Come one, come all…. We are about to journey into a new chapter: And “Witness” a superb few weeks of film study.

In this unit, we will explore: The generic and technological aspects of film How these film techniques contribute to our understanding or interpretation of motion picture The film industry’s history and also learn about film codes (both technical and symbolic) and how we can identify them through film analysis.

Assessment: The assessment for this unit will consist of an analytical essay and will be an in-class test. It will occur later in the term, during November. We will examine exactly what it entails closer to the time.

In this unit: We will be examining the film Witness and how technological aspects of film contribute to our understanding and ‘reading’ of film. However, to do this, we will need an understanding of the history of film.

So to begin… Let’s do some brainstorming: In pairs, devise a list of words in your notebooks that you think help describe what ‘films’ (movies/motion picture) are. Think about their purpose and what you know about them. Start with the question: “What is ‘film’?”

What is film? You need to write this down: Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images of the world in which we live, with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.

Continued… You need to write the section in blue down: Films are cultural artefacts. They are created to reflect cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful method for “educating” us. We can be connected to the world through film as they are a universal method of communication. Think about the movies you watch: in what ways could they be projected to other countries in a format that is understandable? Subtitles, recognisable images, dubbing (translation of dialogue).

The History of Film When examining the ‘history of film’, it is important to note that it spans over a hundred years, from the latter part of the 19th Century to the beginning of the 21st. Motion pictures developed gradually from a carnival novelty (something rather trivial and just for fun) to one of the most important tools of communication, entertainment and mass media in the 20th century. As a result, motion picture (or film) has had a major impact on our lives, from political aspirations, religious commentary, to reflections of attitudes, values and belief systems.

But hang on a minute, how did ‘film’ originate? Mechanisms for producing artificially created, two- dimensional images in motion were demonstrated as early as the 1860s, with devices such as the zoetrope and the praxinoscope.zoetrope praxinoscope

Moving on… These machines were soon replaced by Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in the latter part of the 1860s. It was not a movie projector, though - it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components.

Continuing… The Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the creation of video.Kinetoscope It creates the illusion of movement by showing a strip of perforated (pierced) film bearing sequential images (images that show logical movement) over a light source with a high-speed shutter.

The Butterfly Dance Charles Kayser of the Thomas Edison laboratory with an early version of the Kinetograph.

And this is how you would have watched a six-minute film:

Change was imminent: However, this was soon replaced by the projector, as the idea for ‘group audiences’ emerged. Robert. W. Paul gave the first public viewing using a projector in However, during this time, the Lumiere Brothers (from France) invented the cinematograph, a portable, three-in-one device: camera, printer, and projector. In late 1895 in Paris, Antoine Lumière began exhibitions of projected films before the paying public, which began the transformation of the medium of film to mass projection.

The Lumiere brothers’ cinematograph in... … filming mode, and …… projection mode

The poster advertising the Lumière brothers’ cinematograph, showing a famous comedy (L'Arroseur Arrosé, 1895)

Moving on: Often films would be under one minute long and be very simple, with no editing or sound. They were very different to what we see now! However, films soon became longer in length, and entered into something called the ‘silent era’. During this time, actors such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton became famous movie stars. Charlie ChaplinBuster KeatonCharlie ChaplinBuster Keaton

Silent Era Inventors and producers had tried from the very beginnings of moving pictures to marry the image with synchronous (continuous) sound, but no practical method was devised until the late 1920s. Thus, for the first thirty years of their history, movies were more or less silent, although they were accompanied by live musicians and sometimes sound effects, and their dialogue and narration was presented in intertitles.

Images in a time past:

The First Movie: Early developments in technique, form and business. Paris stage magician Georges Méliès began shooting and exhibiting films in A Trip to the Moon (1902), possibly the first movie to portray space travel. He pioneered many of the fundamental special effects techniques used in movies for most of the twentieth century, demonstrating that film had unprecedented power to distort visible reality rather than just faithfully recording it (Cook, 1990).A Trip to the Moon He also led the way in making multi- scene narratives as long as fifteen minutes. This was considered to be a very long film, as previously they had been less than 1 minute!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! The Australian film The Story of the Kelly Gang (also screened as Ned Kelly and His Gang) is widely regarded as the world's first "feature length" film.The Story of the Kelly Gang Its 80-minute running time was unprecedented when it was released in In 1906, Dan Barry and Charles Tait of Melbourne produced and directed The Story of the Kelly Gang. It wasn’t until 1911 that countries other than Australia began to make feature films. By this time, 16 full-length feature films had been made in Australia.

The Story of the Kelly Gang