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Running head: FILM

The Evolution of an Art Form: Film

Trenton Fulton
Riley County High School

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Abstract
In the 1890s motion picture cameras were invented, this new invention ushered in a new

era of art, the film. Film is created by taking multiple pictures of an object as it moves, in order
to convey action and movement. The first cameras were able to only record in black and white.
However in the early 1900s Technicolor was put to use and artists were able to shoot in simple
colors. Later in 1927 the first synchronized dialog was added to film, this sparked major changes
in the film industry. Film stayed relatively the same from the 1940s until the 1990s when
computer technology was first being used in films. Animated features and Computer Generated
Illustrations became more common in films. This has led to grander visuals and more room for
artists imagination. Today in 2016 films are still evolving, 3D technology is incorporated more
and is being improved, and companies are working on virtual reality which can be employed in
films.

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The Evolution of an Art Form

Film is one of the greatest art forms in existence. Artists can create just about anything they
want using modern film technology. However the film as an art form and an industry has not
always been this way. The first films had no sound, no color, and no computer effects. Over time
movies became advanced, sound and music was added, high definition color is now expected of
all films, and computers are used to generate special effects and entire animated films.
The Beginnings of Film
Cameras
Film started with the adaption of still photography into motion photography. Early cameras
took a long time to take a single photograph, and were not viable for use in film. However as
they got faster it was possible to create an illusion of motion. This illusion had been used before
by spinning a wheel with a series of progressing drawings. The first actual film was by a man
named, Edweard Muybridge, in the early 1870s he had a disagreement about horses with his
boss. So he set up twelve cameras on a race track and photographed a horse as it ran. He then put
this on a spinning wheel and lit it up with a lantern to reveal the illusion of a horse running. This
first motion picture was shot by 12 cameras that each took a single photo as the horse ran by.
However by the 1880s they developed cameras capable of taking up to twelve pictures in a rapid
succession. (Cook 2007).
Projection Equipment
Edison was one of the major players in developing the early film. Not only were cameras
primitive, but there was not technology to project or show film. Edison, as well as a few
colleagues, worked to make the kinetoscope. This device, was a large, thousand pound box that a
person could look into and watch a projection of a short film alone, it was popular in some store

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fronts and ran after inserting a quarter. In 1895, the Lumiere brothers showed their projection
machine, it was twenty pounds and was capable of projecting to multiple people. Slowly but
surely these projection machines got more advanced and more able to show longer and higher
quality films (Cook 2007).
From Silence to Sound
Early Films
The first pictures to be shown to audiences had no sound except perhaps a live band that
would play music that seemed fitting to the mood of the film. Dialog was shown on screen after
the person was done talking in the form of words on a blank background, and it was up to the
audience to read it. This is not like captioning where the words were on the frame as the words
are being said; rather the words got their own frame to themselves. For the first forty years of
film, not having dialog was not a problem, many stories did not require a large amount of dialog
and many directors chose to have as little dialog as possible, buster Keaton is a prime example of
that type of director. Sound had been experimented with by Thomas Edisons movie studio and
other major studios but there was no reason to put sound and pictures together, because silent
films were doing fine on their own (Shoen 1975).
The Addition of Sound into Movies
However, directors and audience members wanted more; they wanted films to be more
realistic. People began to stay at home to listen to the new invention of the radio. Movie makers
knew they had to do something because companies began to lose money; there was a small film
recession during the mid-1920s. Warner Brothers found themselves in financial difficulties, so
they took a chance on something called a Vitaphone. The Vitaphone was essentially a large
turntable which played a record of the films music and or dialog. Warner Brothers gamble with

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the new technology paid off in 1927, when they released The Jazz Singer it was accompanied
by a few pieces of dialog and four singing numbers. People flocked to the movie and it was a
massive success (Shoen 1975).
Problems of Sound
It was so successful in fact studios were forced to incorporate sound, and movie theaters
that did not purchase sound equipment went out of business. During this transition countless
actors, directors, and other industry workers careers were ended because of an inability to adapt
to sound in movies. People with accents or poor voices were fired, and title writers were replaced
by script writers. Not only were people being let go and replaced, but the microphones were
horribly rudimentary. They would either pick every little sound up, including breathing, rustling
of clothes, and backstage crew; or they would not be loud enough to hear what the characters
were saying (Cinematography 2016).
Development of Color
Hand Drawing
Coloring films on a mass scale was added to film at about the same time as sound was first
added to movies. However, it had always existed as long as movies were around. The earliest
directors would hire individuals to color and draw in each and every frame of a movie. This was
very expensive, time consuming, and not very efficient. This practice worked only for short
films, full length features were just too long to waste resources on coloring (Cook 2007).
Early Technologies
By the 1900s films were getting longer and more films were being sold, so a solution to
this was the development of stenciling. Stencils were cut for colors and were applied at high
speeds to each frame. This could not mass produce enough films however and it was replaced by

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the practices of toning and tinting. Toning was used to color in all the dark areas, while
tinting colored in all the light areas, but each process would leave the film with only one color.
This would lead to scenes that could be colored to fit their mood. By the 1920s nearly every film
had at least one color using of the two techniques. However, they were both abandoned because
they interfered with sound transition. This gave rise to Technicolor, which used two film strips to
create movies that had two of the three primary colors. This was very successful from 1929 to
1932, but fell out of use because it was unrealistic in appearance and the reels were fragile. To
make up for this Technicolor made a three color system which could successfully use all three
primary colors and combinations of them primary colors. This was in practice for a great deal of
time was used to make films such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and Snow
White and the Seven Dwarves. (Cook 2007)
High Definition Cameras
Later the quality of color was increased again, by the adoption of digital recording. Today
very few directors still shoot movies using film cameras. Like most old technologies they have
been replaced. Todays high definition digital cameras are smaller, able to shoot longer, more
quickly, and with better quality. In fact many phones have cameras that were on par with the best
cameras of the early 1900s. This jump in quality has made a major impact on the movie industry
and overall has led to sharper images and better picture quality.
The Rise of Computer Technology
Animation
The very first animated film was a stop motion animation. It was around 30 seconds long,
and was created in 1899. This film like most animated film following it took a photo of a cut out
object or drawing, and then moved the object before taking a second photograph. During the

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1940s Disney started making animated features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Dumbo and Pinocchio these films helped launch Disney as being one of the worlds greatest
names in film. The success of these films helped fuel further projects, and eventually led to
cartoons such as Looney Toons other childrens cartoons. Cartoons and films like these were
all painstakingly hand drawn; it would not be till the mid-nineties that this style of animation
would be challenged. Pixars ushered in the era of computer animation, when they released toy
story. Toy Story was the first full length computer animated film. The massive success of this
film led to Pixar becoming a major film power. They were able to create more computer
animated films, and other companies such as DreamWorks picked up on the success of Pixar by
creating computer animated features. This technology has taken off; mainly due to the cheap
price of efficient modern computers and the speed which films can be created. Twenty years ago
computers were very limited and not well equipped for making many long films; not only were
computers not efficient, but they were also extremely expensive.
Special Effects
Computer generated imagery, CGI, is now more and more used in non-animated features.
In the early days of film all movies had to be shot without any special effects, they were shot on
set or on location. All effects had to be practical and could not be added in after the fact. The
perfect example of this is Buster Keaton's film the General for the finale they shoot a train as a
bridge collapses and the two fall into the river the bridge was crossing. Wreckage from this film
is still in the river today, because it was all shot for real on location. Now however, this is a very
uncommon practice. Today Hollywood uses CGI and is able to create that expensive wreck for
very little and in a much shorter amount of time. Hollywood uses CGI to create monsters and
creatures for horror movies; Gore, explosions, and action sequences for thrillers and action

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movies. Not only are CGI technologies used to recreate realistic things like car crashes, but they
can also create fantasy worlds and sets, making on location filming obsolete. Examples of this
are Avatar, and the Star wars films.
The Future of Film
Computer Animated Films
The future of film is very difficult to predict, however, the movie industry has been
continuing with many trends. Today movies continue to use computer animated movies, and this
style of animation is now much more common than it was fifteen or even ten years ago.
Companies such as Pixar and DreamWorks are famous for making computer animated films.
Even Disney, the most famous drawn animation company has begun to use more and more
computer animation in its recent films, such as Brave, Frozen, and Tangled. It is safe to
assume that this trend will continue when looking at the upcoming films, nearly all the animated
films slated for release this year were computer generated. It is possible that in a few decades the
art of hand animation may be all but gone, and replaced by its sleeker and cheaper cousin.
Virtual Reality
One of the biggest technological undertakings by both video game, and film designers
today is the effective implementation of virtual reality. Virtual reality is a simulation that is in
appearance real and that you are in it, for film makers this means that immersion can be
incredibly realistic. Companies producing virtual reality equipment are mostly focused on
gaming applications; however it also has many film applications. In the future, you will get to
choose what you look at and when. Today directors point the camera and wherever they point it
you have to focus. With advancements in virtual reality the audience member will be able to look

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around and focus on things that may be behind them, or next to the action. This opens countless
artistic possibility for film viewers and creators.
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