100% (1)
Pages:
13 pages/≈3575 words
Sources:
20
Style:
APA
Subject:
Visual & Performing Arts
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 46.8
Topic:

The Forces that Contibuted to the Invention of Cinema and the Eras of Cinema

Essay Instructions:

all file is there

Answer the following 6 short essay questions each with at least 600 words

Devote approximately equal amounts of time and words to each essay, producing essays of roughly the same length. Aim to synthesize information and arguments presented in the readings, lectures, recitations, and screenings done for this class. The best responses are supported with specific historical information, identifying films (and their year of release), persons, organizations, key terms, dates, places, or authors. Demonstrating familiarity with the relevant material we have studied makes for a stronger essay. Avoid duplicating information in different essays.

1. Discuss any two significant forces that contributed to the invention of cinema by 1895 (the year in which photographic moving images began to be projected onto screens for audiences). The “forces” might be persons, companies, institutions, ideas, or technologies of the “precinema” period.

2. The first decades of film history have been described as having three periods: early cinema (before 1906), the nickelodeon era (1905-1914), and a transitional era (1907-1913). You have already written an essay about the first. Now identify at least two key characteristics of either the nickelodeon or transitional era. What changes occurred that explain how that era began and ended?

3. How were motion pictures exhibited and experienced during the first 25 years of cinema?

4. Although story films became the main product of the motion picture industry by the 1910s, other types of films co-existed in that era. Identify at least two such categories and discuss the significance of each, giving examples of particular films.

5. What was the U.S. movie industry like when Cecil B. DeMille entered it as a director in 1914? How did his films distinguish themselves from others in that industry?

6. Discuss any two forces that regulated film content before 1920. How did they affect what movies were produced, exhibited, or censored?



Essay Sample Content Preview:

Film History
Student's First Name, Middle Initial(s), Last Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor's Name and Title
Assignment Due Date
Film History
Question 1
The two significant forces that contributed to the invention of Cinema by 1895 are people and ideas. The idea that contributed to the invention of Cinema is chronophotography. Chronophotography is a Victorian-era cinematography method that records many aspects of motion (Rossell, 2013). The most notable chronophotography projects were primarily designed for analytical studies of movement, functional data for animal handlers, and reference material for performers. Despite the fact that most of the findings were not planned to be shown as motion graphics, there was a lot of overlapping with the more or less concurrent effort to identify and display photographic feature films. The primary objective of chronophotography was to aid experts in studying moving objects, especially people and creatures (Rossell, 2013). It was also employed for professional objectives, including assessing timed events, documenting chronological ones, and researching projectile velocity for war.
Chronophotography became the foundation for discovering and advancing cinematic techniques after Anschutz developed non-scientific, intriguing chronophotographs. The exhibit of chronophotographs as amusement became more intricate and beneficial than ever before, gratitude to the innovation of simulation equipment (Abel, 2011). Soon after, cinematographic machines arose from their chronophotographic forerunners; audiences enjoyed the films. Cinematography and silent movies of moving pictures were created due to these historical innovations (Lindvall, 2009). Etienne-Jules Marey developed the idea of chronophotography. Another significant force that contributed to the invention of Cinema by 1895 is the idea of the horse in motion by Eadweard Muybridge (Kessler & Verhoeff, 2008). The horse motion involves twelve electro-photographs in a series of cabinet cards that depict a horse's movement. The sequence became the earliest illustration of chronophotography, an ancient way of photographically recording the passage of time that was primarily employed for systematic inquiry to record the many aspects of the movement. For generations to follow, it was a pivotal moment in the evolution of cinematography.
The people who had an imperative impact on the invention of Cinema by 1895 are the Lumière brothers, sons of Antoine. Auguste and Louis Lumière built a device that captured, developed, and projected films, but they thought it was just a strange oddity. This was the Lumières' lone scientific blunder because they developed a new kind of artistry and recreation that profoundly impacted contemporary civilization (Abel, 2011). Their Cinémato­graphe presented a significant advancement: it established a novel, collaborative cinematic encounter by displaying dynamic pictures onto a widescreen. The early "films" were average at best. Chemists had previously developed a new sort of "dry" image receptor with a chemical emulsion coating. Unlike prior "wet" photographic plates, these did not require rapid development, allowing the photographers to wander further from his darkroom. Louis enhanced the dry plate's technique, and his achievement with the "blue plate" led to establishing a new company.
In 1894, Antoine went to see Thomas Edison and William Dickson's Kinetoscope, a film-viewing apparatus frequently considered the wildly original film generator, at an International display. On the other hand, the Kinetoscope only served one person at a time, which was, to some extent, inconvenient. Individual viewers had to look via a peephole, and Antoine speculated whether a system could be developed to broadcast the video onto a panel for an auditorium (Dickson et al., 2000). Antoine persuaded his boys to start working on the new invention. The Lumière Cinémato­graphe was patented twelve months later when the brothers prospered. The hand-cranked Cinématographe created contemporary conventional film specifications with perforated advances. The Cinématographe stranded the film sporadically and more gradually than the Kinetoscope's 46 frames per second, resulting in a smoother projector with pictures that appeared to flow more dynamically on screen. The Cinématographe was light and more portable than Edison's one-­person peephole sight. The Kinetoscope's limitations stipulated that videos could be recorded in a station, while the Lumières' innovation gave filmmakers the flexibility and uncertainty to capture spontaneous images outside the theater's confined walls. The movie that was released in 1895 was “The execution of Mary Stuart.” It was a short film that was produced by Thomas Edison and distributed by the Edison Manufacturing Company.
Question 2
In the United States, the Nickelodeon was the earliest enclosed presentation hall devoted to presenting displayed cinematic movies. This was the critical shift in the movie business that signaled the start of the Nickelodeon era. These small, modest cinemas typically built up in refurbished buildings and operated from roughly 1905 to 1915, paid five cents for entrance and thrived. The Nickelodeon era altered film exhibition practices even though continuous performances characterized it. The two essential characteristics of the Nickelodeon era revolve around film distribution and exhibition changes and the involved audience (Musser, 1983). Nickelodeon revolutionized the dissemination of movies and the sorts of videos produced. Longer multi-shot films grew increasingly popular after 1903, and this move resulted in significant developments in film dissemination, including the introduction of "film exchanges." Film exchanges purchased films from studios and leased them to theaters. With a consistent availability of diverse films, distributors finally created locations where movies were the biggest draw. They didn't bother to attract additional viewers since the same ones would come back to watch various flicks repeatedly. Exhibition techniques fluctuated, and presentations did not take long. Some of the films that were produced during the Nickelodeon era are “Catch the Kid” which was directed by Alf Collins and “The Fatal Hand” which was directed by J. H Martin).
Many reasons contributed to the popularity of lengthier movies, which allowed Nickelodeons to expand as quickly as they did. Monetary competitiveness among cinematic production businesses pushed them to make more sophisticated and sometimes lengthier films to distinguish themselves. Lengthier films were also more appealing since the cost charged by distributors was based on the duration of the picture, and the lengthier the film was, the more revenue could be generated. Specific organizers preferred lengthier movies because they made programming simpler, speedier, and maybe inexpensive because they didn't have to put together their schedules by putting together a range of short stories (Musser, 1983). Longer films piqued filmmakers' interest since they allowed for more artistic experimentation and sought new methods to captivate people. One of the first longer films to be produced in the Nickelodeon era is “The Life of Moses” in 1909, it run time was 50 minutes and it was directed by J. Stuart Blackton. As the demand for lengthier films grew, so did the development of fictitious movies as true stories shrank. One explanation for this trend might be because fictional movies were typically simpler to organize and less expensive to shoot than reality shows, which were susceptible to a variety of location-related issues. Fiction movies rapidly became conventional, and the prevalence of lengthier movies guaranteed that they surpassed real-life events, which were often brief.
The other major characteristic was the audience. Early American film historians felt that nickelodeon viewers were mainly working-class individuals who couldn't afford a higher ticket price. More modern researchers claim that the emergence of middle-class viewers during the nickelodeon era and into the late 1910s fueled the company's expansion. One of the films that lured middle class individuals is “Gertie the Dinosaur.” Which was produced in 1914. The Nickelodeon era declined slowly, marking its end (Musser, 1983). Despite being popular from 1905 to 1913, Nickelodeons became culprits of their popularity as enrollment expanded dramatically, demanding larger theatres. With the introduction of the motion picture, and as regions developed and industry mergers occurred, cinema theaters became more extensive, more luxurious, and better-equipped. Due to the development of lengthier shows, the cost of going to the movies doubled (Allen, 1979). Thousands of cinemas required new items due to the Nickelodeon expansion, which raised the desire for other movies. The creation of subtitles, which first emerged in 1903 and aided in making events and scenes comprehensible as plots got more convoluted, was facilitated by the expansion of lengthier films, in which Nickelodeons played a significant role in spurring. This move had the unintended consequence of diminishing the function of exhibitors since they no longer had editing authority over the organization of single-shot movies into presentations, and their editorial obligation was now diminished by the film's "internal narration," thus contributing marking the end of the nickelodeon era. One of the films that marked the end of the nickelodeon era is “The Birth of a Nation” which was produced in the year 1915 and directed by Griffith.
Question 3
Since the discovery of motion pictures, viewers have embraced how they convey tales. Individuals toured the globe ingeniously through flicks, undergoing distress, compassion, and essentially every other sensation. Movies have become one of the most prevalent and extensively disseminated types of recreation in the universe. During the first 25 years of Cinema, motion pictures were exhibited and experienced in various ways. Photography became widespread in the mid-nineteenth era, predominantly during the Civil War when filmmakers for the first time chronicled American conflicts. Many developers were exploring diverse methods to parade images when they came up with a guileless device called a zoetrope that allowed a sequence of images to be examined in fast series, establishing the impression of movement. Films were exhibited through the kinetograph. In New York in 1888, Thomas Edison and William Dickson were concerned that others were acquiring momentum in-camera developments. The team aimed to advance a method that could capture moving images. In 1890, Dickson presented the Kinetograph, a crude feature film camera. He revealed the creation of the Kinetoscope in 1892, a gadget that projected motion pictures onto a board, and even initiated commercial movie exhibitions in newly opened "Kinetograph Parlors" in 1894. Motion pictures were also exhibited through the cinematography developed by the Lumière brothers (Coe et al., 1977).
Motion pictures were experienced in various ways, given that in the late 1890s, films were becoming more popular. Films were experienced through flickers, Nickelodeons, popular pastimes, and democratic art. All around the nation, improvised cinemas sprouted up. Old businesses or eateries were turned into exposition rooms by entrepreneurs. Audiences gathered at booths and saw "flickers" displayed onto a linen screen while a lone artist performed frantic improvisations on piano known as "the Russian hurries." The early cinema theaters were nicknamed "Nickelodeons," a term derived from the combination of the ticket price and the Greek term for the amphitheater. Outside the businesses, glittering decorations, glossy billboards, loud phonographs, and player pianists created a ruckus, piquing individuals' enthusiasm in this new, bright medium. The motion pictures were also experienced through a mixed bag of entertainment. A variety of live performances, including singing, dancing, and comedic acts, are some of the aspects that entertained Nickelodeon viewers. The presentations ranged in length from fifteen to ninety minutes and were repeated every few days, if not daily. With straightforward stories, the movie pieces could be made fast. The novelty — and inexpensive cost — of moving pictures crowded cinemas all around the country. Even individuals on low wages were able to afford a Nickelodeon ticket. Individuals from all spheres of civilization entered the auditorium, although European immigrants and the impoverished inhabitants first occupied the seats. Most of the films that were exhibited 25 years ago were silent movies and one of them is “The Last Days of Pompei” produced in 1908 by Luigi Maggi.
Adolph Zukor, an early cinema mogul, defined the medium's attraction as follows: "To comprehend why films were so popular in this nation, you must first comprehend what was going on in the nation. Between 19...
Updated on
Get the Whole Paper!
Not exactly what you need?
Do you need a custom essay? Order right now:
Sign In
Not register? Register Now!