Technical Evolution in Hollywood

Technical Evolution in Hollywood

The name Hollywood:

By the 1870s an agricultural community flourished in the area and crops ranging from hay and grain to subtropical bananas and pineapples were thriving. During the 1880s, the Ranchos were subdivided  In 1886, H. H. Wilcox bought an area of Rancho La Brea that his wife then christened "Hollywood." Within a few years, Wilcox had devised a grid plan for his new community, paved Prospect Avenue (now Hollywood Boulevard) for his main street and was selling large residential lots to wealthy Midwesterners looking to build homes so they could "winter in California."

Technological History:

This first phase of the motion pictures, in the late 1890s and into the 1900s, emphasized reproducing human motion. The second phase, telling a story, began to emerge around 1900. Film makers moved beyond the technical aspects of just showing motino and began to tell stories. Edwin Porter’s 1903 film, "The Great Train Robbery" is a good example of the story telling nature of films. It is the story of a robbery, with a chase scene and the inevitable capture of the robbers.

These early films were quite short, running 5 to 8 minutes long; they were called "one reelers" (they were just one reel of film). In the U.S., these films were produced by a handful of small companies just outside of New York City (Biograph, Essenay, Lubin, Pathe Brothers, Selig, Polyscope, Vitagraph, Edison and Melies).

One of the more dynamic early directors was David Wark Griffith. He worked for Biograph in New Jersey and produced literally hundreds of one-reelres in the period from 1908 to 1912. A director like Griffith might be expected to produce at least two one-reel movies a week. The names of the actors were not released, for fear they would become stars and want higher salaries.

One early Griffith film was "The Lonedale Operator," in 1911. It starred Blanche Sweet; she outsmarted the desperados. This video demonstrates some of Griffith’s innovative techniques, including cross cutting (cutting from one scene to another scene, and then back and forth, to develop various parts of a story and to build suspense) and closeups. Some early movie company owners objected to closeups, arguing that paying movie viewers would want to see the ENTIRE person. Closeups, however, could bring drama.

Griffith and others in the industry wanted to move beyond the simple formula that characterized the industry in the early 1900s. But industry owners were resistant, wanting to keep to one-reelers and limited story telling. These owners monopolized the industry, thorugh patents on key machinery and cameras and through control over distribution.

Consequently, the dissidents left the East completely and moved about as far away as they could get -- to Los Angeles. Well, to a rural area near Los Angeles -- where there the weather was good (lots of sunshine, little rain, so ideal for outside movie work) and plentiful barns (on farms) for inside work. This was Beverly Hills. In Hollywood, Griffith and others began to experiment with longer films, and Griffith produced the first successful full-length feature film.

Computer Generated Imagery

CGI is used in films, television programs and commercials, 

and in printed media.Video games most often use real-time 

computer graphics (rarely referred to as CGI), but may also

include pre-rendered "cut scenes" and intro movies that

would be typical CGI applications.CGI is used for visual

effects because the quality is often higher and effects are

more controllable than other more physically based

processes, such as constructing miniatures for effects shots

or hiring extras for crowd scenes, and because it allows the

creation of images that would not be feasible using any

other technology.It can also allow a single artist to produce

content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or

props. Recent accessibility of CGI software and increased

computer speeds has allowed individual artists and small 

companies to produce professional grade films, games, and 

fine art from their home computers.

Eg: Avatar, Tron.