timeline of film Flashcards
1
Q
what was the first film? (1878)
A
’ a horse in motion’
- edweard muybridge commissioned to take some photos of a horse.
- first ever moving image
- he discovered that projecting the images quickly meant you could see the horse in motion
2
Q
what was film like in the early 20th century?
A
- complex storylines started to emerge
- static wide shot
- no close ups or complex shooting techniques
- notable films include: ‘a trip to the moon’, ‘the great train robbery’ and ‘the birth of a nation’
3
Q
what was the soviet montage theory (1927)?
A
- sergei eisenstine had 5 methods of montage:
- metric
- rhythmic
- tonal
- overtonal
- intellectual
- found that cutting can create complex ideas more efficiently than the content of the shot
4
Q
what was the kuleshov effect (1920s)?
A
- expressionless man face cut next to soup, a girl in a coffin and an attractive women
- audiences assumed the man felt hungry, sad and lust
- this shows audiences do not have to be told how to feel
5
Q
when was the creation of sound? (USA)
A
- in 1927 ‘the jazz singer’ was the first movie with both songs and dialogue
- films with sound nicknamed ‘talkies’
- sparked huge growth
- sound recording required large equipment which meant filming was moved indoors
- studio system born
6
Q
what where the big 5 movie production companies?
(1930s-‘golden age’)
A
- metro-goldwyn-mayer (MGM)
- paramount
- RKO
- warner bros.
- 20th century fox
7
Q
how did hollywood become a machine?
(1930s-‘golden age’)
A
- 400 motion pictures a year / 90 million americans watching movies per week
- birth of movie stars: james dean, james stewart, audrey hepburn, marilyn monroe
8
Q
what was film noir?
(1930s-‘golden age’)
A
- stylized hollywood crime drama
- marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism and menace
- french new wave
- e.g. citizen kane - ‘one of the greatest movies of all time’
9
Q
what was block booking?
(1930s-‘golden age’)
A
- studios signed a deal with cinemas to show every film the company made that year
- few a-list movies a year
- lots of b-list movies to be shown throughout the year to make profit
10
Q
who was alexandre astruc?
(1950s france)
A
- wrote ‘the birth if a new avant-garde - la camera stylo’
- argued the true creator of a film was the director - directing is a true act of writing as a director writes with his camera
- said “would citizien kane be satisfactory in any other form than the one given to it by orsen welles?”
- auteur theory - directors are true artists and their work should be recognised
11
Q
what was the paramount case?
(1960s USA)
A
block booking banned
12
Q
why did the golden era end?
(1960s USA)
A
- actors/ filmmakers now freelance and not attached by studio contracts
- baby boomers enjoyed movies of the french new wave, spaghetti westerns and japanese cinema so studios had to accommodate the new young demographic
13
Q
what was the new hollywood movement?
(1960s USA)
A
- mid 1960s to 1980s
- new generation of filmmakers such as martin scorsese and stephen speilburg
- challenges conventional film making genres and rules, such as breaking stereotypes
- blockbusters were created: 2001: a space odyssey, the godfather, jaws
14
Q
what was cinema like in the 1980s?
A
- blade runner, star wars, back to the future sparked the sci-fi genre
- special effects meant long action sequences
- became almost comical as almost every movie has an explosion
15
Q
what was cinema like in the 1990s?
A
- terminator 2 and jurrasic park lay foundations for CGI movies
- indie filmmakers such as quentin tarantino emerged creating character driven and unique storylines
- speilburg inspired the action realism movement of the 2000s with ‘saving private ryan’
- 1999 matrix marked the end of an era - blockbuster sci-fi with lots of CGI, taking inspiration from asia, cool soundtrack and explosions
- CGI created superhero movies - new american movie genre
- mexican film created the ultra-long camera shot
