History Of Movies

The history of movies is long and detailed, so this is really just a snapshot of some of the most important developments which have been made over the last century or so.

Lights, camera, action, you're in the movies, baby. Man has been making movies for over one hundred years, and they've sure come a long way in that time. Ask any child of our time to watch a sci fi movie from only twenty years or so ago and you'll get the same reaction, "it's rubbish, I can't watch that." No matter how much we insist that it was once at the very cutting edge of movie magic, they shrug their shoulders and go back to the games console. No close encounters of any kind these days then.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that the very word 'movies' in itself signified a great breakthrough in entertainment technology. Moving picture shows (or 'motion pictures' as they were sometimes called, wonder why they didn't become known as the 'motions') revolutionized entertainment in the early part of the 20th century, and when it was actually possible to have sound synchronized with the moving lips of the actors (well, even today that's not always possible!) it was nothing short of astounding. The problem is that excellence is a daily pursuit, and what was fantastic one day soon became old hat (back to the sci fi) so the movie studios were in a constant state of evolution, trying to improve picture quality, sound quality and special effects.

History of the Movies Time Scale

• The silent years – approximately 1895 – 1919 – reports vary and it's far too long ago for me to actually remember. Although these movies were silent, they were often accompanied by a live musician, a pianist or organist would add the dramatic backing track in many cases
• The arrival of the 'talkies' – the first practical method of synchronizing sound with movement arrived around 1923, and it soon became popular.
• The 1940s – war and post war movies were used largely to create propaganda, and there were also important short news programs which were shown at the cinema for updates on the war. People were hungry for these images as the radio and newspapers were there only other sources of information.
• 1950s – Hollywood continued to churn out film after film, often managing to sign up singing stars under contract for multiple titles which they later found to be rather less than endearing. Elvis Presley was one such star caught up in the relentless Hollywood machine
• 1960s – Hollywood began to lose some of its grip on the film industry, as more and more movies were shot on location instead of the Hollywood studios.
• 1980s – the decade of the video tape. It is actually a little known fact that movie studios tried to ban the home ownership of VCR's citing violation of copyright. Of course, this was unsuccessful and the birth of the VCR soon opened up a whole new market for the movie studios to exploit.
• 1990s – Special effects departments began to work overtime in the 1990s, or so it seemed, and every film seemed to be bigger and louder, with more crashes, explosions and more frightening looking monsters than anyone could previously imagine. Independent films also began to emerge, breaking away from the big studio stranglehold.
• The 21st Century – The film industry is still moving on, we have documentary themed features films, the return of the epic (Gladiator has a lot to answer for) and now we have lots of blue people with broad noses and pointy ears coming at us in 3D. Avatar has certainly turned the film industry on its head once more.