History Yah Flashcards
How was the first motion picture created? What was it called and how did it come to be?
1872: governor leland stanford hires eadward Muybridge (photographer) to help win a bet if horses lift all 4 legs off the ground at once
1877: The Horse Experiment
What was the most important predecessor for the movie projector, who invented it and when?
1879
Zoopraxiscope
Eadward Muybridge
Which significant invention did the Lumier Brothers invent?
The Cinematographe/cinematography, a more efficient camera projector than the kinetograph
At the start of the 1900s, which tool was seen as the way to watch films?
Projectors
*Namely, the cinematographe? Clarify with Andy
Who was George Melies?
Briefly describe his first major turning point in film
When did he start screening his own films?
Famous stage magician interested in experimenting with special effects
Sees lumier brothers projectors and understands stage magic and film can mutually benefit
1896
What techniques in film did George Melies pioneer?
- editing to create illusions (happy accident)
- Trick stop (the first ‘cut’)
- Double exposure; layering to create effects
- Dissolves and fade in/fade out
Who directed The Great train robbery and when? What was significant about this film?
1903
Edwin S porter
(Predecessor to westerns and crime genres)
- earliest use of parallel editing/crosscutting
- matte shots
- made public fall in love with movies, led to opening of nickelodeon theatre
Who was the first known female filmmaker? Which notable film did she 100% write/produce/direct?
Alice Guy Blache
The Cabbage Fairy
Name four notable things about Alice Guy Blache’s film career
- manually color tinting frames for color effects
- directed >1000 films
- one of the first narrative fiction films (cabbage fairy?)
- interracial casting
Who directed Life of an American Fireman and when? What was significant about this film?
1903
Edwin s Porter
- first american narrative film
- early use of CU, pan shot, foreshadowing
Why did the Big 5 start up in California as opposed to NYC?
Which decade did they come to be?
20s
- Thomas Edison patents his technologies in NY (The motion picture patent company)
- Cali has consistent climate and influx of immigrant workers
Name the “The Big 5”
- Paramount
- 20th Century Fox
- Warner Bros
- RKO
- Metro Goldywn Myer (MGM) (The lion)
Name three major production houses that were founded by Artists
(smaller than “The Big 5” but major in their own right)
United Artists
Columbia
Universal Studios
“The lunatics running the asylum”
What was DW Griffith’s original production company called and what did it evolve to become over time?
DW Griffith Biograph Company
United Artists
Who founded United Artists?
Charlie Chaplin
Mary Pickford
Douglas Fairbanks
DW Griffith
What is the world’s earliest motion-picture FILM called? When was it created and who by?
1888
Roundhay Garden scene
Louis le prince
What was DW Griffith’s full name? Briefly describe his career from 1907-1915
David Wark Griffith
1907 - learns film technique under porter while he’s an actor at edison studios
1908 - moves to biograph studios and directs his first film The Adventures of Dollie
1914 - Moves to Hollywood, co-creates Reliance Majestic studios
1915 - birth of a nation (glorifies white supremacists and KKK)
Name the innovations of griffith
Full/wide shot
LS
MS
CS
CU
ECU
Iris shot
Pan shot
Fade out/in
Art direction/set design
No overacting
rehearsals
Stock company of actors
lighting
longer films
Who was known as ‘the man of a thousand faces’? What performances is he best known for?
Lon Chaney
*expertly playing tortured characters w innovative makeup
The Hunchback of notredam (23’)
The phantom of the opera (25’)
What potential feature films kicked off the golden age of Hollywood cinema and what year were they made?
1927 The Jazz Singer (partial talkie)
1928 Lights of New York (full talkie)
What did the popularity of The Jazz Singer do for one of the big 5 studios?
elevated Warner bros into one of the big studios
How did the great depression affect film studios?
substantial growth
Which studio became major because of horror films and when?
30s
Universal
Which major studio specialized in gangster films, and which ‘code’ became created shortly thereafter?
Warner Bros
Hays Code: prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, violence, sexual persuasions and rape in film
Which studios specialized in musicals?
RKO and Paramount
Which studio made King Kong and when? What aspect of film did this movie revolutionize in the industry?
RKO
30s
Special effects
What did studios start doing to produce color films and when?
Technicolor
30s
Which major studio TODAY was surprisingly not major at all at the time of the big 5?
Disney - didn’t have it’s own distribution company
Who was Fritz Lang? Briefly describe his aesthetic and one of his most notable features
Notable director in weimer period (german reich)- depicts grand epic spaces, mise en scene, visceral emotions of characters
Sci fi epic: Metropolis; combines german expressionist techniques + special effects
What’s mise en scene?
Everything in frame is there for a reason
Who was FW Murnau? Name one of his most notable features
Notable director in weimer period (german reich)
Made his own version of dracula called Nosferatu (22’); lighting, staging, special effects, makeup to get at character’s inner psychology
What did FW Murnau eventually turn to after making Nosferatu?
“intimate theatre”
depicting oppressiveness of middle class life in contemporary germany
Who directed ‘The last Laugh’? What does it masterfully show us?
FW Murnau
“Unchained camera”; camera never stops moving in an attempt to make us feel what characters are feeling
What did the US and its european allies implement to help germany pay for the extensive damage they’d done during the war? What did it do to their film industry?
The dawes Plan; gut punched the film biz
Strangled exports - couldn’t distribute outside the country - companies couldn’t get loans from banks - bankruptcy
What aspects of german expressionism are especially significant?
Everything focused on creating interesting shapes to reflect the meaning of the film (Shadows/makeup/set design)
*things weren’t focused on looking nice
When was united artists created and why?
1917
Issues w creative freedom and contracts
