My Lecture Notes from Week 4

So these are the notes I took in class this week! I am actually quite proud as I not only copied what Josh wrote on the board... I also added some extra things he was talking about! I think I am finally getting the hang of this 8am start thing... I should be considering I have three in a row every week. (Insert sympathy for Laura here). Anyway, here they are!

BIG SCREEN TO THE SMALL SCREEN

1895- Birth of cinema, Lumiere Bros, 28 December first commercial viewing.



1906- First feature length narrative film. (60-70 mins long). Fully self-contained story. Made in Australia by Australians! It was about the the Kelly gang. It is nice to know Australian's are good at something artsy.




1927- Birth of "Talkies", sound film. First being "The Jazz Singer".




1929- First all colour movie. "On With the Show" it was called. Previously films were shot in black and white and 'colourised'. (Not sure if thats a word, but Josh said it so I'm going to go with it.) "On With the Show" was shot in colour and shown in colour.


1933- First "Drive-In" Theatre in New Jersey. Cost $0.25 to get in.

(Image Sourced From: http://www.pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/1937-snow-white-poster2.jpg)

1937- Disney release "Snow White", first full length, colour, all singing, all talking animated film.


1939- TV was introduced at the New York Trade Fair. End of that year television sets were being sold. Weren't popular initially as there was nothing that great to watch on them.


IN THE YEARS BETWEEN, 1939-52 was a crucial turning point. Lots of movies came out, but TV began stealing cinema audience.


1952- Birth of 3D. Still not widely used today. Will it ever be widely used?


1955- Hollywood started to see TV as a moneymaker and therefore started releasing their back catalogues of movies to TV networks.



1956- AMPEX makes first VTR, video recorder. Cost about $50,000. Used by TV stations and the government.


1959- Hollywood tries to get movie audiences more involved. "Percepto vision", "The Tingler"-electric shock devices installed in a few seats which gave audience members a mild electric shock at crucial parts of the movie to encourage screaming etc, upped audience participation. "Smell'O'Vision" (aromarama) also employed. For $0.50 an appropriate smell would be made and put in front of air-con vents etc. to add to the atmosphere of a film.


1963- AMPEX release consumer VCE. Cost $30,000. Not many people bought them. No big secret why.
- Multiplex theatre born, at first there were only two screens. This allowed Blockbuster movies to have national release and allowed theatres to be able to play the same movie at the same time and same place. At this stage the Box Office starts to skyrocket.



1967-69- Sony introduces the VCR and Portapack. Allowed people to take VCR over their shoulder with a camera and record images. Big time for independent filmmakers.


1970- Screens start to get smaller. People begin accepting TV. (I do not know how people could ever be anti-TV. I love TV. Most of the time my attention span isn't long enough for a movie. People of the 70's must have been very patient and more inclined to sit still.)
- IMAX makes its debut.



1972- PAYTV introduced in US. Not many people had to begin with. Hollywood sees opportunity to first distribute movies to PAYTV and then filter them to free-to-air TV. Allowed them to make more money from films by extending the distribution line. The Box Office was not the most important form of revenue, distribution was also important.

1985- First Blockbuster video store opened.

(Image Sourced From: http://molestandoahodgkin.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/luxo-jr01.jpg)

1986- Pixar premieres first full CGI, animated short film, "Luxo Jnr". I had no idea what this was until I googled it!



1995- Pixar make "Toy Story". First full length, full CGI animated film. Blockbuster release.




1997- DVD released as format to watch films. Also Laser Disc.

-Hollywood struggled to grasp concept of Internet. Still haven't really grasped it today, they missed it in a BIG WAY. Glaring error made by H'Wood. Illegal downloading of films on the internet has downsized cinema viewing.
-Kevin Rubio releases Star Wars parody "Troops". This was ridiculously funny. I'm so glad Josh showed us. There was some line when a Stormtrooper says, "Yea man, I've got a wife and kids too but you don't see me dealing in illegal droids". Something like that anyway. Classic.





2001-High watermark in Internet films.

-BMW CEO (some head honcho. yes i did just say honcho), hires top directors (Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie, amongst others) to make eight short films, about 10 mins each about a character called "The Driver" (Played by Clive Owen, yum). Used different BMW's in each as internet advertising campaign. Were allowed a huge amount of money to make them. Guy Ritchie's was awesome. Although I am not overly fond of Madonna. I wish she would wear more clothing.




I looked up Ang Lee's short film and I loved it. I am a huge fan of his Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain was good too. The music in it is really beautiful and the story is simple, but really clever. It just made me smile! It's called Chosen.







AND THAT is the end of my lecture notes. I actually thoroughly enjoy learning about Screen history. I'm also doing Screen History and Research so I get a double dose of history a week now. It is surprisingly not so bad.