Photography was invented during the mid – 1800’s and at its heart, its a way of catching light through the use of chemicals and it became commonplace very quickly. This meant that many people were looking to improve on it by being able to capture movement. They knew that if you could display moving pictures quickly, it could fool the human eye into think that it was moving, proved by stories such as two gentlemen betting over whether at any point the horse would have all four feet off the ground and tested this by setting up 12 cameras and triggering them to take a photo when the horse passed which proved this concept and made it look real.
Eventually in 1895, the technology was was produced that made it easier to capture photos quickly and brought about the film process, where a long roll of photosensitive material could take pictures and display through the use of a bright light to create the effect that the images were moving. At the very start, it tended to be very boring films such as a moving train but it was the advancement in technology that was so important.
Theatres were one of the most popular forms of entertainment in that period of time know as ‘Vaudevelles’ and were affordable for everyone but when films were starting to be produced, they overtook it in popularity and these theatres were turned into the first cinemas which meant watching films was still affordable as they only had to repurpose the theatres and film went from being nowhere to everywhere in a matter of years worldwide and at this point in time, there was a lack of sound so there were no language barriers meaning it was accessible to everyone.
Certain early influential figures were inspired by the Lumière Brothers, who were able to capture some of the very first films including a film of a train arriving at a station and devised an early motion-picture camera and projector called the cinématographe. George Méliès was invited to the premiere of their train station film in 1861 and was immediately amazed by what he saw and decided he wanted to buy their cinématographe, but after being refused, he started work on making a camera of his own which was completed in 1896, so he stated to make films. Whilst filming one day, his camera jammed, allowing him to discover that if you stop the film and then start it again in the same place, it would appear that certain objects and people had moved very quickly, creating one of the first special effects. Later on, he would also develop the technology to do split screen where he could duplicate himself several times in the same frame. Méliès was a revolutionary filmmaker, who advanced the filming world greatly in the period that he worked in, with one of his most famous contributions being his film ‘A Trip to the Moon’ in 1902, which used. 825ft of film which was a massive amount at the time and gave the filmmaker 15 minutes to entertain their audience.
It was very easy to record sound, but what made sound impossible for films was that films weren’t smooth, so audio couldn’t time properly with the picture. Throughout 1910 – 1915, films improved from 8fps to 12fps but by 1918, they were filmed at 24fps which is enough to fool the human eye into thinking the film is running smoothly, and has been used ever since. There were attempts to add colour to the film, however; the method of painting each individual frame would take far too much time and couldn’t be done across hundreds of films. One major drawback of film was that they were very expensive to produce so films would only have a limited number of copies meaning people could wait many years after release to see a film. Sound in film was eventually solved in 1927, by waves on the film that were played back 20 frames behind the picture but the film was given slack to keep it smooth.
The Wizard of Oz (1939, Fleming) was one of the first big budget films to have colour although it seemed more unnatural and wasn’t until the 1960’s before colour became more prominent and choices such as aspect ratio changed. The Academy Ratio was 1.33:1 which was the obvious square space but has changed many times such as in the 1950’s when either 1.66:1 or 1.85:1 was used and in modern days when it is more common to find widescreen experience at 2.35:1 making the size of the screen expand dramatically over the course of the past 60-70 years. Also, the first 3D films were introduced in the 1950’s in order to attract a bigger audience and then attempted again in the 1980’s but instead wearing glasses which was a real drawback and were never very effective so many films remain in 2D.
The biggest threat towards cinema was the television. This was because people wouldn’t want to travel to the cinema if the could see it in their own homes which meant industries such as Hollywood had to take action. In order to save film, they spent far more on films with more extravagant costumes and sets. Also, they made the screen bigger, either but cutting the top and bottom off the picture and expanding the screen or by shooting the film with an anamorphic lens which would make it appear small, but when projected onto the screen, they would use a bigger lens to increase the size of the picture so that people would remain interested. In the early 1970’s, videotape technology became available which was revolutionary as you could record something, then watch it whenever you wanted. This meant video rental became a rising threat as you could see a film cheaper than the cinema and less than a year after it came out.
One of the most recent threats to cinema are streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, that produce original content and are heavily investing into these original films for the future. This is especially apparent with Netflix, who are one of the main streaming services and have the rights to many films which is why other new streaming services are beginning because they have seen its success which has meant Netflix has had to produce more original content as studios are pulling films from Netflix for their own streaming service. The chances of these services running in the long term are very unlikely as its very unfriendly to the customers, who dont want to pay for multiple services.
Aaron Bruce's Film Studies Blog 