Old Time Making For Movies 

Welcome back, my fellow film lovers! The technology, mechanisms, and ideologies used to make movies have significantly changed, especially compared to how movies were made at the beginning of the filming industry before technology was even invented. In this blog post, I will discuss how movies were made in the past, along with the techniques and creativity used.

Movies in the Past

How did the ability to see films begin? –

People first began to see motion pictures with a prototype called the Kinetoscope. This prototype was produced by the Edison Company in 1891 and was a successful invention in 1894. In 1895, in Paris, France, the Lumière brothers were the first to project their invention called the Cinématographe, which allowed people to see moving pictures with its built-in camera, projector, and film printer.

     Kinetoscope    

Cinématographe

What was the growth of the movie industry in the 19th century? –

In the 19th century, the most highly effective industries were scattered throughout Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia. As films were initially shorter, they have become longer and into a storytelling format, lacking the accompaniment of lectures they used to have. Due to the rise in the number of people paying to see these films, more cinemas were built, spreading to America. Unlike the growth faced in America, Europe was severely impacted by the end of film production due to World War I. During World War I, films were stopped as the manufacturing of gunpowder used the same chemical substances as the celluloid used in cinema. However, towards the war’s end, the production of films in Europe rose to almost 100%, except in Germany. 

What were the new techniques used within movies to change the black and white representation? –

As a change in scenery, color was first used in 1906 to establish natural color in film, using the British Kinemacolor process. This process involved portraying color by using spinning red and green discs, as these colors were used to filter black-and-white stock. Moving forward in time, starting from 1915, films used technicolor processes that were difficult to manage until 1932, when the industry began to use the three-color process of the colors red, green, and blue. 

Films were starting to include synchronized sound by using the Vitaphone system, first used by the Warner Brothers. This system consisted of using sound on a vinyl disc connected to a film projector. However, this method was unsuccessful and was soon replaced by an optical and variable-density soundtrack. In this soundtrack, sound waves transform into a light source that creates variations on the printed track. 

How the advancement of color and sound impacted the filming industry? –

From the early 1930s, synchronized sound and color fully expanded throughout films, especially in America. This spread of techniques led to what is known as the Golden Age of Hollywood, as cinema became a very popular form of entertainment, expanding the audience in seconds. The Golden Age of Hollywood eventually did end due to the growth and use of television. 

Why did television overpower the public appearance of films? – 

Although cinemas had developed more film processes, such as the Cinerama and CinemaScope processes, to successfully represent 2D and 3D films on IMAX, the prosperous accomplishments never returned as they did in the 1930s. It wasn’t until the late 2000s that the public audience increased, and more cinemas were built than ever, especially in the U.K. As technology continues to expand, more people have taken a liking to watching movies through modern television, computers, phones, and more. 

Thank you for reading my seventeenth blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading about how movies were first developed and how filmmakers continued to expand their techniques to support the industry’s growth. In the next blog posts, you will learn more about the filming industry and read more movie interviews.