film Production

A detailed Summary of film Production

In the period previous to the 1930's, the predominant form of filmmaking was that of the crank camera. This is not to say that motor-driven cameras were not possible. However, the motors to advance the film were so large that they were simply too cumbersome to be effective. Thus, it was the cameraman himself who would crank the film at a steady rate to expose the frames. When it came to showing the film, on the other hand, motor driven projectors were quite convenient, and by the 1920's a standard 24 frames per second was established for projecting films. Filming, however, remained unstandardized due to the inherent variation in recording speeds, since it depended directly on the cameraman. An experienced cameraman was capable of filming an entire film at approximately the same speed, yet often variations were made in the recording speed for dramatic effect. Decreasing the number of cranks, for example, exposed fewer frames and thus when projected at the standard 24 frames created the frenzied action that characterized much of the Vaudeville cinema.

The French filmmaker Georges Melies was among the first to employ changing backdrops and costumes to tell his story. Up until that point many film were only a few minutes long tak

By the mid-1970's the new formula for success had been reached. Whereas before a large number of movies were released and shown on the screens of the theaters that bought them, movies were now released in smaller numbers on thousands of screens at once and advertised with massive promotion campaigns to maximize gross on each film. It broke the financial slump of the 60's and remains the formula today.

The 1940's also marked the beginning of the Italian movement known as "neorealism." This movement focused on portraying the non-fictional aspects of Italian society for entertainment, in contrast to many of the dream worlds that were being produced by Hollywood. Future generations of filmmakers would look to this movement as inspiration for their own films depicting their home countries in a style that is sometimes known as "slice-of-life."

A novelty technique used during the 1950's was the introduction of 3-D. Filmed with special lenses and then viewed by the audience with special glasses, Hollywood released about 35 of these films during its brief popularity. Unfortunately, audiences quickly became bored with it and Hollywood soon dropped it.

Another technique introduced in the 1950's was the wide screen format. It was introduced largely to distinguish movies from television in an effort to lure dwindling audiences back into theaters. Cinemascope was the first such technology, using a special lens to compress the wider image onto a 35mm film reel. A second lens on the projection piece would later decompress the image to create the wide screen format. It was later replaced by the Panavision system, which did not require special lenses.

During the 1960's Germany began its own movement, similar to the Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave, known as "das neue Kino", translated as The New Cinema. Major aspects of the New Cinema were a focus on history and hardship Germany had endured, the effects of popular culture from America on German society, as well as the inclusion of feminist viewpoints on these subjects.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1800
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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