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History of cinematography
Short essay on the history of film
The history of motion pictures
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After reading the article “The Myth of Total Cinema” by Andre Bazin, it opens the discussion of the origins of cinema whether to consider the economic and technical evolution impacted inventor’s imagination causing fortunate accidents that created a phenomenon in cinema. However, this leads inventors to compete with each other over techniques of bringing their imagination to reality but, all agreed that cinema needed to be transparent, flexible, and have a resistant base that was capable of capturing an image instantly. Following this further, Bazin argued “In their imaginations they saw the cinema as total and complete representation of reality; they saw in a trice the reconstruction of a perfect illusion of the outside world in sound, color,
Cinema has been represented in numerous ways, however classical Hollywood cinema truly had an independent grasp since its debut in the 1910’s. The style created by the large producers of the time including Warner Brothers, MGM, RKO, Fox and Paramount shaped the genre not only during its birth but also through its Golden Age and into the present. As a style it has many characteristics that make it unique and poplar among viewers. The most salient of these aspects is the classical films plot structure and construction; unlike other styles including the art film the classical film creates a consistent and coherent plot for its viewers as David Bordwell states in his article, The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice “The view...
According to Gunning (1986), spectacle dominates narrative in the early film-making industry (p. 59), whilst this is the most significant feature in the conception of “cinema of attraction”. When film-making is still at the exploration stage, attempting to play with the new technology and produce films of different genres, most of the works before 1906 present the characteristics of “cinema of attractions” introduced by Gunning. Cinema pre-1906 attempts to show the actuality or perform directly and explicitly to the spectators, instead of narrating a story. Film makers tend to play with the technology and create visual impact to the spectators. Moreover, cinema pre-1906 is a cheap entertainment for people to meet friends and have fun after working. It allows the spectators to get distracted during the screening; in the meantime they are amused by the films. Thus, again, narrative is not important.
Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...
Describe some ways in which business values and artistic values in Hollywood contend with one another.
The concept of ‘cinema of attractions’ encompasses the development of early cinema, its technology, industry and cultural context. The explanation of how it is perceived by early cinema audiences is closely related to the effects of history at that time. How Gunning coined the term ‘cinema of attractions’ pertains to the history of the film industry at the turn of the 20th century and his interpretation of the audience and their reaction film technology. Single shots, the process of creating a moving picture and the juxtaposition of limited techniques, coupled with a new invention of showing a moving picture.
Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema? Vol. II (Translated by Hugh Gray). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
... a major influence on the visual storytelling of film. From the days of the Lumière brothers where the art form was virtually nonexistent, film has come a long way. With various techniques with lighting and camera angles, the form is incredibly intricate. During the “golden age of film” movies and cinematography blossomed. This period saw experimentation and a growth in both audience size and appreciation. Finally, film and cinematography were able to evolve to what it is today. Newer, modern day techniques developed along with digital filming for an even wider array of options for effects that cinematography can apply to a movie. Although film did not begin as a platform to put out ideas and express emotional themes, with the help of cinematography, it has changed and evolved to a point where many consider it to be amongst the greatest of art forms seen today.
Beginning as a novelty in a handful of big cities like New York, Paris, London and Berlin (Nowell-Smith, 1997). This new form of entertainment soon gained a lot of attention from the audience and more people became interested in watching films, which was merely moving images on a screen without any form of narration or dialogue. The more sizably voluminous number of the audience showed interest, which resulted in a trend. Over the years, cinema has transformed a lot from moving images to the 3D and 4D cinema, which are being made
Gray, Hugh. What is Cinema? selected and translated from the first two volumes of Qu'est ce que le cinéma? . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.
Cinema and its role in society has evolved since its conception centuries ago, however as a form of media, an art, and an industry, it is still quite new and continues to change both in itself and in its impact. In film theory, cinema has been analyzed through the two contrasting traditions of realist and formative. While the former stresses recreating reality through film and the latter stresses the changing of reality through film, it may also be said that cinema can accomplish both. Cinema, in the most basic terms, it is a series of images. Therefore, through the manipulation of these images and the illusion of motion, an endless variety of meanings and interpretations can be attributed, whether a film is a reflection of everyday life or
American film industry has progressed for nearly two hundred years with a huge success. According to IMDB, the Hollywood production grosses billions of dollars every single year and holds about sixty percent of global box office. It all started with the Kinetoscope (the oldest videotaping machine) invented by Thomas Edison which made American film industry developed quickly and steadily during the 20th century. Nowadays, new improvement on the equipment and conjunction with computerized graphics and advancing technology make movie production more realistic and fascinating. Among them, the 3D technology especially broadens the scope of film industry and covers every aspect of human imagination and thoughts to capture the audiences. Producers produce films based on real life in order to entertain audiences to resonate with films so that films can behave well on box office. It is good to have a variety of movies facing different interests of the society, but the pop culture affected by the film industry also influenced the society about “beauty, glamour, femininity, masculinity, and America 's role in the world” (Mintz 1). Thus, the film industry who at first trying to entertain the audiences, starts to express vivid ideas of every aspect of the society to the audiences.
We love cinema, no matter how much the formats, audiences, and distributions may have changed, Cinematographers have been telling stories in motion ever since the Lumiere Brothers first brought us this gift of Cinematography. There were many great thinkers who have attempted to explain our connection with this glorious field. They said that movies are dreams, and that they are windows into the world and the lives that are not our own but they
What is Cinema? Cinema can be taken to mean very different things at different times —a physical space (“I am going to the cinema.”), a medium of entertainment (“Casablanca is a cinema masterpiece!”), or even an entire industry with all the connections and entanglements that entails (“I am studying Bollywood cinema.”). (Gordon Gray, x) Although, in this paper cinema will not be referred to as one of these in particular, but in general, the different meanings will be selected to portray different aspects of cinema, both new and old.
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.
While some aspects of the precursors to cinema are fairly well acknowledged (for instance the relationship of photography to cinema), it is interesting also to think about what elements leading to the development of the cinema are overlooked. Generally speaking, there has been a lack of recognition of the role of the theatre in the early days of film, and that lack of recognition could be extended to other forms of entertainment. For millennia humans, more or less across the globe, have created visual stimuli — from drawings and paintings to shadow puppets to theatre and opera. The addition of technology in the form of photography and the various types of magic lantern shows expanded that repertoire of visual stimuli as much as they created new visual media.