The Basics: What is a Movie?

Still pictures (FRAME)Seen in rapid succession

Traditional Frame RateMovies: 24 fps (frames per second)Video: 30 fps

SHOT:a series of frames that runs for an uninterrupted period of time

EDWEARD MUYBRIDGE

• English Photographer

• Photographic Studies Led to the Development of Motion Pictures

PERSISTENCE OF VISION (MOTION)

THOMAS EDISON

• Patented the first motion picture camera in the U.S.

THOMAS EDISON

• Black MariaFirst Motion Picture Studio

• “The Kiss”

• “The Sneeze”

KINETOSCOPE • An early machine

designed for individuals to watch motion pictures.

LUMIERE BROTHERSAuguste and Louis

• Mobile Camera

• Public Screenings

• “Arrival of a Train”

• “Workers Leaving a Factory”

GEORGE MELIES

• Storytelling

• Special Effects

• “A Trip to the Moon”

EDWIN PORTER

• Cross Cutting

• “Life of an American Fireman”

• “The Great Train Robbery”

D.W. GRIFFITH

• Sometimes considered the Father Editing

• “Intolerance”

• “Way Down East”

SILENT ERA (1894–1929)

• Melodrama

• Slapstick

STUDIO ERA (1928-1949)

• First “Talkie:” The Jazz Singer (1927)

• Five Major Studios: RKO, Fox, Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers

• US vs Paramount Pictures (1948)• Ended Block Booking.

Studios no longer can own theaters.

Hollywood Transitions (1948-1963)

• Major studios break contracts with stars/technicians

• Competition from television

New technologies• 3D• Wide screen• Color

Hollywood Rennaissance (1964-1976)

• Anti-hero

• Auteur directors:a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie.

• More realistic depiction of modern life

Digital Cinema (1993-Now)

• Digital Filmmaking • Non-linear editing

• CGI