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Film History > History Yah > Flashcards

History Yah Flashcards

1
Q

How was the first motion picture created? What was it called and how did it come to be?

A

1872: governor leland stanford hires eadward Muybridge (photographer) to help win a bet if horses lift all 4 legs off the ground at once

1877: The Horse Experiment

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2
Q

What was the most important predecessor for the movie projector, who invented it and when?

A

1879

Zoopraxiscope

Eadward Muybridge

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3
Q

Which significant invention did the Lumier Brothers invent?

A

The Cinematographe/cinematography, a more efficient camera projector than the kinetograph

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4
Q

At the start of the 1900s, which tool was seen as the way to watch films?

A

Projectors

*Namely, the cinematographe? Clarify with Andy

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5
Q

Who was George Melies?
Briefly describe his first major turning point in film

When did he start screening his own films?

A

Famous stage magician interested in experimenting with special effects

Sees lumier brothers projectors and understands stage magic and film can mutually benefit

1896

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6
Q

What techniques in film did George Melies pioneer?

A
  • editing to create illusions (happy accident)
  • Trick stop (the first ‘cut’)
  • Double exposure; layering to create effects
  • Dissolves and fade in/fade out
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7
Q

Who directed The Great train robbery and when? What was significant about this film?

A

1903

Edwin S porter

(Predecessor to westerns and crime genres)
- earliest use of parallel editing/crosscutting
- matte shots
- made public fall in love with movies, led to opening of nickelodeon theatre

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8
Q

Who was the first known female filmmaker? Which notable film did she 100% write/produce/direct?

A

Alice Guy Blache

The Cabbage Fairy

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9
Q

Name four notable things about Alice Guy Blache’s film career

A
  • manually color tinting frames for color effects
  • directed >1000 films
  • one of the first narrative fiction films (cabbage fairy?)
  • interracial casting
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10
Q

Who directed Life of an American Fireman and when? What was significant about this film?

A

1903

Edwin s Porter

  • first american narrative film
  • early use of CU, pan shot, foreshadowing
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11
Q

Why did the Big 5 start up in California as opposed to NYC?

Which decade did they come to be?

A

20s

  • Thomas Edison patents his technologies in NY (The motion picture patent company)
  • Cali has consistent climate and influx of immigrant workers
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12
Q

Name the “The Big 5”

A
  • Paramount
  • 20th Century Fox
  • Warner Bros
  • RKO
  • Metro Goldywn Myer (MGM) (The lion)
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13
Q

Name three major production houses that were founded by Artists

(smaller than “The Big 5” but major in their own right)

A

United Artists
Columbia
Universal Studios

“The lunatics running the asylum”

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14
Q

What was DW Griffith’s original production company called and what did it evolve to become over time?

A

DW Griffith Biograph Company

United Artists

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15
Q

Who founded United Artists?

A

Charlie Chaplin
Mary Pickford
Douglas Fairbanks
DW Griffith

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16
Q

What is the world’s earliest motion-picture FILM called? When was it created and who by?

A

1888

Roundhay Garden scene

Louis le prince

17
Q

What was DW Griffith’s full name? Briefly describe his career from 1907-1915

A

David Wark Griffith

1907 - learns film technique under porter while he’s an actor at edison studios

1908 - moves to biograph studios and directs his first film The Adventures of Dollie

1914 - Moves to Hollywood, co-creates Reliance Majestic studios

1915 - birth of a nation (glorifies white supremacists and KKK)

18
Q

Name the innovations of griffith

A

Full/wide shot
LS
MS
CS
CU
ECU
Iris shot
Pan shot

Fade out/in

Art direction/set design

No overacting
rehearsals
Stock company of actors

lighting

longer films

19
Q

Who was known as ‘the man of a thousand faces’? What performances is he best known for?

A

Lon Chaney
*expertly playing tortured characters w innovative makeup

The Hunchback of notredam (23’)
The phantom of the opera (25’)

20
Q

What potential feature films kicked off the golden age of Hollywood cinema and what year were they made?

A

1927 The Jazz Singer (partial talkie)
1928 Lights of New York (full talkie)

21
Q

What did the popularity of The Jazz Singer do for one of the big 5 studios?

A

elevated Warner bros into one of the big studios

22
Q

How did the great depression affect film studios?

A

substantial growth

23
Q

Which studio became major because of horror films and when?

A

30s

Universal

24
Q

Which major studio specialized in gangster films, and which ‘code’ became created shortly thereafter?

A

Warner Bros

Hays Code: prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, violence, sexual persuasions and rape in film

25
Q

Which studios specialized in musicals?

A

RKO and Paramount

26
Q

Which studio made King Kong and when? What aspect of film did this movie revolutionize in the industry?

A

RKO

30s

Special effects

27
Q

What did studios start doing to produce color films and when?

A

Technicolor

30s

28
Q

Which major studio TODAY was surprisingly not major at all at the time of the big 5?

A

Disney - didn’t have it’s own distribution company

29
Q

Who was Fritz Lang? Briefly describe his aesthetic and one of his most notable features

A

Notable director in weimer period (german reich)- depicts grand epic spaces, mise en scene, visceral emotions of characters

Sci fi epic: Metropolis; combines german expressionist techniques + special effects

30
Q

What’s mise en scene?

A

Everything in frame is there for a reason

31
Q

Who was FW Murnau? Name one of his most notable features

A

Notable director in weimer period (german reich)

Made his own version of dracula called Nosferatu (22’); lighting, staging, special effects, makeup to get at character’s inner psychology

32
Q

What did FW Murnau eventually turn to after making Nosferatu?

A

“intimate theatre”

depicting oppressiveness of middle class life in contemporary germany

33
Q

Who directed ‘The last Laugh’? What does it masterfully show us?

A

FW Murnau

“Unchained camera”; camera never stops moving in an attempt to make us feel what characters are feeling

34
Q

What did the US and its european allies implement to help germany pay for the extensive damage they’d done during the war? What did it do to their film industry?

A

The dawes Plan; gut punched the film biz

Strangled exports - couldn’t distribute outside the country - companies couldn’t get loans from banks - bankruptcy

35
Q

What aspects of german expressionism are especially significant?

A

Everything focused on creating interesting shapes to reflect the meaning of the film (Shadows/makeup/set design)

*things weren’t focused on looking nice

36
Q

When was united artists created and why?

A

1917

Issues w creative freedom and contracts

Film History (3 decks)

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