Persistence of Vision

Invention of Photography (Daguerre)/Incandescent Light Bulb

Electric Power

Creation of Celluloid (1st commercial plastic)

Desire for Money

One of the first to show moving pictures

Wagered a horse leaves on all four

Created the Zoopraxiscope to prove it

Realized motion pictures attracted paying audience

Opposed to Showing movies on screen

Invented by Edison

Coin operated box that would show amusing films

First copyrighted film (April 14, 1894)

Made by Thomas Edison

French Inventors

Created the Cinematographe

First to show movie on screen

French Theatre Magician

First to use fade-in/out and dissolve

Over 500 films

Used far off stationary camera with single POV

Style became outdated and soon became bankrupt

Most famus- "A Trip to the Moon"

Edison- aquires the rights to the Latham Loop and Vitascope, starting a 12 year Patent War

 Independent film makers move to Southern CA

Motion Picture Patents Company

Corners the market on cameras, projectors, and production companies- enfored by armed henchmen

Created by Edison

Audiences flock due to 5 cent admission prices

Appealing to the working class

Soon appeals to middle and upper class  through the works of Edwin Porter.

Attendance exceed 2 million in over 10,000 Movie houses (1905-1915) 

Edwin Porter

12 Minutes Long

Introduced the concept of a "story-driven" movie

First Western, to use editing as a storytelling technique, panning and close-ups

Moved from documentary to narrative

Based on a true robbery by Butch Cassidy

Decline of MPPC

(1905-1915)

Carl Laemmle creates the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP), seperate from MPPC

William Fox and company successfully break MPPC's control with Federal Anti-Trust suit

Decline also due to audience's growing desire for multireel films (features) 

Censorship begins in Chicago and NYC

Movies of any significance made in France, until "Birth of a Nation"

D.W. Griffith

Cecil B. Demille

Mack Sennett

"Father of Motion Picture"

Pioneers the process of actor rehearsal due to naturalistic acting styles

Started with Edison Company and an actor

Joined Biograph as a director

Refined techniques as cross-cutting, camera angles, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades and irises

Made over 450 movies with Biograph

Made by Griffith in self defense to "Birth of a Nation"'s controversy. 

Long and confusing, it was Griffith's first Flop

Based on Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-black, bigoted play, The Clansman

3 hours long

Black characters were play by white actors in black face

Big box office money maker- 18 million by start of Talkies

Single most important and key film in all American movie history

Introduces and refines camera angles, traveling shots, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades and irises

Birth of a Nation

(Affects)

It's release set up a major censorship battle over its vicious extremist depiction of African Americans.

Film is still used and a recruitment piece for Klan Members.

Caused criticism by NAACP, "meanest vilification of the Negro race"

Caused riots in Boston, Phili, Chicago, Denver, St. Louis...

Son of playwrights

Formed Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. with Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldwyn 

Later became Paramount Pictures

Perfected the switch from short films to feature lenght films

Often credited with making Hollywood the "Motion Picture Capital of the World"

Gained fame with racy romantic comedies

Made Biblical Epics into movies (still racy, but had moral)

Embodies the sterotypical director  

Cecil B. DeMille 

Movies

Created notable silent films

As film transferred to the talkies, his movies became epic masterpieces:

Ten Commandments

Cleopatra

Samson and Delilah

Greatest Show on Earth

Cecil B. DeMille

Quotes

"The public is always right"

"You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters." (to his crew... ;D)

"Give me any two pages of the Bible and I'll give you a picture"

The King of Comedy

Born to Irish Immigrants

Began show business career working in burlesque and flim career with bit parts in Biograph pictures

He and two bookies start Keystone Studios

Perfects "slapstick" working with location and situation rather than script

Company contained mostly circus performers and vaudeville; including Fatty Arbuckle and Charlie Chaplin

Out of business when taking movies are out and his become B-grade

Actors preferred anonymity, studios did not give screen credit nor pay very much

Changed when Carl Laemmle (IMP) lured Florence Lawrence away from being Biograph girl, creating a fake death, then bring her back as the IMP Girl.

From then on movie-goers flocked to the movies tro see their favorite stars, creating a permanent shift in movie control

Florence Lawrence

Mary Pickford (America's Sweetheart"

Charlie Chaplin

Harold Lloyd

Buster Keaton

Fatty Arbuckle

Keystone Kops

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (The King of Silent Hollywood)

Clara Bow (The "IT" Girl)

Rudolph Valentino

Theda Bara

Dorothy and Lillian Gish

Lon Chaney (Man of a Thousand Faces)

Tom Mix

Louise Brooks

Greta Garbo

Al Jolson

1. Aim at saying something more than "It was great"

2. Consider each film craft separately

3. Don't assume the screenplay is just dialogue

4. Focus on the Director

5. Think about what the movie means

6. Consider how the movie fits into it's genre

7. Think about how the movie uses film grammar

8. Don't assume the only good movies ar ethe ones with "important" topics

9. Watch A LOT of Movies

10. Stay through the credits

You can see all the different kinds of movie professions

You can hear the score all the way though

You get a moment to let the movie sink in before you re-enter the real world

Sample from all genres

Don't go straight for new release

Start with actos, directors and genres that you like

Study the lists of classic films

Check your local library

Go to art houses

Just because it has subtitles or it's and Independent or it has amazing word of mouth, does not make it good! (Napoleon Dynamite)

A good film does not have to be judged on its subject matter

Films about important social-political matters or famous people are not always brilliant

Filsm made entirely for entertainment are not always bad (Wizard of Of vs. The Hours)

How do the scense make up the Action of the entire Film? (Titanic) 

(See shot/scene)

Think of movement in the frame

How light and dark are balenced

How the camera is pisitioned relative to the characters (above, below, close-up)

Made of a series of shots

How do the shots build into the scene?

How do the scenes make up the action of the entire film?

Think of the movies that came before it

Think of the movies that came after it

Was the film original or cliched?

Did it redefine or elaborate on old cliches?

Was it so original that it created a new genre?

(The Matrix)

Even if a film is complete fluff you can still analyze it's theme and use of Symbols

Terminator 3-

What does it say about fate and destiny?

Why is the villain female?

How does an apocalyptic film in 2003 represent current world sentiments

How does it define the theme "Man vs. Machine"

Don't worry if it was the directors intention or not- this is your opinion

Although many people make up a film, the director is in charge of the creative decisions

Think of the film in context with the director's entire body of works (Tarentino, Scorses, Spielberg, Kubrick, Burton)

The director did not think up the action

The actors did not create their charactors

The screenwriter does more than write the dialogue

The Screenplay- Creates the dialogue, supplies the action of the film, develops the narrative structure, creates the characters

Watch how a movie is structured- How the characters and plot are established (25 and 85 minutes into a 2-hour movie)

Notice how small actions make you like or dislike a character

Separate all the elements of the film and discuss them in greater detail  

“Lord of the Rings was a cinematic masterpiece.  It’s blend of fantasy and epic adventure combined to tell a sweeping story that makes it a modern day masterpiece”

or

Lord of the Rings was cool!