film studies essay

Film Studies Essay

I am writing this essay to demonstrate my knowledge on the production context of films, my essay will include: the origins of cinema, the Hollywood studio system, the emergence of new Hollywood in the 70's and also contempory Hollywood as well as what is happening in the British film industry. I will also be mentioning films from these eras to illustrate my points and to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the context.

The first subtitle I am going to be discussing is the origins of cinema and Hollywood. The idea of the cinema that we know today, all began with the development of photography and creating moving images in the 1800's. One of the first photographers to develope moving images was Eadweard Muybridge, when he photographed a horse in motion using 24 individual cameras. As the horse ran past each camera the camera took a still image of the horse in motion. These images could be put together to create the illusion of motion using a Zoetrope or Stroboscope. These revolutionary inventions were the foundations for the modern cinema that we know today. In 1888 Louis Le Prince filmed the first ever known celluloid film "The Round Hay Garden Scene" which amazed everyone who watched it Louis Le Prince is known today as the father of cinema.

With these huge developments in technology more and more people were becoming interested in moving images and were starting to make there own. Eventually, by the 1890's technology had developed to be able to record live action on film. This development was thanks to Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope and WKL Dickson's Kinetograph in 1981. At this time early films could only be screened to one person at a time through a Peep-show machine, these machines spread all over Europe and proved a great success. Cinema was expanding quickly and by 1895 the Lumiere brothers, Louis and Auguste from France, invented the Cinematographe. This machine took images and allowed them to be screened to and audience in Paris. At the same time in Britain Robert W. Paul was developing a projector for screening moving pictures to group audiences, which he then did. The 1800’s was a key era of the development of modern cinema. Early movies were just minute long, single scene novelties of camera tricks, everyday life, sporting events of slapstick comedies with no editing or camera movement, but still managed to wow audiences. Audiences were shocked and terrified by a steam train moving towards the camera as they though it was going to burst through the screen. However the novelty was enough to spread cinema around the world by the end of the 1800’s.

It is safe to say that the reel origins of the film industry lye with the invention of the Kinetoscope peep-show parlours before projectors took off. Ealry film producers such as the Lumieres, Charles Pathe and Cecil Hepworth sent cameramen all over the world to make films because of the constant demand for new films. The Frenchman George Melies was the first to start creating fiction films by using trick and visual effects in the late 1890’s, These visual effects confused and amazed audiences all over the world. Film production was high as audiences kept demanding new films but buying the films was way too expensive for film exhibitors. The USA’s film industry mainly flourished in the east. Film exchanges found a way to solve the financial problems by buying films from the producers then renting them to Nickelodeons. This was called the invention of film distribution.

Films were still very basic by the early 1900’s and were still silent with a pianist’s music over the top; it wasn’t for many years that actual dialogue was introduced. Producers began to notice that certain film types (or genres) were more popular than others and so the producers started to cater for specific audiences. They also noted certain actors such as Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford. These actors became increasingly popular with the more films they were in. They started getting paid to be in films and so the film star was born. Film language also began to develop as audiences demanded more than just everyday life and novelty. The use of close ups and point of view shots started to make film more interesting instead of just using long and wide shots. Editing to create meaning and transitions between shots became more common. The Life of an American Fireman was a film created in 1903 by Edwin S. Porter and was one of the first to cross cut shots to create drama.

The Great Train Robbery is a 1903 American Western film by Edwin S. Porter. Twelve minutes long, it is considered a milestone in film making, expanding on Porter's previous work Life of an American Fireman. The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. Cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes. DW Griffiths is acknowledged as the pioneer of full length feature films and developed film storytelling techniques through camerawork. The Birth of Nation 1915 was one of the first ever features and the first ever blockbuster.

The motion picture patent company (MPPC) was a group of producers who tried to control the film industry by patenting their technologies and charging people to use their projectors, cameras etc. This group was largely European and included Edison, Biograph and Melies. The MPPC was outlawed in 1915 but had 2 effects. Most films were still being made in Europe due to many MPPC companies being based there. 1200 films that were released in the USA in 1902 only made a third of the profit made in Europe, which is far different compared to what happens today. Film makers trying to evade the MPPC headed off to the west coast of the USA. Including: Warner Bros, Carl Laemle (Universal) and Marcus Loew (MGM). This was the birth of Hollywood. As well as escaping the MPPC Hollywood had other factors that suited the fledging film studios permanent sunshine, wide open spaces, easy access to the ocean, deserts and mountains. California was only a small town when the big studios were being established, but now Hollywood which was only a small district of California was becoming the capital of the world.