THE HISTORYOF

FILM AND DRAMABY KATIE MOULD

General Overview

• Motion pictures first began as a novelty idea at carnivals in the late 1880s. It soon became and was developed as a highly used method of communication and entertainment. It was also a form of mass media in the 20th century, into the 21st century.

• A lot of the very first films were silent until technology could be developed.

• Movie theatres as a way of presenting movies were seen as a simple way to provide entertainment and information to the mass public.

The Beginnings

• One of the first ways that film was taken was through the use of the pinhole camera, followed by the idea of the advanced camera obscura. This was a method that meant you could project a moving image onto a screen but there was no immediate way to record it and save it for another time.

• In the 1830s, these moving images were produced on revolving drums and disks from the independent invention by Simon von Stampfer.

The Basics of Drama

• This genre has been seen for a long time as depending mainly on the in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with relatable and usually emotional themes.

• Drama is in sense, the broadest genres and has a wide variety of sub – genre including, romantic dramas, period dramas and crime dramas etc.

• General storylines include corruption and putting the characters in conflict with their own issues, particularly in modern types of situation and societies.

Drama Plots

• Ever since the beginning of the drama genre there has usually been a character in conflict at a crucial moment.

• A lot of drama movies tend to revolve around a form of family ideology or some form of relationship which is the general idea that you get from a lot of the drama films that are out there.

• A lot of the time dramas usually have tragic or at least painful resolution and concern the survival of a form of tragedy. An example of this would be the death of a family member.

The 1950s

• After the era of silent movies was coming to an end, the arrival of stage actors such as Marlon Brando, developed more naturalistic techniques and approaches to film which eventually evolved into a more realistic version of the drama film. A streetcar Named Desire is considered an extremely pivotal film in the development of the drama genre.

• By the late 1970s, the need and want by the audience for realism dominated the screens in ground-breaking movies such as Martin Scorcese’s Mean Streets.

1980s – 1990s

• At the beginning of the 1980s, the drama idea put a lot of emphasis on a lot of emotional themes. War dramas also started to become a big part of the drama genre, such as the film Platoon (1986) which showed the horrors of Vietnam which was an important period in informing members of the public of the horrors.

• During the 1990s, the introduction of Goodfellas (1990), took a hard look at the mob drama that was beginning to be introduced.

2000s

• Biopics started to become a very important area in the drama genre presenting film such as Ali (2001), Frida (2002), Walk the Line (2005) and Gladiator (2000).

• The Gulf War and similar scenarios from the 1990s, were a huge inspiration for the dramatic films that were being made.

• Other films such as Black Hawk Down (2001) and Jarhead (2005).

• There was a major drop in the influence of romantic dramas, however they did have a lot of time in the limelight with films such as Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008), winning several awards for their performances.