History of Film Technology GCSE Film Studies.

FILM HISTORY
NAME_____________________________________________

SECTION 1: A history of moving images, cameras and projection
YOUR SUMMARY OF THIS SECTION:
SECTION 2: The Lumiere Brothers, short films and the feature film.
SECTION 3: Hollywood and emerging technologies.
SECTION 4: New cameras.
SECTION 5: CGI and the future.
SECTION 6: Checking and applying your knowledge
SECTION 7: Extension: HUGO

SECTION 1: A history of moving images, cameras and projection
INTRODUCTION
Why IS this subject called Film Studies? What does Film mean? Where did it come from?
Film is a complicated noun. It means a lot and can bring about emotive reactions. It can also be a verb.
But what does it mean and why do we use it?
Film itself refers to the material and object that traditionally was used to record, store and play back still
images. Today the vast majority of still and moving cameras, such as the ones in phones, tablets, DSLRs
and used to make feature films, use digital sensors to record images. Traditionally however, cameras
needed to be loaded with specially created material called film that reacted when light was shown onto
it. We’ll look at this in more detail below, but the important thing to know is that this was a very difficult
process and in order to create moving images, it essentially involved taking a lot of photos (still images)
in quick succession and then in-turn, these had to be shown in quick succession. Let’s take a look at the
development of film cameras and projection to see how we got to where we are today and to
understand how films get made.
THE EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPHS AND THE CAMERA OBSCURA
The invention of the still image camera was, like many inventions, developed by multiple people over the
course of history. But the camera, as we know it today, was invented by French inventor Joseph
Nicéphore Niépce in (around) 1816. Today we recognise Niépce as technically taking the first photo on
a homemade camera and his image was forced onto silver chloride covered paper. The camera, as is
the case for all cameras in some form, was essentially a closed box that was pitch black inside. When
light was let into the box via the lens, the ‘thing’ that the lens pointed at was then ‘burned’ onto the silver
chloride covered paper thus creating an image. The actual process was much more complex than this,
but it led the way for others to create processes that were more straight-forward.
You will find many different dates and names if you research “the first
camera” online. Over a period of nearly 300 years people were
inventing and developing techniques for capturing and projecting images.
Niépce was the first to create and develop a photograph, called View
from the Window at Le Gras. This can still be seen in the University of
Texas in an oxygen free case, and is the oldest surviving photograph.
Taken from an upstairs window at Niépce's estate in Burgundy, it’s a very
unclear image in part due to the way in which the process Niépce used
chemical reactions to create an image. It’s said that he had the camera in place and exposed to light for
2 days in order to create the chemical reaction he needed which involved almost literally burning the
image onto the plate in his camera.
The Daguerreotype was the photographic process which was first widely available to the public and
created much more readily recognisable images. From around 1840-1860,
daguerreotype became the world-wide standard for creating images, after French
inventor Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre introduced the technique in 1839. To
make the image, a sheet of silver-plated copper was polished to a mirror finish and
treated it with fumes that made its surface light sensitive. Then it was exposed to
light in a camera for as long as necessary, often for a few seconds. The
resulting image was made visible by using mercury vapor and its sensitivity to light

was removed a chemical treatment and then dried. The final image was easily ruined so was
kept behind glass as the surface was very delicate, and even the lightest wiping could ruin it.
However, putting images behind glass wasn’t the intent of photographers-people wanted
to see the images and this has been the case for centuries. This desire to see images projected in large
formats had was most readily seen in the success of the camera obscura. These show how light can be
used to project an image onto a flat surface and can be made by anyone relatively easily. You may
have also heard the term pinhole camera. The only difference between a pinhole camera obscura and
not, is that a camera obscura generally uses a lens, while a pinhole just has the open hole.
This technology became popularized in the 17th and 18th centuries when artists used them to help
project drawings they could then trace. But there was no actual way to preserve the image.
This is why we credit Joseph Nicéphore Niépce with inventing the camera because by 1816 he had
started, (though not fully successful) capturing images.
The earliest “cameras” weren’t used so much to take
pictures as they were to study optics. Camera
obscuras (see left) demonstrate how light can be used to
project an image onto a flat surface. In some cases, these
are similar to a pinhole camera. Camera obscuras became
popular in the 17th and 18th centuries when artists used
them to help project drawings they could then trace or
even paint, but there was no way to preserve the image as
a direct copy of what was shown: as a photograph. This is why many people, including Joseph
Nicéphore Niépce sought to invent the camera- because people wanted to capture images.
THE EARLIEST MOVING IMAGES
Once the Daguerreotype process became familiar to many, not only were people looking to refine and
improve the process, but the desire to see images projected in a way like a camera obscura drove the
desire to see moving images. Early developments again came from France, and the Phenakisticope was
introduced in 1833 by inventor Joseph Plateau. This machine used a spinning
cardboard disc attached vertically to a handle. There were a series of pictures
showing different moments or images of something in motion and small slits that
were spaced evenly around the rim of the disc were used for the user to look
through whilst spinning the disc. The images within the phénakisticope became
distorted when spun fast enough to produce the illusion of movement and while
most animations were not intended to give a realistic representation, people still looked to improve upon
the process. The next machine to make a significant improvement was the Zoetrope which was a
cylindrical version of a phénakisticope and even had easily replaceable picture strips, was introduced as
a toy by Milton Bradley in 1866 and became very successful. The next step from this was to create
realistic images, and to do that, photographs were needed.
KINETOSCOPE AND THE BLACK MARIA
The inventor Thomas Edison met with Eadweard Muybridge in 1888 in part,
to discuss how to develop a system for projecting moving images. It was
around this time that 35mm celluloid strips had become available and
offered a fairly accurate reproduction on them and with the development of
long, flexible celluloid strips by the Eastman Kodak Company, Edison and
many others looked to take many photographs of people and objects in
motion so that, when viewed back at speed, the illusion of movement was
created. It was in this period that modern movies were essentially conceived, and people came to
discover that by showing between 12 and 24 photographs per second, you could replicate movement in

a way that appeared to modestly realistic. These photographs were taken by exposing light onto a strip
or sheet of transparent plastic film coated on one side with a very thick, minute emulsion that contained
almost invisibly small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The short name for this? Film, film stock or film
strip. What Edison and others needed, was now a way to show or project these images quickly enough
so that it appeared as if they were moving. It was another French inventor, Louis Le Prince who invented
the kinetoscope, but it was Thomas Edison and his employee William Dickson who created the first
usable device. The kinetoscope was not a projector rather a wooden cabinet that one person could look
into at a time. A series of spindles and an electronic wheel drew film continuously underneath a
magnifying lens while an electric lamp shone up from beneath the film through a lens for the person to
look through to see the moving image. The fundamental parts of
this were later used for the opposite purpose-to make a camera
which fed ‘blank’ film reels through the machine and let light in at
specific moments. This was called the kinetograph. Of course,
because film stock reacted to light, and Edison knew that in order
to capture the images he wanted, he needed to control light itself.
So, in 1893, he built what is now known as the first production
studio, called the Black Maria.
The Black Maria was covered in black paper and had a huge window in the ceiling that opened up to let
in sunlight to help produce clear images on film. To help this further, the building was also constructed on
a giant turntable so the window could rotate toward the sun throughout the day, supplying the light
Edison needed for the production of movies. When word spread about the new invention, performers
flocked to the Black Maria from all over the country in order to be in the films. People such as dancers,
pugilists, magicians and vaudeville performers all wanted to be in these moving image movies. Edison
was happy to oblige, as he saw these as publicity opportunities and would often pose with the
performers for newspaper articles.
THE KINETOGRAPH AND THE CINEMATOGRAPH
It was around the same time that Edison was inventing the Kinetograph and creating the Black Maria,
that two French Brothers were also looking at the issues of recording and projecting images to create
movies. They invented a machine called a cinematograph and it was remarkably unique as it was both a
camera and project the images it had taken. It was lighter than a kinetograph,
produced a brighter image and projected a sharper image than the kinetoscope.
Whilst Edison’s machines were powered using electricity, the Lumiere’s instead
used manually-operated cranks, but the main difference was in its method of
projection. The kinetoscope only allowed one person at a time to view the
projected image and in a box. The cinematograph, however, could project the
moving images onto a screen, so that a large audience could watch at the same
time. The Lumiere brothers then, invented the cinema. After its initial showing in
1895, the cinematograph became a worldwide phenomenon with people
watching the projected images back in fairs and exhibitions. Movies were short
(less than 1 minute) and often simply
recorded a small section of everyday life,
like short documentaries, and it was in the
power of watching something or someone
that audiences had never seen before, that the power of the cinema
began to emerge. The first moving images by the brothers was
recorded and projected in 1895, with the short film Workers Leaving
the Lumiere Factory.

TASK:
Below is a timeline with 10 spaces on it. Read back through the information about and add 10 key
moments of your choice from the history of the camera, images and projection. You can choose any 10
but you MUST be able to summarise what that moment, invention or person is/did in the space provided
and be able to add these in chronological order. The last one has been added for you as an example.
1816
FrenchinventorJoseph
NicéphoreNiépcetookthe
firstrecognisedphotoin
(around)1816.Thephoto
wastakenonahomemade
cameraandhisimagewas
forcedontosilverchloride
coveredpaper.

TASK:
In no more than 100 words in the space below, explain which development or invention you believe
was the most important from 1816-1895, giving reasons why.
TASK:
As we’ve discovered, in order to create something that looked like it was moving realistically, between
12 and 24 shots had to be shown in the correct order every second.
Most films these days run at around 24fps. Calculate how many individual shots ate used in films of
different lengths. Add your answer to the right of the run time but there is space below to do some
working out.
1 minute long.
24 minutes long.
An hour long.
A film that is one and a half hours long.
A two hour long film.
The runtime of the last two Avengers films.
The runtime of Lawrence of Arabia.
The total runtime of all the MCU films…

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN FILM AND FILM TECHNOLOGY
As we’ve seen, the technology to record images and then project them in a way that
created the sense that the images were moving realistically took a lot of development but
this happened in a very short space of time. We generally accept that film as an art form
began in 1895, but the technology used to make films has changed dramatically since
then. Whilst the last 10 years in particular has seen a drastic change, with the
introduction of things like drones, LED-panel screens for studios, motion-capture and more, we’re going
to study and learn 10 key pieces of technology and events that have helped to create the modern film
industry.
The 10 key events are as follows:
1895 First moving images (Lumière brothers)
1895-1927 Development of silent cinema from early short films to full-length feature
films, during which period the foundations of filmmaking were established –
e.g. cinematography, the principles of lighting and continuity editing and
an extensive range of mise-en-scène, including location shooting
1920s Gradual emergence of a vertically integrated Hollywood film industry,
established by 1930 into five major studios (Paramount, Warner Bros,
Loew's/MGM, Fox [Twentieth Century Fox in 1935] and Radio Keith
Orpheum [RKO]) and three minor studios (Columbia, Universal and United
Artists) – the so-called Big 5 and Little 3
1927 Alan Crosland's, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson - the first feature film
with a soundtrack
1935 Rouben Mamoulian's Becky Sharp, the Technicolor Corporation's first
feature length, 'three strip' colour film
1948 Paramount court case which prevented studios from owning all phases of
the production, distribution and exhibition process ('vertical integration')
which led, in the 1950s, to the emergence of independent film production
and agents producing films for the Hollywood studios to distribute and
exhibit
1950s Emergence of widescreen and 3D technologies as a response to the growth
of television and the corresponding decline in cinema attendance
Late 1950s Although not the first examples, lightweight, portable cameras were
produced suitable for hand-held use (which had an immediate impact on
documentary filmmaking and were used by a new generation of directors in
France – French 'new wave' directors)
1970s (1975
specifically)
Steadicam technology developed by cinematographer Garrett Brown (a
stabilising device for hand-held cameras to keep image 'steady' whilst
retaining fluid movement). First introduced, 1975
1990s More widespread use of computer-generated imagery, most significantly
pioneered by Industrial Light and Magic in the 1970s, resulted in a move
away from filmed 'special effects' to visual effects created digitally in post-
production to the computer generated imaging of characters in films.

1895 - THE LUMIERE BROTHERS AND THE FIRST SHORT FILMS - https://youtu.be/pySTmXv6CfQ
As we’ve seen, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, were among the first people to
pioneer the creation and projection of moving images into short films. Their invention, the
cinematograph was a worldwide sensation and for the first-time allowed people to not
only take many photos quickly, but then play them back and project them onto a screen
for an audience of many people to watch at once.
Their films documented every day like in France, and some of their most famous films are WORKERS
LEAVING THE LUMIERE FACTORY (1895), THE WATERER WATERED (1895) and THE ARRIVAL OF A
TRAIN AT LA CIOTAT STATION (1896). It was the shared experience as well as providing insights into
worlds and experiences never before seen by these audiences, that helped to establish the idea for the
cinema experience that we know today-a large group of people communally watching moving images in
a large, dark room.
1895 – 1927 – FEATURE FILMS - https://youtu.be/ySCi-BecfjE
The Lumiere’s films were very short, often only a minute long, but with the method of
shooting enough footage to create moving images now
relatively easy, people were quickly experimenting with the
format and developing longer and more complicated films.
Another Frenchman, George Méliès was arguably the most ambitious and
well-known of the filmmakers at the time. He experimented with editing,
special effects and telling stories in new, fantastic ways unlike many of his
contemporaries who were still making what were essentially documentary
films. His most famous film, A TRIP TO THE MOON is a sci-fi adventure film featuring special effects and
which runs for approximately 9 minutes, far longer than anything the Lumieres had produced. Edwin S
Porter made one of the first films to retell a narrative with THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903). This 9-
minute-long film used innovative practises such as shooting on location and in a studio as well as film
techniques that had become popular, such as camera pans and a close-up. But it was the film THE
STORY OF THE KELLY GANG in 1906 which was an hour long that really began to set the expectations
for the length of a feature film. This continued, as did the innovation in visual storytelling, over the next
20 years. Films such as the controversial THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), pushed run times to over 2
hours, used techniques such as fade-outs and dozens of extras for the first time. The Director of BIRTH OF
A NATION, D W Griffiths, was an ambitious innovator and his next film, INTOLERANCE, featured one
of the most extravagant sets ever built and a reported 67,000 actors,
helping to emphasise the storyline which covers a period of over 2500
years in a runtime that runs over 3 hours. In Russia, one of the most
enduring of the film language innovations of the time was developed, in
the form of montage. The most famous example of this was seen in the
film BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) and it arguably contributed more
towards modern filmmaking than any other before.
TASK: In your own words, summarise the information above in this box. You MUST include any
words in italics or names of people involved in this technological advancement.
SECTION 2: THE LUMIERE BROTHERS, SHORT FILMS AND THE FEATURE FILM.

1920s – THE BIG 5 AND THE LITTLE 3 - https://youtu.be/zEvEwzNpivs
As film became more popular and rapidly became a profitable business, a number of film
studios emerged who were making a vast number of films and becoming very profitable
as a result. By 1930 they became known as the Big 5 (the 5 biggest and most successful
studios) and the Little 3 (the smaller, but still prominent studios). These big 5 studios,
funded their own films, made them usin directors and stars who they had exclusivity contracts with, shot
the films in their own studios in Hollywood and would then put these films into cinemas that they owned.
Some of these studios are still house-hold names today though some no longer exist. The 5 are
Paramount, Warner Bros, Loew's/MGM, Twentieth Century Fox in and Radio Keith Orpheum, known as
RKO.
Paramount had a roster of incredibly famous and successful film stars who made films exclusively for
them, including the like of Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich. Warner Brothers was an innovative film
studio, pioneering technology such as sound and colour in films. RKO produced 2 of the most famous
films of all time in KING KONG (1933) and CITIZEN KANE (1941), MGM was a hugely successful
studio financially and used that money to help develop colour film and a roster of star actors and
directors and 20th
Century Fox (named Fox Films until 1935) was a large studio with an often turbulent
business.
The Little 3, Columbia, Universal and United Artists were, financially, not as successful as the Big 5, but
were still successful in not only being responsible for some excellent, famous films but Columbia and
Universal continue to be successful film studios to this day.
1927 – THE JAZZ SINGER AND SOUND - https://youtu.be/WAMm-K7LoyY
Whilst many film studios and short films had been experimenting with sound in their films, it
was THE JAZZ SINGER in 1927 that was the first feature-length film to feature a
synchronised recorded music score and lip-synchronous singing and speech in some of the
sequences. Its release marked the beginning of the end for silent film and the rapid rise of “talkies”-films
with sound. Produced by Warner Bros, THE JAZZ SINGER had a crude, but effective method of creating
a film with sound, using a “sound-on-disc system” which was ‘locked’ to the projector
showing the film, so that the film could be played in synchronisation with the sound
which came on a separate disc.
Sound has come a long way since, from stereo (two separate speakers), to surround
sound and more recently with Dolby Atmos, a technology which uses dozens of tiny
speakers placed throughout a theatre that allows the filmmakers and exhibitors to
control exactly where, when and how an individual sound is heard by an audience.
SECTION 3: HOLLYWOOD AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

1935 – COLOUR FILM - https://youtu.be/nQBy1ozakAU
As with sound, film studios were working on competing technologies to create colour films for
years before 1935 and the release of BECK SHARP. Created using a three strip technology
called Technicolor, the complex process involved various film strips and large, bulky cameras
and needed bright, clear light to shoot in. Despite this, it was a huge success and within 20 years not
only were the vast majority of films now colour, but companies sought to constantly improve and refine
the technology in order to create clearer, more accurate colour reproduction.
1948 – THE PARAMOUNT DECREE - https://youtu.be/XCvk7Oz7gtU
The American film industry, mostly based in Hollywood in California, had become incredibly
successful and mostly very profitable. This was, in part, due to how the film industry had
evolved to become vertically integrated. This meant the film companies used their money to
make their films, starring actors they had under exclusive contracts and would then only show the films in
cinemas that they owned. If an audience member wanted to see Gary Cooper in a film an audience
would likely have to watch him in a film made by Paramount which was then shown only in a Paramount
cinema. Having such exclusivity rights was technically illegal in America as the law attempted to create a
free-market whereby companies were free to compete and engage in competition that was free and
open to everyone. In 1948 however, that all changed and there were many consequences from this
decision. Some, such as Paramount selling their cinema chain, were relatively minor. However, this ruling
paved the way for the end of the dominance of the Big 5 and gave rise to many more independent film
studios and cinemas in later years, arguably offering audiences a more varied and wide-range films.

1950s – WIDESCREEN AND 3D – Video here: https://youtu.be/qE4-QqIo9Po
In 1950 there were 6 million TVs sold in America, by far the highest number sold in the
country before. Before the decade was out, over 67million TV sets had b
een sold. Estimates suggest that the vast majority of homes had a TV in by 1960, fuelling a
dramatic rise in the need for TV programming, but also
contributing towards the decline in cinema attendance. In 1946,
approximately 70% of the 177 million people who lived in the USA went to
the cinema at least once a week. 10 years later, this figure was closer to
25%-a huge decrease. One of the main reasons for this was the rise of TV
ownership and as a result, film and cinema companies needed to develop
technologies that gave people a reason to visit the cinema again. With colour TVs
being developed and improving all the time, cinema looked to giant, wide screens
and 3D as a means to entice people away from the homes and offer an experience
that simply could not happen in homes.
“Widescreen” was essentially that-large movie screens
that were rectangular and wide in shape. They offered
not only a larger picture than before but allowed
filmmakers to create wide images of landscapes and large-scale scenes that
would have not been as spectacular if on the traditional screen shape and
size. As with most technologies and advancements in film and cinema, a
range of competing technologies emerged during this time. One such unique idea such was Cinerama,
which involved using 3 projectors at once to create a huge image that was incredibly wide image
projected on a huge curved screen. Cinerama was seen as more of a gimmick and while some films we
moderately successful, it was an extremely expensive and complex format
to work in. More traditional widescreen technologies included
Cinemascope which was developed by 20th
Century Fox which used a
special lens attached to existing equipment and VistaVision by Paramount
which involved using a 35mm film strip but filmed and projected sideways,
to create a wider, 70mm size image, which resulted in a widescreen
image.
The development of 3D was even more complex, using new and again, competing technologies to
create an experience that was simply unachievable on home screens. It was film pioneer Edwin S Porter
who developed some of the first 3D technologies for film in 1912, but between 1952 and 1954 a slew
of feature films, cartoons, short films, documentaries and experimental
films used anaglyph and polarization techniques to create 3D images
that aimed to create brand new experiences. This process involved
However, the format was essentially dead by 1955, in part due to the
costs and problems of making and projecting the image, but also
because audiences often felt that the quality of the films were
lacking and eventually stopped watching.
Of course, over time, widescreen TVs became the standard format and 3D became a novelty format
which improved over time and made comebacks in the late 80s and then the mid to late 2000s.

LATE 1950s - PORTABLE CAMERAS - https://youtu.be/X8P3CIx-EtY
The earliest hand-cranked cameras, such as the cinematograph, were too heavy and bulky
to be easily moved and carried around. They also needed tripods in order to keep the
camera steady and out of the hands of the operators who were unable to hold the heavy
machines. Filmmakers did begin to attach cameras to things like trains, wagons and horses in order to
create variety and develop their visual style, but it took further development in camera technology to
progress these ideas further. As we will learn about in the Cinematography
unit, camera accessories like cranes and dollys were invented and cameras
were then able to move in a wider variety of directions with improved fluidity.
These camera movements helped to establish the language of camera
movement as we understand it today and allowed filmmakers to create a
‘mobile frame’, rather than a purely static one like photographs of old.
However, filmmakers sought an increasing amount of
movement and freedom and in World War 2, 16mm
film (half the regular size film strip) allowed the development of smaller, more
portable cameras and this then lead to the development of cameras that were
even more portable. This in turn lead to filmmakers developing their own artistic
styles which aimed to produce a more ‘realistic’ and less rigid visual style. This is
perhaps best seen in the French New Wave movement which wanted to reject
traditional film making styles and create a new, unique and innovative style. This can be seen in the use
of wheelchairs and modified cars being used to mount lighter cameras that provided unique perspectives
into the lives of characters. Many critics took against this often “shaky”, “mobile frame” style because, in
part, it did not follow formal, classical Hollywood styles. However, the influence of the French New
Wave is undeniable, whether seen in horror films to create immediacy and realism, or in action films to
create pace and offer engaging and dramatic perspectives.
SECTION 4: NEW CAMERAS

1970s - THE STEADICAM - https://youtu.be/gKQCs8c8z6k
One of the developments that came from the creation and development of increasingly
portable cameras was the Steadicam. As we have seen, many found the visual style of the
French New Wave to be jarring, unpleasant even and the jerky, mobile shots and scenes
were, to some, difficult to watch. What was undeniable however, was the possibilities that
moving the camera around afforded-no longer were filmmakers content to stick to the classic, rigid styles
of classical Hollywood and instead wanted to be able to offer fresh, immediate and innovate movements
and perspectives. So, how could these two competing ideas, a mobile camera
but one that offered a smooth and steady frame, be achieved? By the creation
of the Steadicam, by cameraman Garrett Brown. His invention involved placing
a camera onto a complex mechanical setup that ensured that any knocks or
jolts were absorbed, resulting in the ability to place the camera in a range of
places and situations but avoiding the previously shaky and uneven picture.
Australian Garrett was an experienced and successful cameraman and put
his invention to use first in the 1976 film BOUND FOR GLORY, but it was
his use of the Steadicam in ROCKY (also released in 1976) that really
caught the imagination of filmmakers and filmgoers alike. The now famous
scene of Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art was
captured using a Steadicam and the smooth movement of the camera
makes it almost look and feel like Rocky and the audience are gilding up
those stairs. The Steadicam was used throughout the film, from following
Rocky during his training on the streets, in his small apartment and in the ring during fights, with each
example offering new perspectives and image quality that would come to help define the
look and feel of modern filmmaking. The Steadicam is now the industry standard and has
also been used by the TV and sports industries for years and it’s only since the rise of
drones, mechanical wires and programmable robots, as well as virtual cameras used in
CGI, that has seen the use of the Steadicam become less ubiquitous.
1990s - CGI

1990s – CGI - https://youtu.be/SDtf6oJPJhA
Computer Generated Imagery. These three words have transformed the film industry
and with it, audience expectations of how a modern, ambitious film should look. This in
turn, has changed the very nature of the stories being told by film and the potential of
films is now limitless, filmmakers are only limited in their ambition and budget.
The history of CGI is a long and interesting one, but to get to the core ideas, we
need to go back to turn of the century in France well before imagery could be
create and manipulated by computers and look once again, at the work of
Gerorge Melies. He was fascinated by the potential of film and his own ambitious
ideas led him to play visual tricks on the audience and to manipulate the very
nature of film, by cutting up some reels and adding in and removing some shots to
create the sense that characters would disappear, he’d shoot a scene and reuse the film to use
superimposition and create more than one shot on screen at the same time, and use paintings and
models combined with inventive camera angles and movements-all things he’d learned from his time as a
stage performer and magician in French theatres. His films such as A VOYAGE TO THE MOON resulted
in fantastical images created by effects never-before-seen on screen. Melies, and indeed many others,
may have paved the way for in-camera effects, but this was never enough for some filmmakers and the
desire to tell more complex and visually ambitious stories drove the need for better ways of creating new
scenes, characters and perspectives in storytelling.
Some of the earliest examples of CGI occurred in the 70s, with films like
WESTWORLD (1973) and STAR WARS (1977) using computers to create
basic additions to an existing shot, but it wasn’t
until the 1980s that computers became powerful
enough to begin to create characters and large-
scale special effects that actors would need to interact with. Films like TRON
(1982), THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984) and YOUNG SHERLOCK
HOLMES (1985) pushed the idea of what a computer could create further and by the time JURASSIC
PARK was released in 1993, computers were beginning to be able to successfully and accurately
animate non-human characters. The remainder of the decade was a constant series of improvements and
developments, from the first fully CGI film in TOY STORY (1995) to ground-breaking techniques like
‘bullet time’ in THE MATRIX (1999) and even replacing a deceased actor with
CGI-enhanced images. The use of green screen technologies continued to develop
through the years and in the 00s, the quality of CGI was so lifelike that films began
to travel less to shoot on location and instead use Green Screens that could be
used to ‘paint’ in a location for the characters later on. This of course has bought
problems to the filmmaking process, but CGI
continues to evolve and adapt in a way that perhaps no other film
technology has.
SECTION 5: CGI

TASK:
Read your summaries of the information above. You’re now going to reduce this information down even
further. For each of the 10 developments in film technology, you are to choose just ONE word or name
for each one, to remind you of what that development or invention was. You will also add the date to
each one so that you can learn the key dates in order and a word associated with that time period.
TASK:
Time to test how well you paid attention to the specifics of the information provided! Below are 15
questions that cover a range of the technological developments.
1. What was the name of the camera that the Lumiere brothers developed?
2. Name at least two feature films released after 1900.
3. What was 20th
Century Fox called before 1935?
4. Which film studio produced THE JAZZ SINGER?
5. What was the brand name of the three-coloured strip technology that gave films colour?
6. Explain what some of the consequences of the Paramount decree were.
7. Give at least one reason why Widescreen and 3D films were developed in the 1950s.
8. Portable, lightweight cameras lead to which film style being created?
9. The Steadicam was created by who?
10.Why do you think CGI wasn’t used as much before the 1990s?
11.What was the first film to use a Steadicam?
12.Name two films the Lumiere Brothers made.
13.What does CGI stand for?
14.What years saw a development in feature films being made?
15.What historical event saw the creation of 16mm film and smaller cameras as a result?
DATE
ONE WORD OR
NAME TO
SUMMARISE
THIS DATE AND
THE
DEVELOPMENT
SECTION 6: CHECKING AND APPLYING YOUR KNOWLEDGE

TASK:
Create 10 of your own questions to test someone else.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
TASK:
Below are 10 images that each represent a key moment of film technology development. For each one,
copy and paste, cut and stick or simply draw onto the page below in the correct order with exactly the
correct wording from the table of information that is the required learning for this section.

1895
FILM HISTORY MINI-ASSESSMENT
TASK 1:
Watch the following video: https://youtu.be/AhIbI_URhco
Firstly: double-check and ensure that any of the previous work is correct and has sufficient amount of
detail to do the next few tasks…
TASK 2:
Having seen a video which summarises the development of technology in film, you’re going to plan your own
in two steps. Firstly, use the 10 blank boxes to design and draw your own small, but clear image that
represents what happened in each of the 10 developments. Not only do these images needs to be clear, but
they need to symbolise what happened in that year/decade in a way that will help you to recall more detail
about each later on and would be suitable to be on screen whilst you read what the information was for that
image.
TASK 3:
Now, create your own script for the video, which describes, in your own words, what technological
event took place in each year or point of the timeline. Use the images from above as a guide as to what
would be on screen when you
TASK 4:
Finally, as the end moment for your own film, describe in your own words what event was the most
important. Use the details on the previous pages and your own knowledge.

Below are some tasks that can be considered as an extension or additional task. By no means vital,
these additional tasks require people to be access the film HUO (2011)
____________________________________________
HUGO (2011) Is a great film in its own right, but it’s a useful film to watch in terms of providing
some context and insight into life in France after the initial development of film and film
technologies. While of course it’s not a documentary and does not provide an entirely accurate
depiction of film, film development and technology, it’s nonetheless interesting to see a version
of George Méliès on screen, alongside some of his contemporaries and featuring some of the
short films we have briefly looked at in this unit. Below is an overview of the main context of the
film alongside some details about the narrative and how it ties into the film history we’ve
studied.
HUGO is a 2011 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Martin
Scorsese, and adapted for the screen by John Logan. Based on Brian Selznick's 2007
book THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, it tells the story of a boy who lives alone in
the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris in the 1930s, only to become embroiled in a
mystery surrounding his late father's automaton and the pioneering filmmaker Georges
Méliès.
Hugo is Scorsese's first film shot in 3D, about which the filmmaker remarked, "I found
3D to be really interesting, because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest
move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely." The film was released in
the United States on November 23, 2011.
Hugo received 11 Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture), more than
any other film that year, winning five: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound
Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for eight BAFTAs,
and won two, and was nominated for three Golden Globe awards, earning Scorsese his
third Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Despite receiving acclaim from critics, the film
was a box office bomb, grossing just $185 million against its estimated $150 million budget.
The backstory and primary features of Georges Méliès' life as depicted in the film are
largely accurate: He became interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière
brothers' camera; he was a magician and toymaker; he experimented with automata; he
owned a theatre (Theatre Robert-Houdin); he was forced into bankruptcy; his film stock was
reportedly melted down for its celluloid; he became a toy salesman at the Montparnasse
station, and he was eventually awarded the Légion d'honneur medal after a period of terrible
neglect. Many of the early silent films shown in the movie are Méliès's actual works, such
as LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902). However, the film does not mention Méliès' two
children, his brother Gaston (who worked with Méliès during his film-making career), or his
first wife Eugénie, who was married to Méliès during the time he made films (and who died in
1913). The film shows Méliès married to Jeanne d'Alcy during their filmmaking period, when
in reality they did not marry until 1925.
The automaton's design was inspired by the Maillardet's automaton made by the
Swiss watchmaker Henri Maillardet, which Selznick had seen in the Franklin Institute,
Philadelphia,as well as the Jaquet-Droz automaton "the writer". A portion of the scene
with Harold Lloyd in SAFETY LAST! (1923), hanging from the clock, is shown when the main
characters sneak into a movie theater. Later, Hugo, like Lloyd in SAFETY LAST!, hangs from
the hands of a large clock on a clock tower to escape from a pursuer.
Several viewings of the film L'ARRIVÉE D'UN TRAIN EN GARE DE LA CIOTAT are
portrayed, depicting the shocked reaction of the audience—although this view is in doubt.
SECTION 7: EXTENSION - HUGO

The film HUGO was not a success at the box office. This means that not enough people paid to watch
the film at the cinema to help cover the cost of making the film. As a result, the film likely lost money for
the production company and they would be hesitant to make another film like this or about this subject.
There could be many reasons for this, but one main one is perhaps the storyline and the need to know
quite a bit about the history of filmmaking and France’s role in this.
TASK:
Use the space below to write what you thought of the film and include reasons why. Then, provide
details on what you think someone who isn’t a film studies student would need to know in order to
understand the film better and to appreciate who and what some of the people in the film are and are
doing.
You can use any of the information on the previous pages, so long as it is relevant and is not simply
copied, as well as anything else you have learned or discovered at this stage. You may want to research
further by watching other short films mentioned in the film or by reading about extra details from the film
to see how accurate it was to the real world.
OPINIONS
The film HUGO is about…
I thought that the film was…
and this is because…
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
In order to get the most out of HUGO, you should probably know that…
and some other interesting facts to help you understand the film better are…

PLAYLIST
Below is a link to a playlist which contains videos of many of the films mentioned in this booklet. Given
that they are hosted by 3rd
parties on YouTube, there is a possibility that some may be removed. Where
this occurs, please search for the title again as this will likely result in finding the video again.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeNerb9lxe3mgY-4wUbw6um0al-kjKtNW
NOTES

History of Film Technology GCSE Film Studies.

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