Anna Posyniak‑Dutka The History of Cinema

First movements on the screen

Cinema is only a bit over a hundred years old. In the 1870s, Eadweard Muybridge projectedprojected [project]projected a sequence of picturessequence of picturessequence of pictures of a galloping horse that he had taken quickly one after the other. He realized that what he was seeing was a horse in motionin motionin motion. It is now considered to be the first movie. Scientists all over the world started experimenting with this new technology, including Thomas Edison and the famous Lumiere brothers. Edison's  Boxing Cats from 1894 and the Lumiere brothers' Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory and Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat from 1895 were short, moving images but not really telling any stories.

A good story and a good laugh

In the early 20th century, cinematographycinematographycinematography entered a new stage. Filmmakersfilmmakers [filmmaker]Filmmakers started to build more complex storylines and developed their characterscharacters [character]characters. Films became not only entertainment but also a form of art. What’s more, films began to be treated as seriously as books or theatre plays. However, all films from that period had one thing in commonhad one thing in common [have something in common]had one thing in common: they were rather static and made in the form of wide shotswide shots [wide shot]wide shots. The scene was set up and the actors just performed in front of the camera. It turned out to be perfect for comedy. That was the time of silent movie starssilent movie stars [silent movie star]silent movie stars such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

More senses involved

Americans started working on a major milestonemilestones [milestone]milestone in filmmaking at that time: sound. After 1927 when the first feature‑length motion picturefeature length motion picturefeature‑length motion picture The Jazz Singer was released, a new era of the film began. Synchronised music, singing, and dialogue became parts of films for good. Sound production required professional equipment, which led directly to the development of huge film studiosfilm studios [film studio]film studios, mostly on the west coast of the United States. It was the 1930s and most film productions were made by the so‑called Big Five: Metro‑Goldwyn‑Mayer, Paramount, RKO, Warner Bros, and 20th Century Fox. It was the golden eragolden eragolden era of Hollywood. In the next 30 years, the American film production business developed to global proportions and it produced 400 films every year. It became a real Dream FactoryDream FactoryDream Factory and the names such as Marlon Brando, Greta Garbo, John Wayne, or Audrey Hepburn were known to everyone.

Not only black and white

Although filmmakers experimented with adding colour to their pictures as early as at the beginning of the 20th century, the technology available then was very complex and expensive. Wizard of Oz is considered to be the first colour feature‑length film but it wasn’t until the 1950s that this kind of film became commonplacecommonplacecommonplace. The newer technology provided rich and vibrant colours which were used by makers to influence their audienceaudience audience.

Fast and explosive

The period from the 1960s to 1980s was named the New Hollywood Movement and is represented by a new generation of filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola. Films such as The Godfather or 2001: The Space Odyssey were shot at that time. Later, the growing interest in the science fiction genregenregenre caused special effects to become essential elements of films, and large‑scale action sequences became much more common. Every blockbusterblockbusterblockbuster had to have some explosions in it. The early 1990s brought the addition of CGICGI (computer generated imagery)CGI, computer‑generated imagery. These new technology capabilities created superhero movies, a new genre in the film industry.

The future

What comes next? It’s not easy to predict. Many people say that streaming platformsstreaming platforms [streaming platform]streaming platforms, already widely popular, will be the future of films. The Covid‑19 pandemic sent shockwaves acrosssent shockwaves across [send shockwaves across]sent shockwaves across the industry. Will film enthusiasts be interested in going back to the cinemas or will they prefer to stay at home and watch films from their sofas? Time will show.

1 Źródło: Anna Posyniak‑Dutka, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.