The secret to film is that it's an illusion. - WordPress.com

The secret to film is that it's an illusion.- George Lucas

The Function of MoviesTwo Primary functions:• ENTERTAINMENT• CULTURAL TRANSMISSION• Movies also have the capacity to function as a serious visual art form withsignificant social influence• Differentiated from other forms of mass communication (outsidesome literary books and recorded music) because of their capacity forsocial influence• Most movies, however, are made to make money

History of the Movie IndustryThomas Edison: Inventor whose inventions include the electric light, thephonograph, and the Kinetoscope.Kintegraph: A machine that could capture a sequence of images which wassimilar to a camera only it automatically took a picture of the moving imageevery half second. The images were then placed in a kintescope.Kintescope: a device that had a motor and shutter mechanism that ran a loopof film past an electric light source. The spectator would then peer through asmall window to see the moving image.• Louis and Auguste Lumiere used this as the basis of their Cinematographe,projecting the images for an entire audience

History of the Movie Industry: Cinematographe• December 28, 1895, Lumieres debuted their first film – the arrival of atrain – to a paying audience at the Grand Café in Paris• Reality vs. Storytelling• Did not see beyond its recording capacity• L'Arrivée d'un Train à la Ciotat, 1895

History of the Movie Industry: Silent Era• Early cinema began with silent films• Technology not developed to add sound until 1925• Storytelling was limited to placards shown on screen for the audience to read• Language barriers not a big issue because placards could be translated andreplaced• Stories were short and simple• George Melies: (1861-1938): An early French flimmaker who pioneered the use ofspecial effects in film in order to show imaginative stories• Used film to create illusions• Objects appear or disappear, transformed• Le Voyage dans la lune, 1902• Silent films took on a storytelling function after 1910• Birth of a Nation, 1915, first major full-length film

History of the Movie Industry: Silent Era• F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu, 1922• Adaption of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker• Serge Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin, 1925• Famous for its editing sequence “The Odessa Steps” which intercutsshots of townspeople trapped by czarist troops with shots of the troopsfiring over the crowd• Robert Flaherty, Nanook of the North, 1922• First great documentary film ever made, also first anthropologicaldocumentary, which depicted the life of Inuit people, particularly a Inuitwhaler• Unfortunately, it showed Inuit people as exotic, and its scenes weresometimes staged

History of the Movie Industry: Colour &“Talkies”• Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation founded in 1922 and introducedcolour motion pictures to the market• Gone with the Wind, 1939• Sound was easier to add to films and began with live pianists andactors speaking out parts• Sound was then added to films as recorded music played back withaccompanying subtitles (i.e. The Jazz Singer) and required a lot ofcumbersome equipmentBUT, recording and playing back sound synchronously with therecorded image was practical and thus the silent era came to an end

History of the Movie Industry: Hollywood• Hollywood was created in the early 1900s by a movie moguls• New York kept theatre, California did movies• California had a better climate so movies could be shot all yearround• Star System• 1930-1949 era of the Hollywood star system• Paramount Pictures (1912), Columbia Pictures (1920), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1924), Warner Brothers (1923) and 20 th CenturyFox (1935) held long term contracts on star directors and actors• United States v. Paramount Pictures ended the monopoly thatmovie studios had on movie theatres• independent films grew• Television competed for actors and audiences

The Movie Industry Today• Not “vertically integrated” with entertainment companies no longer owningthe means of production and distribution• Studio control is not as pervasiveBUT• Actors/actresses and Directors have more power and autonomy• Studios still have power over what movies are produced and marketed• Will often try and change content proposed by screenwriters anddirectors which can affect creative direction and funding• Studios are also part of media consolidation processes meaning they canuse sister companies and subsidiaries to market their movies• I.e. 20 th Century Fox will have a news item on a movie on Fox News(owned by News Corp.)• Studios cooperate with television to market movies, and continuegenerating revenue by licencing movies to television companies

The Movie Industry Today: Business Models• It’s simple! Get as many people as possible to watch the movie!• Multiple ways to watch movies now, but box office popularityimportant for attracting future viewers to other “exhibitionwindows”• High cost, high risk, high reward• Most movies end up losing money, but some make spectacularprofits• Multiple revenue streams: International box office sales, DVD rentalsand sales, licensing, product placement, promotional tie-ins

The Movie Industry Today: Future Outlook• DIGITIZATION!• Distribution• Special Effects• Cost Savings• Perfect Reproduction• Piracy Concerns

When you're young, you look at television and think, there's aconspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down.But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true.The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.- Steve Jobs

Television: An Overview• We spend more time with TV than any other medium• People between 8-18 spend approximately 6.5 hours a day in front of ascreen (TV, Computer, Cell phone)• Concerns over health, social, intellectual effects• Two-thirds of U.S. homes have cable TV• Time Shift: The recording of an audio or video event for listening orviewing later, rather than at the time of the original broadcast.Using TiVo (a digital video recorder) to record a favourite programwhile you’re out is an example of time-shifting.• DVDs, videocassettes, video-on-demand

Functions of Television• Widespread use and range of content• 98% of American households have at least one television set• Internet has caused a drop in television viewership but TV is still the mostpopular form of media• Youth populations watch more asynchronous TV programming• Entertainment• Surveillance• Correlation• Cultural Transmission

History of TelevisionJohn Logie Baird: A Scottish inventor who created the first mechanically scannedtelevision device in 1923. His thirty-two line TV had better resolution than the firstattempts at electric television.Vladimir Zworkykin: The inventor of an improved cathode-ray tube he called the“iconoscope” that is the basis for the CRTs still used today in television sets and manycomputer monitors. He is considered one of the fathers of electronic television.Cathode-ray tube (CRT): A device still used in most television screens and computermonitors, in which electrons are transmitted to a screen for viewing.Philo T. Farnsworth: Transmitted the first wireless electronic image (a dollar sign)

History of Television Timeline1859: Cathode ray tube invented1873: Louis May — basics of photoconductivity1923: John Logie Baird1923: Vladimir Zworykin1927: Philo T. Farnsworth1939: David Sarnoff• Unveiled television to the greater public in 1939 at the World’s Fair in Queens, NY• Television was broadcast that year in the US by the National BroadcastingCompany (NBC)

Analog to Digital• After World War II, number of sets and stations grew rapidly• 1951: Color television debuts in United States• 1981: High Definition Television (HDTV) Analog television technology that produced amuch higher resolution image, sharper colour, a wider aspect ratio, and superioraudio to older tv technologies• Digital Television (DTV) An all-digital television system in which all information,broadcast by cable or through the air, is in digital form.• 2009: All U.S. broadcast TV went digital• Enabled the convergence of computing, television, and telecommunications, as well asinteractivty• Multicast: The simultaneous transmission of multiple channels of compressed content, or insome cases the same content but at different times (like broadcasting, from one to many)• Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs): higher quality, less power, less space

TV DistributionsFour types of distribution:1. Broadcast : traditional means of over-the-air distribution of television programming(based on photoconductivity, that allows electronic transmission of visual and audioinformation)2. Cable: created in 1948 for regions where over-the-air reception was poor, called‘Community Antenna Television (CRTV)’. Developed into ‘Coaxial cable’, and insulatedand conducting wire, then into ‘Optical fiber’, a transparent filament, usually made ofglass or plastic, that uses light to carry information thusly making for much fastertransmissions with greater capacity.3. Satellite: television that is delivered via satellite transmission to satellite dishes thatdecode the signal for the viewer.4. Internet

TV Today• Station consolidation• Lots of stations, limited service providers• Shifting from cable to satellite, fiber-optic, or online distribution• Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) is cheaper than cable (after initialinstallation costs), have better customer service track records than cable• DBS does not offer as much local content as Cable providers do• Satellite/Cable convergence• Cable providers usually have a monopoly on cable distribution in smallerareas

TV Business1. Advertising• Risk-averse• Copycat culture2. Audience Fragmentation• Cables television offered more viewing choices and Neilsen ratingsbecame less important in determining audience reach• Cable shows that are considered “hits” will have smaller audiences than alow rated network show (i.e. HBO shows vs Fox shows)3. Cable Service• Smaller audiences, less ad revenue• Tier system : basic service, premiere channel service, per-program service

The Future of TV• Digital TV signal shift• Working out kinks (I.e. not enough digital converters for all householdswith analog sets)• Broadcasters and cable operators experimenting with new products (I.e.video-on-demand, other interactive features such as recording, pausing,etc.)• Network vs. Cable programming• Cable programming is edgier, more innovative• Online viewing on the rise• Networks beginning to stream high quality videoonline• Developing online advertising models

Deconstructing TVQUESTION: How do the four functions of media come together within thefollowing commercials?• Canadian Armed Forces Commercials• House Hippo

PhotographyA picture is worth a thousand words

Photography, in a nutshell.Photographs mainly perform SURVEILLANCE & CULTURAL TRANSMISSION functionsCamera Obscura: A dark box or room with a small hole in it that allowed aninverted image of an outside scene to be shown on the opposite inner wall. Firstnoted in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci.Louis Daguerre: A French scene painter and inventor of the daguerreotype (1839),an early type of photography which created an image on a metal plate.Matthew B. Brady: A famous photographer of the nineteenth century who tookportraits of many well-known people of his day and the Civil War. Did not upholdour modern notion of impartial photojournalism.• Photojournalism: Kevin Carter and Pictures of the Year• Photography: POWER, PRIVACY, and PROFESSIONALISM