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A
Piece of History: Part - I
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-Pradeep Chennavajjula*
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The first motion
pictures made were by E.J. Marey, a French physician, with a single
camera in the 1880s. In 1889 Thomas EDISON developed the kinetograph,
using rolls of coated celluloid film, and the Kinetoscope, for peep-show
viewing. The LUMIèRE brothers, in France, created the Cinématographe
(1895).
Projection machines were developed in the U.S. and first used in New
York City in 1896. The first Movie Theater, a nickelodeon, was built
in Pittsburgh in 1905. Movies developed simultaneously as an art form
and an industry. They had enormous immediate appeal, and were established
as a medium for chronicling contemporary attitudes, fashions, and
events. The camera was first used in a stationary position, then panned
from side to side and moved close to or away from the subject. With
the evolution of sound films in the late 1920s, language barriers
forced national film industries to develop independently. In the U.S.
a separation of motion-picture crafts had developed by 1908, and actors,
producers, cinematographers, writers, editors, designers, and technicians
worked interdependently, overseen and coordinated by a director. Hollywood,
Calif., became the American movie capital after 1913.
Films were at first sold outright to exhibitors and later distributed
on a rental basis. By 1910 the star system had come into being. Directors
became known for the individual character of their films and were
as famous as their stars. During World War I the U.S. became dominant
in the industry. In 1927 dialogue was successfully introduced in The
Jazz Singer. Early color experiments were achieved by hand-tinting
each frame. In 1932 Technicolor, a three-color process, was developed.
The film industry in its heyday (1930-49) was managed by a number
of omnipotent studios producing endless cycles of films in imitation
of a few successful original types. In those great years Hollywood
gave employment to a host of talented actors.
In the 1950s the overwhelming popularity of TELEVISION began to erode
studio profits, necessitating technological innovations such as wide-screen
processes, stereophonic sound systems, and three-dimensional cinematography
(3-D). By 1956 studios were compelled to produce movies made expressly
for television reruns. In the 1960s many filmmakers began to work
independently of the studio system, producing low-budget films that
departed from the glamorous, celebrity-packed works of earlier years.
Costly and elaborate science fiction productions and horror films
attained unprecedented popularity in the late 1970s and 80s. During
the same period movies on videotape, either purchased or rented for
home viewing on a VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDER, also became important. By
the early 1990s computer, technology permitted interactive films,
in which the audience controls some aspects of the plot |
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To
be continued .....
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* Prof. Pradeep Chennavajjula
is working as the Dean, ICFAIan Business School, Mumbai
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