All posts by Molly McCaffrey

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Story of film part 1

April 1, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière was the name of the first ever Lumiere film released in 1895.

Phantom ride was an early genre of film popular in Britain and the US at the end of the 19th century.

what was ground breaking about the silent films “the sick kitten” and ” life of an American fireman” ?

They both included various different shot types and angles which where getting newly introduced into the beginning of the 20th centaury.

Florence Annie Bridgwood also known as Flo was the first Hollywood film star.

Film production moved from the east coast to Hollywood due to the fact that film producers were constantly getting sued.

The film industry in the 1910s were dominated by the Motion Picture Patents Company also known as the trust due to the fact that their movies were short and were primarily shown by nickelodeons.

film directors and films from 1910s

Charlie Chaplin – A night in the show 1915

Giovanni Pastrone – Cabiria 1914

D. W. Griffith directed birth of a nation and this film continues to divide opinions across critics due to the fact there is heavy involvement of racism and is known as one of the most offensive films to have been made.

birth of hollywood slides

April 1, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

The jazz singer was the first film with music underscoring the video. The sound was created using a device called the Vitaphone. These then became talkie films as you can hear talking during the films from the characters.

In 1927 The Jazz Singer came out being the first movie to include sound. The Sound was created and replicated using a Vitaphone.

In 1928 Kodak came out with the a 16mm amateur film camera called the Kodacolor for the mass market. It was to create coloured still images but was shortly after worked on more to be released in the 1950s.
Kodacolor (filmmaking) was an early movie system that used filters to record additive colour on monochromatic lenticular film.

The transition to sound-on-
film technology occurred
mid-decade with the talkies
developed in 1926-1927.

This made movies fun. Audience were drawn away from day-to-day life as now movies had sound. Things seen in movies began to be seen in the average life as audiences copied what they had seen in films.

In 1927 The Jazz Singer directed by Alan Crosland, released on the 6th of October 1927 came out being the first movie to include sound. The Sound was created and replicated using a Vitaphone.

The transition to sound-on-film technology occurred mid-decade with the talkies developed in 1926-1927.

The sound was created using a device called the Vitaphone. These then became talkie films as you can hear talking during the films from the characters.

The Vitaphone linked sound with the moving pictures which was revolutionary during that time as films typically did not have sound and were silent films and the fact that films now had sounds impacted current films as without the invention of the Vitaphone films may still not have sound nowadays.

The Vitaphone system, allowed recording soundtracks and spoken texts on disks that were then reproduced at the same time as the film.

Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analogue sound-on-disc system and the only one that was widely used and commercially successful
.
The significance of the Vitaphone was the fact that you could see and hear moving images simultaneously

The Vitaphone was a sound-on-disc system developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric.

Walt Disney introduced animation with sound to audiences with the release of Steamboat willie in 1928.

Walt introduced animation with sound which has been adapted as time goes on but Walt began the concept of animation with Mickey Mouse being the main star of the first ever animated film with sound that is timed with the picture.

As Walt Disney released the first animated film which included sound of Steamboat Willie in 1928, Walt officially introduced the golden age of animation.

The method, known as sound cartoon, allowed to synchronize cartoons and sounds.

Audience members would pay 25 cents which is a quarter to see films in cinemas which looked exactly like how theatres do today. Posters were used to promote the cinemas that audiences could use to watch films in.

Films were distributed to audiences through cinemas which looked like palaces and could hold up to thousands per screening. These cinemas were promoted to the public through posters.

Every film shown in the 1920s were silent. Until 1927 when “Talkies” were invented and so film could have sound.

Basically a moving talkie was a moving cinema which would drive around and people could watch films in this moving talkie during day light hours.
Film exhibition in the 1920s was typically through posters like the distribution of films but also the introduction to the “moving talkie”.
The moving talkie drove around and played films to the public.

At the very first Academy Awards, held in May 1929 and honoring films from 1927 and 1928, The Jazz Singer earned a special citation as “the pioneer outstanding talking picture which has revolutionized the industry.” It was also nominated for best adapted screenplay and best “engineering effects”

Considered the first successful audible picture

There was other recorded films with sound before the jazz singer the first one being, Don Juan released on August 6th 1926

The Jazz Singer was only part talkie but was still the first ever film to be a talkie, but on July 8th 1928 the film Lights Of New York was released and considered to be a full talkie.
By 1929 all films had become all talkies which means the majority of the film was all talking which is what films are today.
Majority of the new all talkie films in 1929 have been lost or have only got the silent version left of what was created where as the main 3 revolutionary films within these years still exist.

Audiences started going to cinemas more when films began to have sound. By the end of the decade the 50 million audience members became 90 million. It was in 1927 when films began to have sounds and so the amount of people in the audience increased.

Cinemas could hold just over half of each town/Citys population.
Audiences of all ages attended screening of films in the 1920s. Majority of the audience members going more than once a week.

About 50 million people went to film screenings across the world each week.
More importantly going to the cinema gave audiences a break from reality and allowed people to enjoy themselves and have fun.

Films were 15 cents to go see which is now $2.09.

In 1920 due to increased prosperity Americans had more disposable income to spend on entertainment and so people started to go to cinemas more than once a week as they had the time and money to.

Auteur power point

April 1, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

key narritive in La Jetee

March 28, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

Some key scenes within La Jetee are:

The beginning scene when the narrator is talking about a little boy watching a man die at the airport.

“Later, he knew he had seen a man die.”

60 years of 'La Jetée': A haunting existential sci-fi trip

Another key moment was when Paris got destroyed and so everyone began to live underground.

“And sometime later, Paris was destroyed”
“The survivors settled underground.”

Another key scene is when he gets chosen to be an expreimentee.

“One day, from among the prisoners, they selected the man whose story this is”

La Jetée | Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

There is also times where you see the imagery of what is going on inside his head.

“On the tenth day, images begin to appear, like confessions.”

Sight & Sound Poll 2012: La Jetée | Current | The Criterion Collection

Then he is taken back onto the jetty as of where he saw a man die as a kid to see the woman he wanted to be with and then realised that it was his own death had seen on the jetty not some random mans.

“But when he saw the man from the underground camp he realized that one cannot escape time, and that this haunted moment, given him to see as a child, was the moment of his own death.”

La Jetée" + "Je t'aime, je t'aime" | Activities | CCCB

https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/jetee.html

french new wave auteurs

March 23, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

Astruc said that the camera is a pen that the director holds to over see the whole production of their film and is considered to be an author of a film rather than a director.

Cahiers Du Cinema Auteurs

François Truffaut – The 400 Blows

About a troubled youth the drama film was released on June 3rd 1959.

Jean-Luc Godard – Breathless (A Bout De Souffle)

About a criminal trying to pursue his love interest this dramatic crime film was release on march 16th 1960.

Jacques Rivette – Paris belongs to us

A mystery film released in 1961 on December the 13th.

Jean Douchet – Celine and Julie Go Boating

Released on September 18th in 1974 a fantasy drama film.

Montage types

March 21, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

The Breakfast club

The breakfast club includes a rhythmic montage during the detention dance scene.

In the film up there is an over tonal montage which shows the couple grow old.

Whiplash

In Whiplash there is a tonal montage which focusses on creating a dense mood.

films influenced by soviet constructivism

March 21, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

Rocky

Rocky has one of the best montages in film and was based off the concept of the soviet montage.

The breakfast club

The breakfast club includes a montage which is shown as the students are running down the corridor away from the head teacher

Labyrinth

Labyrinth has a weird architect to it and it is shown during a scene which involves stairs which can be walked in any direction even upside down.

german expressionism influence on contempary cinema

March 21, 2022 Molly McCaffrey Leave a comment

EDWARD SCISSOR HANDS

Edward scissor hands can visually be seen as being heavily influenced by German Expressionist theories due to the darkness within the play and scenes which leave the audience hanging on the edge of their chairs which is similar to films like The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari as in that we wondered who was the killer and every time we got close to finding out there was a switch in how the story got told. Similarly in Edward Scissor Hands we want to see Edward get out of the trouble with the crime he did not commit but watch to find out who actually did it.