American Film Industry

History of US Film

 -Until WW1, France leading film producing country.
-By the 1920s, most films came from United States.
-Today America is the leading country in the exportation if films.
-American Cinema is mainly associated with the Hollywood entertainment industry, the "dream factory".

 -1893, Edison constructed a motion picture studio in his laboratory.
-Edvin S. Porter took charge of motion-picture production at Edison's company and began making longer films.
Porter's most notable film- The Great Train Robbery (1903) 
 -In 1920s, Chaplin began making feature- length comedies, including The Kid (1921) and The Gold Rush (1925). 
-Advent of recorded sound in the 1920s changed motion pictures.
-First demonstrated in 1926,  recorded sound was in almost Universal use by 1930.

 -Two new genres that flourished with the coming of sound were gangster films and musicals (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers).
-Filmed animation gained in popularity; Walt Disney first animated cartoon with synchronised sound. (Steamboat, Willie (1928)).
-Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

 -In 1941, Orson Welles makes Citizen Kane.
-Colour was only used in a minority of films until the 1950; colour movies had been standard by 1960s.
-The advent of television caused a great disruption.
-Increasing emphasis on the importance of the director in the 1960s (Kubrick, Altman).
-In the early 1970s a younger generation of filmmakers (Allen, Coppola, Lucas, Scorsese, Spielberg).
- Films had to take influence from the television, scenes became shorter as people became bored. 


-Jaws marked the turning point in the fortunes of the American film industry first film to earn more than $100 million for its a studio- A blockbuster.
-George Lucas' (Star Wars (1977)), a science-fantasy film with spectacular special effects.
-Titanic (1997), directed by James Cameron; 11 Academy Awards, one of the top five grossing films of all time.
-Mega-Blockbusters continued to rule Hollywood at the start of the 21st century.
-The Digital Video Disc (DVD), became one of the major techniques for viewing movies on computers and also began replacing videocassettes.




Conclusion
To understand the history of the American Film industry enables me to understand the way Hitchcock worked and where he worked. Hitchcock was one of the last directors to use the traditional camera and the way the films were produced. However, he was one of the pioneers to use "cutting edge" technology at the time and created so many unique camera techniques that are used by the top directors today. Hitchcock worked on films for all the major studios but was overrun by the 'Brat Pack' who make the films we so much love today. Hitchcock laid down the seeds and it was the likes of Scorsese, Spielberg and Coppola who have watered the plants. 

Comments

  1. JCoSS Media Dept29 January 2018 at 01:13

    Some very good notes once again. Can you add a little piece about what you learnt from this and how this fits in with the component you are now studying.

    All the best

    Mr Cooper

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elliott Soraff29 January 2018 at 02:24

    I have added what I've learnt and how this links to the component.

    ReplyDelete

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