Film, Culture and Society
- Examen: 4 open vragen op 5 punten (voorbeeldvragen in les)
- Examen mag in nederlands of engels afgelegd worden
Introduction
Moving images, 1895-2024?
Historically people have been experimenting with moving images/the illusion of creating
moving images
o All kinds of experiments/inventions that were brought into cinema
cinema took all long time to develop and is not invented by one person
(tons of people throughout history that have been doing different kinds of
inventions that would eventually lead to cinema)
These inventions prior to cinema are often labelled as “pre-cinema”
o This term is debated because you’re not doing it justice by calling it that, because
it had his own value
1. Phenakistocope invented by Joseph Plateau
Scientist that also painted
Circle on which he made drawings; if you rotate the circle and look through these holes
you get a telescopic effect and then it looks like a moving image
2. High speed photography (Marey, Muybridge)
Photographs already existed for a long time but in the late 19th century some people started
experimenting with taking pictures at high speed
Pictures were made as a scientific experiment (when a horse is running really fats is there
a moment where all 4 hooves are off the ground)
If people watch these photographs very quickly after each other it may create the illusion
of a running horse
3. Magic lantern: projecting slides
Used a candle and a lens and in-between put an image (originally a glass paint with a
painted image) which would give a projection
Photography was well known, knew that you could create the illusion of movement by
looking at image in quick succession and projection was well know, so if you used
multiple slides you could create the illusion of movement
1
, At some point all of these inventions were combined multiple people did this
BUT the most successful were the Lumière brothers
Took a lot of photographs per second (20-22 photographs a second), would print these on
a photo strip and added perforations to quickly project the film needed a gear
(tandwiel) so the machine has a grip on the film invented the cinematograph
o 3 functions:
1) Use it to film negative image that has to be developed
2) Developing (develop the negative image into a positive one)
3) Could project the film
=> Other people were also experimenting with this but the Lumière brothers were the first to
develop something that not only worked but was also easy to transport and turned it into an
economic success
Started making short films of about 1 minute because that’s as much as the machine could
take
Didn’t need any electricity to film, was operated by hand (so was the projector)
Made a very well know film of an arriving train + a movie of one of the Lumière brothers
and his wife feeding their child
o Looks very simple but this was revolutionary: first time people saw moving
photographic images
28 December 1895: birth of film/cinema the first cinema screen (the first time people
pas to watch moving images)
o Opened it up to wider audience in Paris (they first only showed it to some
colleagues)
o First public screening of moving images/cinema
o Frist time anyone was invited to come if they paid
From fairground to purpose built-cinemas
Fairgrounds picked this invention up really quickly
You could film something and then show it at the same place, the same day (this was
revolutionary to for example see moving images of someone in Paris while you were in
Leuven)
Cinema started at fairgrounds (initially documentary images and then soon after fiction
films) huge success
Remained a huge success that people realised that people didn’t just wanted to see film at
a fairground (which was only 2-3 times a yar if you lived in a big village) early 20th
century people started building purpose cinemas
o New buildings that were designed especially for cinemas (very much like we know
them today)
o Cinema became part of our culture
2
, From experiment to international industry
With this success came a professionalisation
o Started off as an experiment and became an international distribution
If you could go back in time everyone now would invest in cinema and film because
everybody now knows how big it has become (but at the time self it wasn’t so clear)
o Often it was Jewish immigrants that invested in the film industry (because they
didn’t get opportunities elsewhere)
vb. Warner brothers
When it became clear that cinema that was here to stay it developed into 3 main areas
(voorbeeld vraag 1 van ppt)
o Production; the people making the films
companies creating the movie itself
vb. film made by Chaplin
o Distribution; the film distributing it
companies that deliver films to cinemas or platforms
vb. how does cinema ZED get a copy of the film? Get in touch with the people
distributing this film in Belgium
o Exhibition; the people exhibiting it
Companies that provide the physical or digital space where audiences watch
films
vb. ZED cinema
Sometimes all these 3 areas were in the hands of the same people
Developments in production
Technological developments:
o Improving cameras, lenses, lighting devices
o Introducing sound (approx. 1927)
they were never screened silent, there would be someone standing next to the
screen talking or playing live music, they weren’t actually silent
but lasted until 1934 until there was a sound film in Belgium, so there was a 7
year gap
o Introducing colour (late 1940s, early 1940s)
Not because it is invented that suddenly everybody will start making it, it
was very expensive to make
o Introducing TV technology (post WWII, but the timing depends on the country
you were in)
long period between the invention of tv and it really becoming a competitor for
Hollywood (movies)
New industry (rejection, collaboration)
3
, Cinema reinvents itself
vb. will switch everything to colour because tv was all in black and white,
larger cinema screens, 3D etc because tv can’t do this
From analogue to digital production in the early 2000s
Narrative developments?
o From “documentary” moving images to fiction
o Longer and more complex stories (initially short stories)
o Direct link with technological changes, for instance:
o Every time that there is a major technological change, it changes cinema as well
Sound developed led to a new genre of movies (vb. Musical, comedy,
horror)
Colour
Analogue and digital effects
Intertitles
fills the screen, whenever you needed to know something in the film then it would
show up on the whole screen, but it took up a lot of time
Developments in exhibition?
Initially one market: fairground theatres cinemas
initially there was only one place to watch movies, television changed this
Television (late 1940s, early 1950s)
Home video: videotape, DVD, Blu-ray (“home copy”)*
Digital distribution & streaming*
*piracy or illegal distribution
Developments in distribution
New market = new way or platform of distributing (cinemas, tv, video tape, DVD, Blue-
Ray, streaming)
Those 3 groups (production, exhibition, distribution) are very often the same group or they
have a relation
2 different kinds of integration
Vertical integration
1937 (Snow white): Walt Disney (producer) RKO (a production company) (distributor)
Pathé cinema (exhibition/consumption)
2021: Marvel studios (which is part of Walt Disney) Walt Disney (distributor) Disney+
(exhibitor)
one company is doing all the 3 different things (benefit because they’re keeping all the
money)
Vb. Netflix: they stream content that they bought elsewhere, but they’re also starting to make
more movies themselves, they even have their own cinemas in some countries
4
- Examen: 4 open vragen op 5 punten (voorbeeldvragen in les)
- Examen mag in nederlands of engels afgelegd worden
Introduction
Moving images, 1895-2024?
Historically people have been experimenting with moving images/the illusion of creating
moving images
o All kinds of experiments/inventions that were brought into cinema
cinema took all long time to develop and is not invented by one person
(tons of people throughout history that have been doing different kinds of
inventions that would eventually lead to cinema)
These inventions prior to cinema are often labelled as “pre-cinema”
o This term is debated because you’re not doing it justice by calling it that, because
it had his own value
1. Phenakistocope invented by Joseph Plateau
Scientist that also painted
Circle on which he made drawings; if you rotate the circle and look through these holes
you get a telescopic effect and then it looks like a moving image
2. High speed photography (Marey, Muybridge)
Photographs already existed for a long time but in the late 19th century some people started
experimenting with taking pictures at high speed
Pictures were made as a scientific experiment (when a horse is running really fats is there
a moment where all 4 hooves are off the ground)
If people watch these photographs very quickly after each other it may create the illusion
of a running horse
3. Magic lantern: projecting slides
Used a candle and a lens and in-between put an image (originally a glass paint with a
painted image) which would give a projection
Photography was well known, knew that you could create the illusion of movement by
looking at image in quick succession and projection was well know, so if you used
multiple slides you could create the illusion of movement
1
, At some point all of these inventions were combined multiple people did this
BUT the most successful were the Lumière brothers
Took a lot of photographs per second (20-22 photographs a second), would print these on
a photo strip and added perforations to quickly project the film needed a gear
(tandwiel) so the machine has a grip on the film invented the cinematograph
o 3 functions:
1) Use it to film negative image that has to be developed
2) Developing (develop the negative image into a positive one)
3) Could project the film
=> Other people were also experimenting with this but the Lumière brothers were the first to
develop something that not only worked but was also easy to transport and turned it into an
economic success
Started making short films of about 1 minute because that’s as much as the machine could
take
Didn’t need any electricity to film, was operated by hand (so was the projector)
Made a very well know film of an arriving train + a movie of one of the Lumière brothers
and his wife feeding their child
o Looks very simple but this was revolutionary: first time people saw moving
photographic images
28 December 1895: birth of film/cinema the first cinema screen (the first time people
pas to watch moving images)
o Opened it up to wider audience in Paris (they first only showed it to some
colleagues)
o First public screening of moving images/cinema
o Frist time anyone was invited to come if they paid
From fairground to purpose built-cinemas
Fairgrounds picked this invention up really quickly
You could film something and then show it at the same place, the same day (this was
revolutionary to for example see moving images of someone in Paris while you were in
Leuven)
Cinema started at fairgrounds (initially documentary images and then soon after fiction
films) huge success
Remained a huge success that people realised that people didn’t just wanted to see film at
a fairground (which was only 2-3 times a yar if you lived in a big village) early 20th
century people started building purpose cinemas
o New buildings that were designed especially for cinemas (very much like we know
them today)
o Cinema became part of our culture
2
, From experiment to international industry
With this success came a professionalisation
o Started off as an experiment and became an international distribution
If you could go back in time everyone now would invest in cinema and film because
everybody now knows how big it has become (but at the time self it wasn’t so clear)
o Often it was Jewish immigrants that invested in the film industry (because they
didn’t get opportunities elsewhere)
vb. Warner brothers
When it became clear that cinema that was here to stay it developed into 3 main areas
(voorbeeld vraag 1 van ppt)
o Production; the people making the films
companies creating the movie itself
vb. film made by Chaplin
o Distribution; the film distributing it
companies that deliver films to cinemas or platforms
vb. how does cinema ZED get a copy of the film? Get in touch with the people
distributing this film in Belgium
o Exhibition; the people exhibiting it
Companies that provide the physical or digital space where audiences watch
films
vb. ZED cinema
Sometimes all these 3 areas were in the hands of the same people
Developments in production
Technological developments:
o Improving cameras, lenses, lighting devices
o Introducing sound (approx. 1927)
they were never screened silent, there would be someone standing next to the
screen talking or playing live music, they weren’t actually silent
but lasted until 1934 until there was a sound film in Belgium, so there was a 7
year gap
o Introducing colour (late 1940s, early 1940s)
Not because it is invented that suddenly everybody will start making it, it
was very expensive to make
o Introducing TV technology (post WWII, but the timing depends on the country
you were in)
long period between the invention of tv and it really becoming a competitor for
Hollywood (movies)
New industry (rejection, collaboration)
3
, Cinema reinvents itself
vb. will switch everything to colour because tv was all in black and white,
larger cinema screens, 3D etc because tv can’t do this
From analogue to digital production in the early 2000s
Narrative developments?
o From “documentary” moving images to fiction
o Longer and more complex stories (initially short stories)
o Direct link with technological changes, for instance:
o Every time that there is a major technological change, it changes cinema as well
Sound developed led to a new genre of movies (vb. Musical, comedy,
horror)
Colour
Analogue and digital effects
Intertitles
fills the screen, whenever you needed to know something in the film then it would
show up on the whole screen, but it took up a lot of time
Developments in exhibition?
Initially one market: fairground theatres cinemas
initially there was only one place to watch movies, television changed this
Television (late 1940s, early 1950s)
Home video: videotape, DVD, Blu-ray (“home copy”)*
Digital distribution & streaming*
*piracy or illegal distribution
Developments in distribution
New market = new way or platform of distributing (cinemas, tv, video tape, DVD, Blue-
Ray, streaming)
Those 3 groups (production, exhibition, distribution) are very often the same group or they
have a relation
2 different kinds of integration
Vertical integration
1937 (Snow white): Walt Disney (producer) RKO (a production company) (distributor)
Pathé cinema (exhibition/consumption)
2021: Marvel studios (which is part of Walt Disney) Walt Disney (distributor) Disney+
(exhibitor)
one company is doing all the 3 different things (benefit because they’re keeping all the
money)
Vb. Netflix: they stream content that they bought elsewhere, but they’re also starting to make
more movies themselves, they even have their own cinemas in some countries
4
