Hollywood Cinema Notes
Cinematography is the illusion of movement by the recording and subsequent rapid projection of many still photographic pictures on a screen. Originally a product of 19th-century scientific endeavour, cinema has become a medium of mass entertainment and communication, and today it is a multi-billion-pound industry.
WHO INVENTED CINEMA?
Publicity image of Edison Kinetophone, c.1895
Image source
No one person invented cinema. However, in 1891 the Edison Company successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first public Kinetoscope demonstration took place in 1893. By 1894 the Kinetoscope was a commercial success, with public parlours established around the world.
The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris, France. They used a device of their own making, the Cinématographe, which was a camera, a projector and a film printer all in one.
Detail of Kinetoscope, made by Thomas Edison in 1894 Science Museum Group CollectionMore information Lumière Cinématographe, c.1896 Science Museum Group CollectionMore information
WHAT WERE EARLY FILMS LIKE?
At first, films were very short, sometimes only a few minutes or less. They were shown at fairgrounds, music halls, or anywhere a screen could be set up and a room darkened. Subjects included local scenes and activities, views of foreign lands, short comedies and newsworthy events. The films were accompanied by lectures, music and a lot of audience participation. Although they did not have synchronized dialogue, they were not ‘silent’ as they are sometimes described.
THE RISE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY
By 1914, several national film industries were established. At this time, Europe, Russia and Scandinavia were the dominant industries; America was much less important. Films became longer and storytelling, or narrative, became the dominant form.
As more people paid to see movies, the industry which grew around them was prepared to invest more money in their production, distribution and exhibition, so large studios were established and dedicated cinemas built. The First World War greatly affected the film industry in Europe, and the American industry grew in relative importance.
The first 30 years of cinema were characterised by the growth and consolidation of an industrial base, the establishment of the narrative form, and refinement of technology.
ADDING COLOUR
Color was first added to black-and-white movies through hand coloring, tinting, toning and stenciling. By 1906, the principles of color separation were used to produce so-called ‘natural colour’ moving images with the British Kinemacolor process, first presented to the public in 1909.
Kinemacolor was primarily used for documentary (or ‘actuality’) films, such as the epic With Our King and Queen Through India (also known as The Delhi Durbar) of 1912, which ran for over 2 hours in total. The early Technicolor processes from 1915 onwards were cumbersome and expensive, and colour was not used more widely until the introduction of its threecolour process in 1932. It was used for films such as Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz (both 1939) in Hollywood and A Matter of Life and Death (1946) in the UK.
ADDING COLOUR
Frames of stencil colour film
Science Museum Group Collection
Kinemacolor cine camera made by Moy and Bastie to Charles Urban’s design, 1909Science Museum Group Collection
Advertisement for With Our King and Queen Through India, 1912
Science Museum Group Collection
Advertisement for Kinemacolor, c.1911Science Museum Group Collection
Technicolor cine cameraScience Museum Group Collection
ADDING SOUND
Science Museum Group Collection
Vitaphone disc, 1930.
Science Museum Group CollectionImage source
The first attempts to add synchronised sound to projected pictures used phonographic cylinders or discs.
The first feature-length movie incorporating synchronised dialogue, The Jazz Singer (USA, 1927), used the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system, which employed a separate record disc with each reel of film for the sound.
This system proved unreliable and was soon replaced by an optical, variable density soundtrack recorded photographically along the edge of the film, developed originally for newsreels such as Movietone.
CINEMA’S GOLDEN AGE
By the early 1930s, nearly all feature-length movies were presented with synchronised sound and, by the mid-1930s, some were in full colour too. The advent of sound secured the dominant role of the American industry and gave rise to the so-called ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’.
During the 1930s and 1940s, cinema was the principal form of popular entertainment, with people often attending cinemas twice a week. Ornate ’super’ cinemas or ‘picture palaces’, offering extra facilities such as cafés and ballrooms, came to towns and cities; many of them could hold over 3,000 people in a single auditorium.
In Britain, the highest attendances occurred in 1946, with over 31 million visits to the cinema each week.
Science Museum Group Collection Cinema audience, 1932, James Jarché.
Science Museum Group CollectionImage source
WHAT IS THE ASPECT RATIO?
Thomas Edison had used perforated 35mm film in the Kinetoscope, and in 1909 this was adopted as the worldwide industry standard. The picture had a width-to-height relationship—known as the aspect ratio—of 4:3 or 1.33:1. The first number refers to the width of the screen, and the second to the height. So for example, for every 4 centimetres in width, there will be 3 in height.
With the advent of optical sound, the aspect ratio was adjusted to 1.37:1. This is known as the ‘Academy ratio’, as it was officially approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars people) in 1932. Although there were many experiments with other formats, there were no major changes in screen ratios until the 1950s.
HOW DID CINEMA COMPETE WITH TELEVISION?
Cinerama Inc.
Promotional image for Cinerama, 1952.
Cinerama Inc.
The introduction of television in America prompted a number of technical experiments designed to maintain public interest in cinema.
In 1952, the Cinerama process, using three projectors and a wide, deeply curved screen together with multi-track surround sound, was premiered. It had a very large aspect ratio of 2.59:1, giving audiences a greater sense of immersion, and proved extremely popular.
However, Cinerama was technically complex and therefore expensive to produce and show. Widescreen cinema was not widely adopted by the industry until the invention of CinemaScope in 1953 and ToddAO in 1955. Both processes used single projectors in their presentation.
The Sound of Music on the museum’s curved screen, 2019.
CinemaScope ‘squeezed’ images on 35mm film; when projected, they were expanded laterally by the projector lens to fit the screen. Todd-AO used film with a width of 70mm. By the end of the 1950s, these innovations had effectively changed the shape of the cinema screen, with aspect ratios of either 2.35:1 or 1.66:1 becoming standard. Stereo sound, which had been experimented with in the 1940s, also became part of the new widescreen experience.
Specialist large-screen systems using 70mm film were also developed. The most successful of these has been IMAX, which as of 2020 has over 1,500 screens around the world. For many years IMAX cinemas have shown films specially made in its unique 2D or 3D formats but more recently they have shown popular mainstream feature films which have been digitally re-mastered in the IMAX format, often with additional scenes or 3D effects.
Science Museum Group Collection
Installation of IMAX screen at the museum, 1983.
Science Museum Group Collection
HOW HAVE CINEMA ATTENDANCE FIGURES CHANGED?
While cinemas had some success in fighting the competition of television, they never regained the position and influence they held in the 1930s and 40s, and over the next 30 years audiences dwindled. By 1984 cinema attendances in Britain had declined to one million a week.
The Point multiplex cinema, Milton Keynes.
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By the late 2000s, however, that number had trebled. The first British multiplex was built in Milton Keynes in 1985, sparking a boom in out-of-town multiplex cinemas.
Today, most people see films on television, whether terrestrial, satellite or subscription video on demand (SVOD) services. Streaming film content on computers, tablets and mobile phones is becoming more common as it proves to be more convenient for modern audiences and lifestyles.
Although America still appears to be the most influential film industry, the reality is more complex. Many films are produced internationally—either made in various countries or financed by multinational companies that have interests across a range of media.
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