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exhibiting in their theaters or using their

equipment. Edisons attempt to control the

movie business failed. The independents

companies, especially the founders of

Universal,Paramountand Twentieth CenturyFox studios, moved away from the Eastcoast to California, where the distance

from the Edison Company allowed featurelm expansion. Also, the dominance

of European lms ended abruptly with

the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Finally, the US Justice Dept. joined the

independent producers in a lawsuit in 1915,

contending that the MPCC was now illegal

under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In

the landmark of United States v.

Motion Picture Patents Company,

1915, the Supreme Court put

a nal end to the attemptedmonopoly.

With sound and color lm at

their disposal, Hollywood studios

were able to pursue new directions

in creativity in the 1930s. Each

studio had its stars and rising stars

of the screen, and Americans

ocked to the theaters to see them.

It was glorious entertainment but often

curbed by the Motion Picture ProductionCode or other pressures in the industry.

Meanwhile in Europe, lmmakers like Jean

Renoir and Alfred Hitchcock were pushing

back the envelopes of the Hollywood

style.

The World War II era was considered

the golden age of propaganda lms.Triumph of the Willwas a propagandalm about the 1934 Nazi party rally at

Nuremburg. This lm attempts to be a

patriotic glorication of the Nazis, and

considering their control of all German

media at the time, more or less the only

image German people had of the Nazi

party. The lm greatly helped in Hitlers

consolidation of power in the years before

World War II.

Movies from the 1960s forward both

reected and led a major shift in world

Film, Technology,and Ratings

Jason Cowles

Jeffrey Farnworth

Pendie Garrett

A Brief Introduction to Film

Cinema may not have always shared

the space inside your movie cabinet, but it

shares a special place in history of the last

centuries. It might seem odd that

lm is more of a recent invention

and until the 1890s; theater had

always been conned to actors on

a stage.

The very rst lms shot at

studio showed people doing rather

ordinary things: sneezing, dancing,

and talking. The Lumiere brothers

were the rst to take the camera

outside a studio, shooting lm of

everyday life in Paris and, soon,

around the world. Originally these

short lms were shown in parlors with

individual projectors, which would give asingle person one minutes worth of lm for

a nickel. Nickelodeon halls quickly spread

in Europe and the US, much like video

game parlors in the 1980s. But the great

prot in movies was quickly seen as showing

long feature lms to theater audiences.

By 1900, projectors had been

introduced commercially, and lms were

being shown in theaters around the world.

Movies that told a story began to appear inthe early 1900s. Thomas Edison controlled

most of the patents for movies, and he

attempted to control both the business and

its cultural impacts. In 1908, Edison formed

the Motion Picture Patents Company.

MPPC standardized a chaotic industry

with copyright, licensing and patent pools,

but as a monopoly, they were also able

to keep independent lm makers from

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The rst motion pictures were

presented on 35mm lm, the same kind of

lm that we found in picture cameras not

too long ago. The difference is that this

lm was perforated and linked together in

a series. These images were then passed

through a device at high speed and it

presents the illusion of a moving picture.The Kinetoscope is the perfect example

of this kind of device. It is used for the

individual viewing of motion pictures, and

was publically demonstrated at Edison

laboratories in 1889 (Saettler, 2004). These

rst moving pictures were used strictly

in as education scope when they were

introduced. Films in the classrooms of

school became more and more popular as

this technology advanced. The next big

advancement came in 1910 when multi-reelmovies were introduced. This was a big

change from the single motion pictures that

were being viewed (Dirks). I remember

from my time of working as a projectionist

in Carmike Cinemas of having to splice

together 6-7 reels of lm to make one

movie. This would create a lm about 6

feet in diameter and would only last about

2 hours. This advancement in technology

started to give Hollywood and other big

lm makers the ability to make longer andmore entertaining movies. It was

no longer just for educational

purposes. This technology is still

used today in big movie theaters,

but there is a new wave coming.

We know that home viewing is

available in digital format DVDs,

but what is next for the big

screen? The multi-reel movies

are currently being phased outand being replaced by smaller and

superior digital copies. In 2005,

The popularity of the new DVD

format (and the start of a new optical disc

format called Blu-Ray) doomed the once-

ubiquitous VHS videotape cassette format.

By the end of 2005, DVD sales were more

than $22 billion and VHS was slumping

badly but still able to pull in $1.5 billion.

culture,

away from patriotism and heroics and

towards tolerance, introspection and

personal growth. Heroes were more seen as

merely mortal. The choices between values

were typically depicted in gritty shades of

gray instead of in black and white. Warmovies, for example, explored personal

tragedy and human values more than

heroics or the glory of combat. Another

factor in the new approach to lm was the

breakup of the studio lot to movie theater

ownership following the 1948 anti-trust

case, US vs. Paramount, which led to more

openings for independent lm makers

and directors. This led to the demise of

the Hollywood studio system and the rise

of independent lm makers in the NewHollywood.With more independence

and better cinema effects technology,

cutting edge lms with more blockbuster

potential emerged. The best example

is Star Wars, which started as a back-lotexperiment with new modeling and special

effects techniques to bring viewers in closer

to the action. It grossed $4.3 billion in the

30 years since the rst lm was made in

1977.

Technology

Cinema has gone through

some of the most exciting and

greatest leaps in not only ratings

and content, but in technology.

There are so many different pieces

of technology that are used in the

making of a lm that it is hard

to narrow it down to the scope

of this article. The lm industryis usually at the forefront of the

technological frontier. Many of

the biggest advances in computers

and photography were seen on the big

screen rst. The biggest advance that willbe concentrated on here are evolution of

lm mediums for home and big theater

entertainment.

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it is considered to be a powerful art form,

and a powerful engine for communication

and change. However, this has historically

meant that lm has had its fair share of

controversies, which led to the development

and creation of a set of standards in the

United States. These standards, which

evolved into our current day ratingssystem, came about as a result of placing

boundaries on what lm was appropriate

to view and create. Beginning in the 1900s,

lmmakers were required to accede to the

standards of up to 40 local boards across

the country or risk being forbidden from

that market (Motion Picture

Association).

This process was governed by

what became known as the HaysCode, name after the rst Motion

Picture Association of America

President, Will Hays. However,

in the 1900s, this process was

considerably different than the

ratings system of today. Only

correct standards of life (MPAA)

could be depicted on screen,

which essentially meant that there

were no depictions of childbirth[,] [n]

o criticisms of religion [and] forget aboutlustful kissing or suggestive dancing

(MPAA). These strict censorship codes were

very black or white and judged a movie

by its morality. Films were approved or

disapproved solely on the basis of morality

and if a lm was deemed immoral it did

not receive approval (MPAA).

Censorship is a topic that stirs a lot of

discussion and passion from many parties

and this remains true in the world of

cinema. The question of whether or not

artists should be creatively restricted proved

troublesome for the lm industry and the

Hays Code was abandoned in favor of a

new method of deeming subject matter

appropriate by audience age. This new

system was the product of MPAA President

Jack Valenti in 1968. Valenti felt that there

was about this stern, forbidding catalogue

At the same time, JVC, the company that

introduced the Video Home System (VHS)

format to the US in 1977, announced

that it would no longer make stand-alone

videocassette recorders, further making it

a dead technology. (Dirks). This applies

not only for VHS tapes at home, but for

the 35mm perforated multi-reel lms aswell. Many big theaters today use digital

projectors with digital copies of the movies.

Any time that you have gone and seen

a 3D movie or seen an IMAX lm, you

are watching a digital projection. These

digital projectors allowed for the shows to

be shown in a 2k pixel format (2,

048 pixels horizontally across the

screen/TV). Since there is such a

huge resolution available here, it

has opened the doors to HDTVs(High Denition Televisions) and

the giant IMAX lms that so

many enjoy watching today.

I personally love movies and

lm. It is a source of great

enjoyment and fun for me. I

have worked at movie theaters

and Best Buy, mostly because

I loved the movie technology that was

evolving so fast. I remember seeing thetransition between the big multi-reels and

the digital projectors. This technology

doesnt just stop in the home or theater

either. Businesses and schools use digital

projectors and other digital mediums to

teach, communicate, and further their

inuence all across the world. The

evolution of lm medium is one of the

greatest technological breakthroughs of this

century because it lends itself to more than

just entertainment.

Ratings

The creation of lm involves many

different aspects and requires the talents

of many individuals, which is one of the

reasons that it has become such a powerful

industry across the world. Because lm is

such an effective form of communication,

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provides lifestyles and entertainment. It has

advanced far from its humble beginnings

and it has been picked apart and analyzed

as an art. The world of lm will continue

on to evolve and grow as our society

evolves and grows. It will continue to spark

controversy and expand the minds of

audiences for years to come.

Works Cited

Dirks, Tim. Film History Milestones. amcflmsite. amc, 2010. Web. 13 Jun 2011.

.

Ratings History.Motion Picture Associationof America. Web. 14 June 2011. .

Saettler, P. (2004). The evolution of Americaneducational technology.

Greenwich, CT: Information Age

Publishing.

What Each Rating Means.Motion PictureAssociation of America. Web. 14 June

2011..

of dos and donts [Hays Code] the odious

smell of censorship (MPAA).

The modern rating system is based on the

assumption that there is a correlation with

the maturity of an audience with its age

and that children should not be exposed

to mature themes in cinema. Theseratings begin with G, which stands for

General Audiences, and suggests that the

lm connected to it is appropriate for all

ages and contains no content that will be

objectionable for children. The next rating

is PG, which stands for Parental Guidance,

and suggests that the lm may require a

parent to decide if the lm in question is

appropriate for a child, whether due to

mild profanity or violence. The next rating

is PG-13 which has the warning parentsstrongly cautioned some material may be

inappropriate for children under 13 .

This rating is geared towards movies that

contain more mature themes. For example,

if a movie contains any drug use, the

minimum rating that it can attain is PG-

13 and a movie that contains sexuality will

also get at least a PG-13 rating. The next

rating is R for restricted and suggests

that the lm contains adult themes and

content. Excessive swearing, sexual nudity,extensive drug use, and excessive violence

can all earn a lm an R rating. The nal

rating is NC-17 means that no one under

the age of 17 is admitted inside the theater.

This rating is often thought to suggest

pornography, but in reality the rating

only means that the content was deemed

appropriate only for mature audiences.

These ratings are based solely on the

views of the Rating Board, which tries

to fairly and evenly judge what contentis appropriate based on the ages of its

intended audiences and are intended to

educate audiences, especially parents, on

the content that they will be viewing.

For the last century and beyond, lm has

captured the collective imagination of the

world. It provides a medium with which to

tell stories and communicate messages. It