The Invention Of Projectoscope And The First Steps Of The Film Industry

Through his writing Tom Gunning introduced his definition of the “Cinema of Attraction” as “the cinema of attractions solicits a highly conscious awareness of the film image engaging the viewer’s curiosity.” I believe that this is the true definition of our cinema today because it’s not about the story, it’s more about what is being seen by the audience and the actions of the characters. The elements they add into movies are a big part, but the act of looking for what’s to come next and the image itself, is what the audience is attracted to. Today’s films like it’s all about what is to come next. Now a days the postmodern era of filmmaking relates to the silent film era because they are trying to create new and outside of the box ways of creating films that will keep viewers coming back for more. In the silent film days they were just starting filmmaking so the possibilities of what could be created were endless of them.

So it was almost as they had to think outside of the box. All the other times they maid movies they just repeated the ideas. Edison created “Annie Oakley and in the Boxing Cats the choice of camera distance enhance the subject, these are early examples of the cinema of attractions. A year later “The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.” It was the first film to allow a man and a dummy to be substituted for each other. These are examples on how they were innovated. Operational Aesthetic is the perceptible process of movement, meaning the perception and experience of visual art. Some movies focus on the aesthetic more, than others like Blade Runner inspired mainy movies, like Ghost in the Shell, which is detailed about the future.

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The motion picture company was created to allow all filmmakers to try new technology and Thomas Edison took power of this. In 1887 the Projectoscope was patented and then it started a monopoly, The Edison Trust, or the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Now this Projectoscope wasn’t even his own invention, and he tried to take power over the companies who did not use his patent. Many people couldn’t afford to fight back and moved to California and later created Hollywood studios, which slowly began to take MPPC away. MPPC was created to control the film industry. Carl Laemmle and D.W. Griffith were just some of the filmmakers who fought against the MPPC.

The first film Laemmle created through Universal Studios was Hiawatha in 1909, based on a Longfellow poem and it was arguably the first 'independent' film. D.W. Griffith also filmed a Civil War short in Fort Lee titled The Battle in 1911 - a prologue to his ambitious and divisive creative. These films were so successful because they developed new ways of filmmaking. The new cinema in America evolved for a few reasons, including but not limited to the fact that they must appeal to the new cinema goer’s tastes. So essentially, the MPPC died off because they couldn’t keep up with the supply and demand.

In 1907 cities and states around the nation created local censorship boards in the following years, resulting in a variety of different rules and standards. These differing standards became very troublesome for an increasingly national industry. Luckily, they were able to solve this issue by establishing The National Board of Censorship. However, it did not solve every issue because some local and state censorship actions did not accept the standards and principles established by The National Board of Censorship. As the filmmaking industry went on, it became suggestive and many religious and political people did not tolerate this.

To solve their issues they formed organizations to better censor the content in films to their liking. They held campaigns and they united clergymen and people in office to not censor the films, but announce to the public which films contain graphic content and which don’t. The film industries sold their movies by selling their star’s personal life stories, rather than the movies content itself. To conquer Hollywood's notorious bad publicity they established the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. This organization did not regulate censorship in the movies, but rather attempted to counteract the good publicity with the bad. This caused the era to change dramatically, causing censorship to decrease in interest for movies and an increase of realism.

It also liberated movies from some censorship as the mass of movies shifted. But even though they had restrictions from 1930’s to 1960’s these movies did not fade away. With this big change in American cinema came with it a decrease in censorship and an increase in the portrayals of how sex and violence are categorized as a modernist film, such as The Last Picture Show 1971. This film was all about how an average person who lived in a small town with traditional values and personifies the end of censorship in the “modernist period.” The film is self-reflexive in it is nature and presentation, filled with normal traditional values and morals, but breaking away from them and containing sobering realism in terms of sexuality and violence.

The Classic Hollywood Cinema took place after the silent era and became so big because they brought sound into a movie in a different way. In 1927 The Jazz singer was produced and used synchronized voices as a vitaphone talkie, which was how sounds was brought into the cinema. It was a new way to use sound and forever change the film industry. The film makers released that they need to appeal to the taste of certain viewers rather than creating a film that was appealing to all viewers.

Additionally these new directors utilized may cinematic tricks such as “slow motion, grainy film stock, jump cutting, splitting of the wide screen, self-conscious, camera work, and mixtures of black and white color.” The audience was able to feel as if they were in the actual movie itself. The new films also utilized sound to entice their viewers emotions. The new Post-Classical era can be seen as the richest era because of the influence of cultures from other countries. Americans were able to gain insight of these countries. Although every studio changed productions during the classical era, the style remained consistent and used by everyone. Meaning that there will always be these basic components of style that developed during the Classical era.

My favorite movie I watched this semester was Singing in the Rain. There was no other movie I have seen so far with so much musical content. This movie was part of the Classical Cinema era and still remains popular today. Its originality and reflection on society was very true. It was a very upbeat and happy filmed. That left me wanting to watch more films like this. They go over the top and extra with everything they put into this film.

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