the seven ages of film

The Seven Ages of Film

Pioneering Age1896 - 1912

From Sideshow to Art Form

The Seven Ages of Film

The Silent Age1913 - 1927

The emergence of Hollywood

World War I and the exodus from Europe

The Seven Ages of Film

The Transition Age1928-32

From Silent to Sound

The Seven Ages of Film

The Hollywood Studio Age

1932 - 1946

Domination by the Studio

Genre moviesWorld War II

The Seven Ages of Film

The Internationalist Age1947 - 1959

Hollywood Studio decline

The challenge of TV

The Seven Ages of Film

The New Wave Age1960 - 1980

From France to the worldTechnological innovationSmall scale productionsStrong social / political

value to film.

The Seven Ages of Film

The Mass Media Age1980 - present

Film & movies as part of the global entertainment /

communications media Digital production

The Seven Ages of Film

The Transition Age1928-32

From Silent to Sound

The Advent of Sound » Sound and film were slow to

accommodate each other.

» Sound technology was clumsy and difficult to link to the speed of the film.

» Sound made it difficult to film in the open air, to film without interfering with lighting, without interfering with the way the actors spoke and with the number of cameras able to be used.

» Sound forced film to adapt and develop new narrative techniques.

Birth of the Talkie

• 1926- Vitaphone- An American invention that synchronized sound with film

• Don Juan- 1926- first film with synchronized soundtrack (no more musicians in the theatre), but no dialogue.

• 1927- The Jazz Singer---1st Talkie/Musical—1st words- “Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothing yet!”

-- mostly silent with 350 spoken words and 6 songs.

--won 1st Academy Award- 1927.

End of Silent Era! Upheaval!

• camera movement once again restricted due to heavy sound equipment

• acting suffered with efforts to record live dialogue due to inexperienced actors and stationary sound equipment

• actors couldn’t count on merely being good-looking as their voices became important = decreased marketability for some actors

• expensive new equipment for sound stages and soundproof cameras

• restricted market for English language films (Silence is universal)

Sound» Historical events and

the sound film.» The depression (1929-

35) encouraged the development of the conventions of the gangster movie (the urban western ) and comedies that saw ordinary folk standing up against corrupt big business.

» World War II encouraged the development of the propaganda film and again helped the USA gain dominance of the movie making business.

» The impact of the technology is seen in Citizen Kane (Oson Welles 1941)

A demonstration of the most remarkable invention of the age,

under direction of N. K. Barton of the Servel Electric Refrigerator Company.

It talks and exhibits motion pictures at the same time. See it!

Hear it! It will be worth your whileto come. It costs you nothing.

September, 1926 - Mobile, Alabama

Warner Bros. and Paramount also included two-color Technicolor in many of their new sound features, but color production would wane by the end of 1932, perhaps because the films themselves were so poor and had relied on the novelty of color to save them.

There was no turning back to silent films, but color would see very limited use, primarily in cartoons and the occasional feature film or insert, until 1939 when Gone With The Wind displayed the newer 3 strip Technicolor to full advantage.

GONE WITH THE WIND

1930 saw sound quickly becoming standardized throughout the U.S. but silent productions were still being made in small numbers. Universal produced both sound and silent versions of its timeless All Quiet on the Western Front.

As early as 1900, films were often synchronized with musical scores that were played on amplified record players.

Film is usually shown at a faster speed than It was taken.

This cannot be done with a synchronized film or a sound film, as the pitch would be changed and this would cause the voice or music to be distorted and spoiled.

All synchronous subjects have therefore to be shown at exactly the same speed they were made, which is 90 ft. per minute.

Warner Bros.’ Don Juan (1926), the first major motion picture to premiere with a full-length synchronized soundtrack.

DON JUAN

Thus, when The Jazz Singer was released on October 6, 1927 it became the first feature-length film (89 minutes long) to include dialogue on the filmstrip itself. The Jazz Singer made way for the future of "talkies," which is what movies with audio soundtracks were called.

THE JAZZ SINGER

STEAMBOAT WILLIE

The first speaking cartoon with synchronized sound was Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928).

Strangely, Mickey's first sound cartoon didn't include Mickey's voice.

He didn't speak until his ninth short, The Karnival Kid (1929) when he said the words: "Hot dogs!" [Walt's voice was used for Mickey.]

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