1、The History of the Moviesin America,Part One The Silent Era,From the Top,1830s “Persistence of Vision” Invention of Photography (Daguerre) Electric Power Creation of Celluloid (1st commercial plastic) Invention of the Incandescent Light Bulb The Desire for $,Eadweard Muybridge1830-1904,One of the fi

2、rst to show “moving pictures” Wagered that a horse leaves all four of its feet Created the Zoopraxiscope to prove it,Galloping Horse,Edison and the Kinetoscope,Edison and the Kinetoscope,Edison realized motion pictures could attract a paying audience Coin operated box that would show amusing films 1

3、st copyrighted film April 14, 1894 - “The Sneeze” Opposed to showing movies on a screen - felt that you would lose money,The Sneeze,The Lumiere Brothers,Louis and Auguste Lumiere French Inventors Created the Cinematographe (1895) Showed movie on a screen Overnight sensation One film of a train pulli

4、ng into a station terrorized the audience However, audiences soon tired of the format,Georges Melies (1861 1938),French Theatre Magician First to use the fade-in/out and dissolve Made over 500 films “A Trip to the Moon” (1902) most famous Used far off stationary camera with single POV His style beca

5、me outdated and he soon became bankrupt,A Trip to the Moon (1902),Meanwhile Back in the USA,Edison Angered by misjudging the potential of the “flickers” acquires the rights to the Latham Loop and Vitascope starting a 12 year Patent War Creates the MPPC (Motion Picture Patents Company) which corners

6、the market on cameras, projectors, and production companies - enforced with armed henchmen who bullied independent film makers Independents move to Southern CA to avoid conflict Audiences flock to the Nickelodeons (due to the 5 cent admission price) Low cost appealed to the working class Soon became

7、 appealing to the middle and upper classes through the works of Edwin Porter. His Epic “The Great Train Robbery” was an astounding 12 minutes long and introduced the concept of a “story-driven” movie,The Great Train Robbery (1903),First Western First to use editing as a storytelling technique One of

8、 the first to use panning and close-ups Moved from documentary to narrative Based on a true robbery by Butch Cassidy,1905 - 1915,Nickelodeon attendance exceeds 2 million in over 10,000 movie houses Carl Laemmle creates the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP) separate from MPPC Censorship begins

9、 in Chicago and NYC William Fox and company successfully break MPPCs control with Federal Anti-Trust suit MPPCs decline also due to audiences growing desire for multireel films (features) signaling the end of the nickelodeon Movies of any significance made in France, until Griffiths Birth of a Natio

10、n changes everything,The Players,D.W. Griffith Cecil B. Demille Mack Sennett,D.W. Griffith (1875 1948),D.W. Griffith (1875 1948),“Father of Motion Picture” pioneers the process of actor rehearsals due to his naturalistic acting styles Started with the Edison Company as an actor Joined the Biograph a

11、s a director and became a huge success Refined such 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,D.W. Griffith (1875 1948),The “art” films of Europe and the hour

12、-long “superspectacles” of Italy made him extremely envious He quit Biograph to work on his three-hour masterpiece “Birth of a Nation.” Its racist tones caused controversy and protest He made “Intolerance” in self-defense. Long and confusing, it was his first “flop” he never recovered Entrenched in

13、the studio system he lost touch with popular tastes and faded into obscurity,Birth of a Nation (1915),Based Thomas Dixon Jr.s anti-black, bigoted play, The Clansman Its release set up a major censorship battle over its vicious, extremist depiction of African Americans. Unbelievably, the film is stil

14、l used today as a recruitment piece for Klan membership. 3 Hours long (longest film to date) Black characters in leading roles are played by white actors in blackface,Birth of a Nation (1915),It was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film, due to its charge of $2 per ticket

15、. It made $18 million by the start of the talkies. The subject matter of the film caused immediate criticism by the newly-created NAACP and renounced as the meanest vilification of the Negro race. Riots in Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and other major cities refuse to show it,B

16、irth of a Nation (1915),Film scholars agree, however, that it is the single most important and key film of all time in American movie history Introduces & refines camera angles, traveling shots, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades, and irises.

17、 Makes Lillian Gish a star,Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1951),Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1951),Both Parents were playwrights Enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Arts (under David Belasco) 1913 Formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Co. with Jesse Lasky and Sam Goldwyn (later became Paramount Pictures) Per

18、fected the switch from short films to feature length films Often credited with making Hollywood the “Motion Picture Capital of the World”,Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1951),Gained fame with romantic comedies that were considered racy for the times With Hollywood under pressure to clean up its image, swi

19、tched to Biblical Epics (featuring the same saucy scenes with a morality tag at the end) Notable silent films of the time period (Ten Commandments 1923 and King of Kings 1927) Showman and Self-Promoter he embodied the image of the ultimate director (baggy pants and megaphone) As film transferred to

20、the talkies, his movies became epic masterpieces,Ten Commandments (1923),Among his Epics are,Cleopatra (1943),Samson and Delilah (1949),Greatest Show On Earth (1952),Ten Commandments (1956),Famous Quotes,The public is always right You are here to please me. Nothing else on earth matters. -C.B. to hi

21、s crew Give me any two pages of the Bible and Ill give you a picture.,Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960)The King of Comedy,Mack Sennett (1880 - 1960),Born to Irish Immigrants Began show business career working in burlesque and film career with bit parts in Biograph pictures He and two bookies start Keystone

22、 Studios in 1912 Perfects the “slapstick” comedy short, working with location and situation rather than a script His company contained mostly circus performers and vaudeville performers including the Keystone Kops, Fatty Arbuckle, and Charlie Chaplin With talking pictures his movies become B-Grade a

23、nd by 1935 he is out of business Directed 300+ films and produced over 500+ films,The Star System,Previously, actors preferred anonymity which meant studios did not give screen credit nor pay them very much This all changed when Carl Laemmle (IMP) lured Florence Lawrence away from Biograph, where she was known simply as the “Biograph Girl,” creating false rumors of her death and then promoted her return as