The History of film By Amelia Barrett

How it all began…

The history of film began in the late 1880s with the invention of the first movie camera. The movie camera is a type of photographic camera that takes a selection of photographs on a strip of film quickly. Motion pictures were initially seen to be novelty and developed to be one of the most important tools in the film industry. Most films before 1930 were silent films.

The first motion picture technology

The first item of technology that showed animated pictures or movies was called the ‘zoopraxiscope’. This was invented in 1867 by a man named William Lincoln. This machine worked by watching through a slit in the zoopraxiscope.

However modern picture’s were made through the invention of the motion picture camera. The man who is credited to have made this is Louis Lumiere. He invented a portable motion camera called ‘cinematography’

Cinematography Cinematography was invented by the lumiere brothers. This made motion pictures very popular and appears to be the start of the motion picture era. In 1895 the lumiere brothers were the first to present projected moving film to a paid audience which was more than one person. They made their first film in 1895 which was called Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon. This film was publicly screened at L’Eden. This was the worlds first and oldest cinema.

Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge invented a fast camera shutter and other techniques to create the first moving photographs. In 1879 Eadweard Muybridge developed the ‘zoopraxiscope’ which showed a series of movement pictures through multiple camera’s.

But his most famous motion studies was where a row of cameras capturing over a dozen photographs of a horse passing by. This was evidence that a horse can be galloping and have all 4 hooves off the ground. For this experiment Muybridge used a fast camera shutter and used a new photographic process, both of which reduced exposure time and produced sharp images of moving objects.

Birth name: Edward James Muggeridge

Born: 9th April 1830 (Kingston upon Thames England)

Died: 8th May 1904 (aged 74)

Nationality: British

Field: Professional photograph which mainly occurred in America.

The first color film

The first color film was invented in 1918. This film was called Cupid Angling and even though this film was in color it was in fact in silence.

Produced by Douglass National Color Film CompanyWritten Leon DouglassStarring Ruth Roland, Albert Morrison

Distributed by W.W HodkinsonRelease date(s) September 9, 1918

CountryUSLanguage- silent

Thomas Edison

Inventor Thomas Edison influenced modern life through inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera. In 1891, the Edison company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. Later in 1896, Edison showed his improved vitascope projector which was one of the most successful projectors in the US..

The first film with sound

Most people consider that sound movies were not invented until 1928 with the release of Warner's 'The Jazz Singer'. It is true that this was the first film using sound, but we must go back to the invention of the cinematograph to realize that experiments were being carried out using sound as well as picture from the very beginning.

Edison wrote in one of his papers " In the year 1887, the idea occurred to me that it would be possible to devise an instrument which should do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, and that by a combination of the two all sound and motion could be recorded and reproduced simultaneously".

Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound.

The history of horror

Definition of horror

The definition of horror is that it is an intense feeling of fear, shock or disgust

A thing causing such a feeling for example intense dismay

Informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.— Latin from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.

Silent horror films

The very first horror film created was created by the Lumière brothers in 1895. This clip was of a dancing skeleton. However this clip wasn’t classed under the genre horror. This term wasn’t used until the 1930’s. This first film was classed under ‘spooky tales’.

1900’S

In the 1900’s the first horror featured film was created by the German film makers. The director of this film was Paul Wegener the film he produced was a Old Jewish folk tale called ‘Der golem’. This was in 1913 but then re-created in 1920 to gain more success and improvement. This film is a silent horror film. This film features several murders and creatures that come alive that aren't existing in real life. This film was the first horror film that was labeled ‘the first monster movie’.

1930’S

Horror began to use sound in the 1930’s. In the 1920’s horror was of silently floating ghosts that caused terror. However when sound was added this allowed film companies to use mortal monsters. As well as music to build suspense or sound effects that echoed or footsteps creaking down a corridor.

Horror was thought of as an escape for audiences as it removed the stress of the ‘Great Depression’ and made them focus on the fright that raised there adrenaline.

Directors such as ‘Todd browning’ found it challenging to produce scenes that included talking pictures as it was very different to silent movies.

Examples of horror films made were ‘Dracula’ directed by Todd Browning

1940’s

In the 1940’s because the world war was in action horror movies were using the roots of what was happening in the world and using this to produce films.

Films that were being made were The wolf man, Were wolf of London and Cat people.

Films like these were being produced because of Hitler’s name Adolf meant ‘noble wolf’ therefore as Hitler was someone majorly highlighted in this time. The films were plotting story lines around this history.

1950’S

The change between 1940- 1950 was immense because of the ww2 ending which left over 40 million people dead. This affected the story lines of the horror films.

Films made in the 1950’s were:

Creature Features

Mutant madness

The wasp Women

Houses on haunted hills

1960’s

The beat generation, Kennedy, Cuba, Vietnam and the sexual revolution. These events changed what the public thought of as horrible. The films were releasing on screen nudity and violence increasing.

Films made in the 1960’s were

Psycho (1960)

Night of the living dead (1967)

1970’s

Horror movies of the 1970’s reflected the grim mood of the decade. Society was hitting a disappointment through the the Beatles split, Janis and Jimi died, and in many senses it was downhill all the way from there: Nixon, Nam, oil strikes, glam rock, feather haircuts, medallions. How ever when society turns bad the horror industry becomes great.

Films that were made in the 1970’s were

The Exorcists (1973)

Alice sweet Alice (1976)

1980’s

Horror films in the 1980’s was when the special effects caught up with the gory images and production of the films became real to the viewers.

The shining (1980)

The thing (1982)

A night mare on elm street

1990’s

By the end of the 1980s horror had become so reliant on gore and buckets of liquid latex that it seemed to have lost its power to do anything more than shock and then amuse.

Scream (1996)

Jacobs ladder

Sev7n (1995)

2000’s

Horror movies in the late 1990s predicted things for the turn of the century. Whilst January 1st, 2000 came, many commentators have identified the true beginning of the 21st century as September 11th, 2001. The events of that day changed global opinions of what is frightening, and set the cultural for the following years. The film industry, already facing a recession, felt very hard hit as film-makers struggled to come to terms with what was now acceptable to the viewing public.

Final Destination

28 days later (2002)