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A Brief History of Film — Transcript

by Film Thought Project · 3,215 words · 511 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[Music]
0:03film I'd like to ask a question it may
0:08seem like a simple question but I think
0:10it's a question that the average
0:12moviegoer doesn't think too much about
0:14how did film develop from this into this
0:28let's find out hello welcome to film
0:32thoughts project a channel dedicated to
0:34cinema my name is Rudy and today we're
0:37bringing you a brief history of film
0:40let's get into it to start we have to go
0:43back the 1870s and the birth of the
0:51Moving Image in 1878
0:54Eadweard Muybridge an english american
0:57photographer was commissioned to take
0:59some pictures of a horse what he
1:01produced was this the images were taken
1:05for a scientific study into the gait
1:07analysis of a galloping horse the
1:09participants were interested in whether
1:11or not all four horses feet come off the
1:14ground at once while moving at speed
1:16little did Eadweard Muybridge know he
1:19had just created what would widely
1:21become known as the first ever moving
1:24image shortly after the images were
1:26taken
1:27Muybridge discovered that while
1:28projecting the images in quick
1:30succession this happened what you're
1:33seeing is the horse in motion widely
1:36considered to be the first ever movie as
1:39you can imagine this got people
1:42interested for the next few years
1:43inventors from all over the world jumped
1:47on this newfound technology filmmakers
1:49such as Thomas Edison yes that Thomas
1:53Edison and the Lumiere brothers were
1:55seen as pioneers in this new technology
2:05the early 20th century is when films
2:08began to take on a more narrative role
2:10with filmmakers such as George Melly air
2:12in France and Edwin s Porter in the USA
2:15more complex films with refined
2:17storylines and detailed characters began
2:20to emerge movies were evolving from
2:22sideshow attractions in to artistic
2:24narrative mediums comparable to books or
2:27theater notable movies of the early 20th
2:30century include a trip to the moon the
2:33Great Train Robbery and the birth of a
2:35nation um yeah that last one was
2:38controversial as film progressed
2:40throughout the 1910s and into the 1920s
2:42one artistic trend began to emerge let
2:46me ask you can you see a similarity
2:48between all of these early movies it's
2:52all very static in terms of film form
2:55the cinema became fairly OneNote
2:57although there were some exceptions in
2:59general the filmmakers would simply set
3:01up a static wide shot and the characters
3:03would perform in front of the camera few
3:05close-ups no shot reverse shot
3:07definitely none of this
3:13in a strange way film was becoming more
3:16of a silent performative artform this
3:18style of static wide shot however was
3:21perfect for one thing comedy in the
3:241920s artists such as Buster Keaton and
3:27Charlie Chaplin were taking full
3:29advantage of this filmmaking style
3:31pushing the limits of performative
3:34comedy in cinema perfecting the visual
3:37gap while these artists were doing great
3:39things in America and Western Europe
3:41something big was happening elsewhere
3:44something that would change film form
3:47forever
3:48Soviet Russia it may seem unlikely but
3:52Soviet Russia was one of the most
3:54important players in film history he's a
3:57pretty important term in film montage or
4:00more specifically Soviet montage theory
4:04what is this well during the 1920s a
4:08Russian filmmaker named Serge a
4:10Eisenstein wrote a groundbreaking essay
4:12in which he outlined five methods of
4:15montage Eisenstein's ideas about how
4:18film editing techniques could be used to
4:20convey far more than the narrative
4:22helped to shape the future of the media
4:24he describes the different ways that
4:26shots could be compiled to achieve
4:28various outcomes metric rhythmic tonal /
4:33tonal and intellectual what does this
4:36mean well put simply the idea is that a
4:39combination of connected images cut
4:41together can create complex ideas more
4:44effectively than the content of the shot
4:46themselves
4:46Eisenstein argued that cutting in film
4:49is just as important as the images
4:52here's an example the Kuleshov effect in
4:55the 1920s Kuleshov a Russian filmmaker
4:58film theorist and co-founder of the
5:01Moscow Film School created an experiment
5:04he took a shot of an expressionless
5:05man's face followed by a shot of a bowl
5:08of soup he
5:10took the exact same shot of the
5:11expressionless man's face followed by a
5:14shot of a girl in a coffin he then took
5:16the same shot of the man
5:18for a third time followed by a shot of
5:20an attractive woman once the audience
5:22had viewed the film he asked them what
5:24they thought the man was feeling during
5:26each section interestingly when they saw
5:29the bowl of soup juxtaposed with the
5:31man's face they believed he felt hungry
5:34when they saw the girl in the cotton
5:36juxtaposed with the man's face they
5:38believed he felt sad and when they saw
5:41the attractive woman juxtaposed with the
5:43shot of the man's face they believed he
5:46felt lost
5:47of course the man did not change his
5:49expression at all during the film this
5:52was a revelation in filmmaking terms the
5:55audience did not have to be told that
5:57the man was feeling sad the man did not
5:59have to act sad theatrically in front of
6:02a still wide shot for the audience to
6:04understand the emotion they simply had
6:07to be presented with images cut together
6:09in specific ways and the audience can
6:12fill in the gaps themselves this added
6:15an entirely new layer to filmmaking film
6:18Grammer had been created but how far
6:20could you push this idea can you create
6:22entire stories with complex emotional
6:25themes simply through editing yes that's
6:31it sir ji zhesan yes you could and so
6:34Soviet montage was born while American
6:38films were looking like this in the
6:391920s
6:40Eisenstein was making films that looked
6:43like this
6:51[Music]
6:55notice the fast-paced editing the more
6:57diverse use of shot selection close-ups
7:00panning shots tracking shots high angles
7:02low angles movement overly theatrical
7:05performances being replaced with gritty
7:08realism all of this culminating into
7:11something far more intense than your
7:13average American motion picture at the
7:15time looks quite modern doesn't it let's
7:20go back to the USA for now while the
7:23Soviets were busy creating film grammar
7:25as we know it today
7:26the Americans were busy creating
7:28something else in 1927 the jazz singer
7:43became the first feature-length motion
7:45picture to incorporate synchronized
7:47music singing and dialogue at the time
7:51the term talkies were coined to describe
7:54such films the American film industry
7:57never looked back sound became the new
8:00norm sound in film it sparked a huge
8:03growth in the American film industry
8:05sound recording required large pieces of
8:08equipment on set at all times this push
8:11to film productions indoors into sound
8:14stages and production companies were
8:16built in gigantic studios on the west
8:18coast of America the studio system was
8:22born by the beginning of the 1930s when
8:25most all large-scale motion picture
8:28productions were being made by what was
8:30known as the big five MGM Paramount
8:33Pictures RKO Warner Brothers and 20th
8:37Century Fox this brought in a new era
8:40which many refer to as the Golden Age of
8:43Hollywood an era that lasted until the
8:451960s this is when the American film
8:48industry grew into a true global
8:51phenomenon with enormous conglomerate
8:53companies powering the engines Hollywood
8:55became a machine churning out 400 motion
8:58pictures a year with new
9:00is being seen by 19 million of Americans
9:03per week here's a list of some of the
9:05things that the golden era of Hollywood
9:06brought us the first movie stars were
9:09born with actors and actresses such as
9:11Greta Garbo Marlon Brando Audrey Hepburn
9:13John Wayne Humphrey Bogart Katharine
9:16Hepburn James Dean Marilyn Monroe James
9:18Stewart Judy Garland Laurence Olivier
9:20Rita Hayworth the list goes on some
9:23filmmakers took the low key lighting
9:24stylistics of German Expressionism
9:27and incorporated it into their dark
9:29gritty detective dramas with movies like
9:31The Maltese Falcon Double Indemnity and
9:34The Big Sleep film noir was born Orson
9:37Welles is incredibly ambitious
9:39groundbreaking masterpiece Citizen Kane
9:41propelled cinema to new heights giving
9:44people a fresh idea of what a motion
9:46picture could be color film became
9:50commonplace adding a whole new layer to
9:52the art form all of a sudden filmmakers
9:55were figuring out the psychological
9:57effect that different hues had on their
9:59audiences color theory was born Alfred
10:02Hitchcock took the inventiveness of
10:04Soviet montage theory added his own
10:06artistic flair and genius to direct some
10:08of the greatest films of all time
10:11Hitchcock created filmmaking techniques
10:13that we see in almost every motion
10:15picture made today he understood film
10:17like no other and solidified himself as
10:20one of the most significant figures in
10:22filmmaking history
10:23seriously if I could recommend one thing
10:25to anyone who's interested in studying
10:28film direction it would be study
10:30Hitchcock simultaneously during this
10:32period there was an emergence of
10:34filmmakers from Asia Japan became a
10:36filmmaking hotspot with great directors
10:39such as Akira Kurosawa and yasujiro ozu
10:41creating their own masterpieces that
10:43would go on to be studied for decades to
10:46come
10:46in short the Golden Age really was a
10:49golden age a lot of things happened a
10:51lot of progress was made but it wouldn't
10:53last forever something was wrong with
10:55the American studio system let me
10:57explain here's a quick rundown of how
10:59the studio system works these huge movie
11:01studios were enormous conglomerates that
11:04had a complete monopoly over the entire
11:06movie industry this basically meant that
11:08they had control over not only the
11:10production
11:11movies but over the movie theaters - the
11:14way they did this was by something known
11:16as block looking Studios had the ability
11:18to pick up movie theaters to exclusively
11:21show a whole year of their productions
11:24in other words if you were a small movie
11:26theater and you wanted to screen The
11:28Wizard of Oz you had to sign a deal with
11:31MGM the production studio to show every
11:34single movie that MGM made that year
11:37including all the mediocre B movies that
11:40would be shown in theaters before
11:41screening the a-list movies this
11:43monopoly over distribution and
11:45exhibition created a business model for
11:47the studio's the technique was to only
11:50make a small amount of attractive high
11:52production in ælis movies a year but
11:54make hundreds and hundreds of mediocre
11:56low production B list movies to be sold
11:59alongside to cover the cost of the
12:01a-list productions and make a profit as
12:04this business model grew money came
12:06pouring in over the decades so this was
12:09not sustainable we'll get back to this
12:11in a moment
12:11meanwhile France in the late 1950s
12:14something was happening back in 1948 a
12:17French film critic and director named
12:19alexandre astruc had an epiphany he
12:22decided to publish his ideas in a
12:24manifesto entitled the birth of a new
12:26avant-garde the camera Stielow possibly
12:29the most influential piece of writing in
12:31all of film theory you see in Hollywood
12:34at this time the perceived masterminds
12:36of a motion picture was whoever was in
12:38charge of the money the producers the
12:41directors of films were not seen as the
12:43artistic creators that they are today
12:44film directing for the most part was
12:47seen as nothing more than a technical
12:48job to be done behind closed doors in
12:51fact most studio directors were not well
12:54known at all alexandre astruc rejected
12:56this astrick argued that the true
12:59creator of a film was in fact the
13:01director in his manifesto he famously
13:04writes Direction is no longer a means of
13:06illustrating or presenting a scene but a
13:09true act of writing the filmmaker /
13:12author writes with his camera as a
13:14writer writes with
13:16hen the camera steelo literally
13:19translates to the camera pen astrick
13:21writes with Citizen Kane be satisfactory
13:23in any other form than that given to it
13:26by Orson Welles this manifesto was the
13:29birth of a new filmmaking theory known
13:31as author theory the crux of the
13:33argument being that film directors are
13:36true artists and not just technicians
13:38and their work should be recognized this
13:41seemingly simple idea despite an
13:43important turning point in French
13:45filmmaking an artistic movement emerged
13:47known as the French new-wave by the late
13:511950s filmmakers in France were putting
13:54these ideas into action the two most
13:56prominent figures in the French new-wave
13:58became Francois Truffaut and jean-luc
14:00Godard directors were exercising that
14:03artistry breaking filmmaking rules that
14:05had been commonplace for decades they
14:07were defining new techniques one of the
14:09most well-known being the jump cut as
14:11you can see here granted a lot of these
14:15techniques were pure experimentation but
14:17within the experimentation emerged a
14:19wealth of new ideas these movies were
14:22the breath of fresh air that the art
14:23form needed something was changing and
14:26the American studios were taking notice
14:28meanwhile back in Hollywood remember
14:31that block booking monopolizing business
14:33model that big studios were using yeah
14:35that's no longer a thing the United
14:37States Department of Justice filed a
14:39lawsuit in what was known as the
14:41Paramount case is quite complicated but
14:44essentially this outright and block
14:47booking by big Hollywood Studios deeming
14:49it to be illegally monopolistic this
14:51sends shockwaves through the American
14:53film industry with no block booking
14:55their entire business model had to
14:58change
14:59long story short the studio system kind
15:01of lingered on for a few years after the
15:03lawsuit but after a few big deals were
15:05signed eventually the studio system fell
15:08by the 1960s the golden era of Hollywood
15:11had come to an end most actors and
15:14filmmakers became freelance workers not
15:16attached to studio contract studios
15:19found themselves in new territory
15:21Hollywood was losing money audiences had
15:23changed the baby boomer generation was
15:26coming of age young people were becoming
15:28the main demographic of film goers and
15:30they weren't interested in classical
15:32Hollywood these were affluent
15:33college-educated young people interested
15:35in things like European arthouse films
15:38they enjoyed the movies of the French
15:39New Wave
15:40they loved the so-called spaghetti
15:42westerns coming from Italy and Japanese
15:44cinema was making his mark in the US the
15:47market had changed how do we accommodate
15:49this new young demographic ask the
15:51studio's how can we make money with no
15:54block booking it was a time of
15:55desperation for the film industry and in
15:58times of desperation risks are taken and
16:00that's exactly what the studio's did
16:02they took a risk
16:04Hollywood knew that their audience had
16:05changed and they also knew there was a
16:07new generation of college-educated
16:09filmmakers fresh out of film school who
16:12had studied the lights of foreign cinema
16:14ie the French new-wave the studio's
16:16concluded that they didn't quite
16:18understand their new audience in their
16:20demands so why not hire filmmakers who
16:22do enter the new Hollywood movement this
16:26was a period that started in the mid
16:281960s in which Hollywood began hiring a
16:31brand new generation of young filmmakers
16:33heard of any of these Martin Scorsese
16:36Steven Spielberg Francis Ford Coppola
16:38Brian De Palma Stanley Kubrick John
16:41Cassavetes Terrence Malick Bonnie and
16:43Clyde's the Graduate Easy Rider in the
16:45heat of the night Chinatown the
16:46Godfather
16:47taxi driver Jaws Apocalypse Now The
16:50Exorcist 2001 a Space Odyssey don't Day
16:53Afternoon
16:53Annie Hall The Shining even Star Wars
16:55all products of the new Hollywood
16:58movement these were highly talented
17:00students of film who were in exactly the
17:02right place at the right time and they
17:04make great movies Scorsese brought
17:07socially realistic character studies to
17:09the American screen with movies like
17:11Raging Bull and
17:12taxi driver Spielberg took thrilling
17:14tales of horror action and mystery to
17:16new heights with movies such as jaws and
17:19Close Encounters of the Third Kind these
17:21huge successes would bring rise to the
17:23modern-day blockbuster the new Hollywood
17:25movement is widely regarded to have come
17:27to an end by the early 80s but the
17:30influence lives on to the present day in
17:32the 80s new film makers came to
17:34prominence movies like Blade Runner
17:36aliens Star Wars Terminator and even
17:39Back to the Future sparked a researchers
17:41in the science-fiction genre as
17:42special-effects evolved large-scale
17:45action sequences came to be much more
17:47commonplace this actually became almost
17:49comical in some aspects almost every
17:51blockbuster at this point just had to
17:53have explosions in the early 90s
17:55computer-generated imagery or CGI became
17:58much more prominent with movies such as
18:00Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park laying
18:03the foundations for the CGI spectacle
18:05movies that would emerge later in the
18:072000s new alternative indie filmmakers
18:10such as Paul Thomas Anderson the Coen
18:12brothers and Quentin Tarantino came onto
18:14the scene creating character driven
18:16movies with unique storylines and of
18:19course of cool soundtracks that gave
18:21audiences an interesting alternative to
18:23the action sci-fi blockbusters of
18:25Hollywood in 1998 Steven Spielberg
18:28rejected 80s style action and replaced
18:31it with the gritty realism of war in
18:33Saving Private Ryan this was a pivotal
18:35point that helped change how action was
18:38shot in film inspiring the action
18:40realism movement of the 2000s and into
18:43the present day in 1999 The Matrix
18:46marked the end of an era it was the
18:48culmination of everything that had
18:50emerged in American cinema in the 80's
18:5390's a high budget blockbuster sci-fi
18:56movie with large-scale CGI action
18:58sequences taking influence from Asian
19:00and European cinema a cool soundtrack
19:03and of course explosions
19:06in the 2000s CGI continued to find his
19:09footing with some great results and
19:13not-so-great results
19:15CGI capabilities gave rise to superhero
19:18movies becoming the new American movie
19:20genre Alejandro Inarritu Alfonso Cuaron
19:23and Emmanuel Lubezki became an
19:26interesting group of Mexican filmmakers
19:28creating a new movement of the ultra
19:30long camera shot filmmaking style with
19:32movies such as gravity birdman the
19:35revenant roma and 1917 in 2020 bong
19:39joon-ho made history with his film
19:41parasite becoming the first foreign
19:43language film to win Best Picture at the
19:45Oscars and that's it that brings us to
19:50the present day 2020
19:54[Music]
20:02so what's the future of film I don't
20:08know I think it's probably got something
20:11to do with streaming services and the
20:13internet although there's something that
20:16slightly concerns me you see if you go
20:19to Google right now and you want to
20:21watch say the Irishmen you'll notice the
20:24only possible way to watch this film is
20:26through a certain streaming service you
20:30cannot purchase it you cannot download
20:32it now this might change but right now
20:36this is a movie that's been produced by
20:39the streaming service and now it's being
20:42exclusively exhibited by this streaming
20:44service and the only possible way to
20:46watch it is by paying monthly
20:49for all other productions from this same
20:52streaming service isn't this just a
20:56modern-day equivalent of block booking
20:58isn't this the same thing that studios
21:01were doing in the golden era of
21:03Hollywood if you want to watch our movie
21:06you have to buy all of our movies is
21:09this a path that's going to lead us to
21:11another Hollywood monopoly let's hope
21:15not hey guys thanks for watching a film
21:19thought project is a brand new YouTube
21:21channel that we'll be posting videos on
21:24film Theory film history and general
21:26fund discussion so if you enjoyed this
21:29video please give it a like and
21:30subscribe I'm new to this so it's really
21:33gonna help out see you soon
21:35[Music]

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