Film History
Created | Updated Apr 12, 2002
For a long time photographers wanted to make their pictures move. They tried zoetropes and kaleidoscopes and even those little flicker book things but they just weren’t happy with the results.
Along came the Lumiere brothers who managed to crack the problem. They set up their camera outside their own factory and produced the first ever film, the imaginatively titled "workers leaving a factory". This film was notable for several reasons - it was the first documentary, the first advertising picture and the only French film not starring Gerard Depardieu.
"Workers leaving a factory" was a big hit but only lasted 30 seconds. Over the next few years other film makers got into the business and decided that if audiences would queue for hours to see 30 seconds of film, they’d queue for days to see a longer one. So the race was on to make long movies. "Intolerence" lasted 2 hours, "La Roue" lasted 5 hours, "Greed" would have lasted 8 hours but its completion coincided with an outbreak of incontinence in Hollywood and so it was abandoned.
After a major re-think it was decided to change the movies to the talkies and let Al Jolson sing a bit. This quickly palled (somewhere in the middle of the second chorus of Sonny Boy) and so colour movies got made.
Film makers were running out of ideas at this point. Then someone suggested changing the shape of the screen from a big, square one to a long, thin one. This had the advantage of looking really silly on television. However it had the disadvantage of looking really silly in most cinemas as well, so people stayed home to watch "I Love Lucy" on the telly.
Television was winning the war with cinema until the seventies when a steady diet of "Fantasy Island" and "Robin’s Nest" drove people out of their homes to check out "Star Wars" and "Jaws". Home video arrived so people could tape any television programme they didn’t want to miss and then forget to watch it.
Currently the long, thin screen is king. But someone has had a bright idea called IMAX: the old, big square screen but with the audiences pressed up against it like it was television. Finally everyone is happy - until someone gets 3D to work properly.
Along came the Lumiere brothers who managed to crack the problem. They set up their camera outside their own factory and produced the first ever film, the imaginatively titled "workers leaving a factory". This film was notable for several reasons - it was the first documentary, the first advertising picture and the only French film not starring Gerard Depardieu.
"Workers leaving a factory" was a big hit but only lasted 30 seconds. Over the next few years other film makers got into the business and decided that if audiences would queue for hours to see 30 seconds of film, they’d queue for days to see a longer one. So the race was on to make long movies. "Intolerence" lasted 2 hours, "La Roue" lasted 5 hours, "Greed" would have lasted 8 hours but its completion coincided with an outbreak of incontinence in Hollywood and so it was abandoned.
After a major re-think it was decided to change the movies to the talkies and let Al Jolson sing a bit. This quickly palled (somewhere in the middle of the second chorus of Sonny Boy) and so colour movies got made.
Film makers were running out of ideas at this point. Then someone suggested changing the shape of the screen from a big, square one to a long, thin one. This had the advantage of looking really silly on television. However it had the disadvantage of looking really silly in most cinemas as well, so people stayed home to watch "I Love Lucy" on the telly.
Television was winning the war with cinema until the seventies when a steady diet of "Fantasy Island" and "Robin’s Nest" drove people out of their homes to check out "Star Wars" and "Jaws". Home video arrived so people could tape any television programme they didn’t want to miss and then forget to watch it.
Currently the long, thin screen is king. But someone has had a bright idea called IMAX: the old, big square screen but with the audiences pressed up against it like it was television. Finally everyone is happy - until someone gets 3D to work properly.
