Film Production
In the period previous to the 1930's, the predominant form of filmmaking
was
that of the crank camera. This is not to say that motor-driven cameras
were not
possible. However, the motors to advance the film were so large that
they were
simply too cumbersome to be effective. Thus, it was the cameraman
himself who
would crank the film at a steady rate to expose the frames. When
it came to
showing the film, on the other hand, motor driven projectors were
quite
convenient, and by the 1920's a standard 24 frames per second was
established
for projecting films. Filming, however, remained unstandardized
due to the
inherent variation in recording speeds, since it depended directly
on the
cameraman. An experienced cameraman was capable of filming an entire
film at
approximately the same speed, yet often variations were made in the
recording
speed for dramatic effect. Decreasing the number of cranks, for
example, exposed
fewer frames and thus when projected at the standard 24
frames created the
frenzied action that characterized much of the Vaudeville
cinema. The French
filmmaker Georges Melies was among the first to employ
changing backdrops and
costumes to tell his story. Up until that point many
film were only a few
minutes long taking place on a single set. Changing sets
and costumes opened a
vast range of new possibilities and spurred further
growth in the fledgling
industry. As the film industry expanded in America,
filmmakers found and
increasing need for to establish a single location at
which they could build
sets and film undisturbed. The bright sunlight,
relative stability of climate,
and varied terrain found in California made it
an ideal place to film, much of
the reason for the industry's concentration
there. During this time, films were
shot on a single reel, resulting in
filmstrips that were only 15-20 minutes.
Independent producers pioneered
the use of double reel filmmaking during the
years before the First World
War. This allowed much longer films and opening the
door for further
opportunity, both financially and creatively, as well as
bringing into being
the double reel camera that became such an icon of movie
production. The
major advance of the 1930's was the introduction of synchronous
sound and
dialogue in the late 1930's. First invented and shown in the 1920's,
it
became the standard by the early 1930's, partly due to the invention of
a
device based on the radio that could effectively amplify sound in the
theater.
Initially there were two available systems with which to record
sound. The first
was similar to a phonograph, and recorded the sound to a
separate disc. The
second, more popular, system recorded the sound directly
onto the celluloid
strip. Initially sound hindered the filmmaking process,
since the cameras had to
be encased to muffle the noise of their motors and
actors could not stray far
from the stationary microphones. However,
technological advances soon made up
for this and the sound became an integral
part of filmmaking. The incorporation
of sound into film and the resulting
movie theater draw triggered a number of
mergers in Hollywood as companies
tried to consolidate their power (and their
wealth). The result of these
unions was the creation of the first major studios
that dominated the
industry for decades, Fox Studios (later 20th Century Fox),
Leow's
Incorporated (later Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer), Paramount, RKO, and
Warner
Bros. These studios monopolized the industry through vertical
consolidation,
meaning they controlled every part of the production process.
They owned the
writers, the directors and producers, the actors, the
equipment and crew, even
the theaters. They controlled every step and
dominated Hollywood until 1948 when
the U.S. Government found them to be an
illegal monopoly. It was also during
this time that color in movies became
possible through the use of the
Technicolor system. Technicolor was
created using a special camera that ran
three strips of film, one in red, one
in blue, and one in yellow. When the three
strips were consolidated, the
resulting image was in full color, though the
colors were frequently very
exaggerated as can be seen in two such films that
were filmed in this manner,
Gone With The Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz
(1939). The 1940's also marked
the beginning of the Italian movement known as
"neorealism." This movement
focused on portraying the non-fictional
aspects of Italian society for
entertainment, in contrast to many of the dream
worlds that were being
produced by Hollywood. Future generations of filmmakers
would look to this
movement as inspiration for their own films depicting their
home countries in
a style that is sometimes known as "slice-of-life."
A novelty technique
used during the 1950's was the introduction of 3-D. Filmed
with special
lenses and then viewed by the audience with special glasses,
Hollywood
released about 35 of these films during its brief
popularity.
Unfortunately, audiences quickly became bored with it and
Hollywood soon dropped
it. Another technique introduced in the 1950's was the
wide screen format. It
was introduced largely to distinguish movies from
television in an effort to
lure dwindling audiences back into theaters.
Cinemascope was the first such
technology, using a special lens to compress
the wider image onto a 35mm film
reel. A second lens on the projection piece
would later decompress the image to
create the wide screen format. It was
later replaced by the Panavision system,
which did not require special
lenses. The 1950's also saw the rise of the French
"New Wave". The New Wave
began with a group of French film critics who
believed that the majority of
French cinema was overly devoted to written
aspects of a film. They believed
that the director, the creator of the final
visual image should be the true
center and set out to direct their own films
under this new theory. The
French New Wave also sought in some ways to
reconceptualize film. Though they
were immersed in popular culture and striving
to emulate Hollywood's success,
they also incorporated new techniques and
styles. One such example of this
Jean-Luc Godard, who introduced the jump cuts,
temporal cuts to disrupt the
continuity of a scene. During the 1960's Germany
began its own movement,
similar to the Italian Neorealism and the French New
Wave, known as "das
neue Kino", translated as The New Cinema. Major
aspects of the New Cinema
were a focus on history and hardship Germany had
endured, the effects of
popular culture from America on German society, as well
as the inclusion of
feminist viewpoints on these subjects. It was during the
1970's that the
blockbusters as we now know it was officially born. The movie
that started it
all, if it has to go to a single movie, was Jaws. Though
somewhat similar to
the formula that had described blockbusters under the old
studio system, it
broke the mold in several major ways. First, its cast was, for
the most part,
unknown actors. Under the old model it was thought impossible to
have a
blockbuster without a recognizable cast. Second, and much more
importantly,
it used shocking special effects, namely a large mechanical shark,
to thrill
the audience. Audiences had scene special effects before, but this was
a
whole new level of realism. Thus was born the era of the f/x blockbuster.
A
few years later the trend was reaffirmed when audiences were again
captivated by
special effects in one of the most popular movies of all time,
Star Wars.
Special effects surrounding romanticized and often simplistic
characters became
the core of the blockbusters, the new formula that brought
back the large
audiences and flowing cash to Hollywood. By the mid-1970's the
new formula for
success had been reached. Whereas before a large number of
movies were released
and shown on the screens of the theaters that bought
them, movies were now
released in smaller numbers on thousands of screens at
once and advertised with
massive promotion campaigns to maximize gross on
each film. It broke the
financial slump of the 60's and remains the formula
today. In 1978 a device was
also developed that opened new doors for
filmmakers. Dubbed the Steadicam, it
was a camera mount that attached to the
cameraman rather than a tripod or dolly.
Thus, instead of being
stationary or relying on a track or cart to move, the
camera could go
anywhere a cameraman could walk or run. Since then, numerous
changes in the
system have consistently improved its quality and ease of use.
One of the
most recent examples of a sequence filmed using the Steadicam were
the
Normandy battle sequences of Spielburg's Saving Private Ryan. The only
major
change in the film industry that occurred in the 80's (aside from
the
technological advances that occur constantly since the creation of the
first
camera but are for the most part too technical to be interesting to you
or I)
was the rise of new mediums. Cable companies exploded in the 1980's,
wiring the
country with a multitude of new entertainment possibilities. This
wave of
entertainment also started a trend of increasing independent
production. Up
until that time, an independent film often had trouble finding
an audience as
major theater chains only dealt with studios. Cable opened up
new audiences for
independents and was a strong contributor the growth of
that sector of the
industry. The major technical advance of the 1990's has
been the advent of the
Digital Age. All across America people are going
digital, with CD's having
completely replaced vinyl and tapes, DVD's becoming
increasingly popular, and
camcorder's and camera's becoming sharper and
sharper. Hollywood is not to be
left behind, in fact they are far ahead.
Though digital editors have been in use
since the 1980's, it was not until
the 1990's that the non-linear format of
editing became a true standard, as
even high school programs began to purchase
consumer-grade non-linear
devices. At the same time, advances in the 1990's have
grown by leaps and
bounds. Numerous breakthroughs in computer effects editing
make it not only
possible to alter the look of a film in a computer, but also
extremely cost
effective, as more productions use the computer to delete out
mistakes in
filming, or expand the grandeur of a scene (an example of this will
be seen
in an upcoming war movie as yet unnamed in which twenty extras
charging
across a battlefield will be digitally cloned into a thousand-man
assault).
Perhaps the most important step comes from the pioneer of the
digital world,
George Lucas. Releasing Star Wars: E1 in three theaters
using completely digital
projectors (no film reels needed) and making his
preparations to film the next
two using completely digital cameras and
encouraging release on completely
digital theaters. It is now clear to
Hollywood and the rest of the world that
digital is the next evolution in
film.