatres were built in better

neighbourhoods and movie ‘palaces; opened in business districts to attract middle class audiences

Making of the ‘Star’  Films were longer, more sophisticated and

gave prominent roles and media attention to particular actors and actresses.

 They hired press agents to publicize them as artists and important personalities.

 Early PR specialists created masculine idols and love goddesses

Phonograph (Thomas Edison 1877)

Talkies  Since the 1980s, inventors tried to

combine the phonograph and motion pictures to produce movies with synchronised sound.

  In mid 1920 American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) produced a sound system based on optical recording of sound incorporated directly into the actual film