Accessibility to Movies Today

By: Stephanie Kubick

When movies first came out, they were not readily available to the common public. They were very rare until movie theaters started opening up. They especially started getting popular in the 1920’s when the younger generation was becoming more rebellious and not sticking to the traditions their parents were raised on. Boys started bringing girls on dates to the movies without chaperones. Movie theaters were affordable and a good respite. As the country became more extravagant with their spending, movies became more and more popular. After the roaring twenties was the The Great Depression. During the Great Depression, many could not afford to go the movies. They were simply trying to provide enough food to put on the tables. America was then forced to join World War II, after Pearl Harbor. America was just then getting out the Great Depression. After World War II, movies became more and more popular until they are where they are today. Today anyone has ready access to almost and movie ever made. We still have movie theaters. But we also have Netflix, Amazon Prime and many other movie websites. These “stations” are when you can get almost any movie you want from any electric device you have. They are accessible on phones, Ipads, computers and TV’s. We also still have DVD’s that are in use. Not only have movies become better quality and the technology used in them has greatly advanced, but now the general public has easy access to any movie they want to watch  multiple times. Times have definitely changed.

History of the Movie

By: Stephanie Kubick

Date: April 24, 2016

Ever since photography was invented it has continuously developed into what it is today.

1889- Thomas Edison commissioned by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson builds first motion picture camera and named it Kinetograph.

1894- The first motion picture studio was created by the Thomas Edison Corporation. It was opened on 1155 Broadway in New York city. Each ticket was 25 cents.

1895- Auguste and Louis Lumiere held the first private screening in France. They created the Cinematograph, a combination of  a projector and camera.

1905- First movie theater opens in Pittsburg

1922- Two-color process was first used

1924-Walt Disney releases “Alice’s Wonderland.”

1935- “Becky Sharp” was the first film used with a three-color process.

Those are the dates of some of the earliest advancements in our film industry’s history. We have come so far from the first camera. We have learned how to take pictures. Then take multiple pictures and put them all together to make a video. All pictures started out as black and white. Scientists have figured out how to do pictures and movies in color. Since then all film has changed and become more lifelike. Theaters aren’t only just drive-ins now. There are thousands of movie theaters that have 10-20 theaters in them with each screen playing a different movie. Film has evolved into something amazing. It is one of the most successful industries today.

 

Works Cited:

“Movie Timeline.” Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

How Movies Can Teach Us About History

By: Stephanie Kubick

There are many films out there that teach us about the history of our world. From the ancient films about Jesus and Bible times, to the more recent ones of the World Wars. Though they may be mostly fiction, there are many that stay relatively close to the facts, such is the case with “Sergeant York.”

Alvin York was a hard-working man from the hills of Tennessee. He only had nine months of schooling before his father pulled him out to help him work to be able to put food on the table. Alvin York was the third of eleven children and when his dad died while the children were still under-aged, it was his responsibility to feed them. Unfortunately, York was a alcoholic and was known to get in fights and get in trouble. After a while, he was saved and the Lord completely turned his life around. Right around this time, WWI started and everyman was drafted. He tried getting out of the war because of his strong beliefs in not killing any man, but the army didn’t take that as an excuse so he went to Virginia for training. He was then deployed in Germany where he almost singlehandedly captured 138 men and became a war hero, highly decorated.

This is not the only instance in where movies have educated the common man about history. There are many lessons to be learned from history, and the medium of film can help us all avoid making the same mistakes.

 

 

 

Disney

By: Stephanie Kubick

Date: April 3, 2016

Disney. What do you think of when you hear that word? Do you think of all the childhood memories? Mickey or Minney? Snow White and the Dwarves? What would the film business be without Disney? How did it all start?

In 1923, two brothers named Walt and Roy Disney opened shop in Los Angeles in a back rear office. During that time, rent was only ten dollars a month. In the beginning, they produced short animated/ live-action film. They quickly started to expand until they needed a new building and moved into the one next door. There, they officially had the name on the window saying, “Disney Bros. Studios.” Only about a year after, they moved into that new building, they had outgrown it again. So they made a deposit on a lot in Los Angeles and started building on it. There, Walt was very involved with the design of the building. He wanted everything to be self-sufficient, and state of the art.

The first movie released was that of Snow White and the Dwarves. From then on, it was a success. The name of the Disney’s snowballed into one of the greatest names in the film industry. It is no longer just a film industry though. It has become a brand. The films started it all out, such as Frozen, Tangled, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast. But now there are Disney Worlds and Lands, in both the U.S.A. and other countries around the world. And to take you to those places are the Disney cruises. There are so many ways that Disney has effected the world we live in. Not just film.

 

Works Cited:

“The Walt Disney Studios – History.” The Walt Disney Studios – History. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.

Black and White

by: Stephanie Kubick

Black and white. We all have that one show that comes to mind when we think if black and white movies and shows. The first one that comes to mind for me, is “I Love Lucy.” I spent much of my childhood watching the charismatic episodes wishing I could have the same cute hats and dresses.

Black and white films still leave many aspects of visual arts to the imagination. Think about how much color effects your perception of something. Did you like Lucy Ricardo with the “gray” hair ( we all knew it was dyed bright red), or did you like the shade of the red when the released some episodes in color? Personally, I enjoyed the black and white better. It left more to the imagination. What color were the dresses? What was the color of the furniture in the room? Leaving the episodes in black and white gave off a more classic feel. It fits the perception we have of that era.

In the mid-twentieth century, color came out. The first famous color pictures were “Gone with the Wind” and “Wizard of Oz”. There were a couple of pictures that came out in color previous to those two films, but those were the first to be successful. And today, they are still classics, expected to be seen by everyone of all ages.

Black and white is personally a favorite of mine. I can use my imagination more and it holds a bit more mystery than the average colored film. 

 

First of Hollywood

By: Stephanie Kubick

The first of all Hollywood movies was the black and white picture, “In Old California.” The picture was released On May 31, 1942. It was directed by D.W. Griffith and written by Gertrude Purcell, Frances Hyland, J. Robert Bren, and Gladys Atwater. The cast included John Wayne, Binnie Barnes, Albert Dekker, and Helen Parrish to name a few. The film was shot in Big Tujunga Canyon, Sunland, and Los Angeles, California.

Director D.W. Griffith discovered Hollywood, which was at the time a little village, on one of his trips to California. He then decided to shoot there because of the beautiful scenery and friendly people. For years, the first film shot in Hollywood was “The Squaw Man,” but “In Old California,” was the first movie of any considerable length filmed in Hollywood.

The storyline was of a Boston pharmacist named Tom Craig. When he comes to Sacramento, he finds out a local politician boss, Britt Dawson, is exacting protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson then frames Craig with poisoned medicines, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.

One of the reviews of the movie says, “A strongly dramatic story with the picturesque background of California in 1822 as a setting. It is well acted and the dramatic situations are developed with intelligence and ability, while the photographic quality is beyond criticism….The picturesque setting adds to the beauty of the picture and is therefore a welcome addition to the film.”

I have not seen this film yet, bit from the reviews and the actors and actresses, I am very interested in seeing it.

 

Sources:

“In Old California.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.

“In Old California.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.

 

 

Animal Crackers In My Soup

By: Stephanie Kubick

We all know the name ‘Shirley Temple.’ The first image that comes to mind is Shirley Temple standing on a chair at the end of the orphanage table singing “Animal Crackers in my Soup.” She was a spirited young girl who had the sweetest, most likable disposition and the curliest bouncy hair you’ll ever come in contact with. She was nicknamed Curley Top by one of the orphanage’s trustees, Edward Morgan when he visited the orphanage one day. He the takes a liking to her and decides to adopt her. Curley Top has an older sister, Mary,  who works at the orphanage as a maid and cook, though, and doesn’t want to leave her. So Mary ends up going with Shirley Temple and coincidently falls in love with the trustee. Long story short, they get married and all live happily ever after.

This is a perfect example of how television/film has evolved since its beginning. Curley Top is a perfectly clean, innocent, and cute story about love, friendship, and family. There are no curse words and no sexual activity, yet it is still a classic film full of twists and turns. Where has the movie industry brought us? Has the movie industry carried our culture into a norm of immorality and immodesty? Why has it become socially acceptable to exhibit immoral content for the whole world to see? Though the film industry has created many good, entertaining, and fun experiences, has it been worth all of the negatives effects it has brought along with it?

Where It All Started

by: Stephanie Kubick

The beginning of film…

One of the world’s most used inventions would be the camera. The hunger for the ability to capture a precious moment, a monumental moment, or a simplistic memory guided man to a new form of technology. When the camera was made, it was a sensation.  Finally, man kind was able to preserve a moment in time. Something to treasure. Something to look back on and remember the emotions and feelings that correlate with that moment.

Yet it was not enough.

Why couldn’t we capture motion? If we can capture a second in time, why cant we capture multiple? What good does one moment do, if in the next and the one after that, something better happens? Something more exciting. Something more special?

Eadweard Muybridge asked those questions in 1872 and decided to started experimenting. He “placed twelve cameras on a race horse track, spread thread across the track, and attached the thread into contact with a camera’s shutter. Once the horse ran across the track, it’s legs broke the threads, causing the cameras to operate in sequence. The ending results were 12 photos showing a horse’s gait. With an invention of his called the Zoopraxiscope, he was able to quickly project these images, creating what is known as motion photography and the first movie to ever exist.”

This was the beginning of everything we know of today relating to film. We have Mr. Muybridge to thank for our binges on Netflix, for our midnight premiers of the newest movie. Without him, where would we be?

 

Works Cited:

“Introduction to Film History.” History of Movie Making. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

 

 

Gone with the Wind: The Most Timeless of Films

Two of my hobbies include reading and watching movies. Both are a great way to relax and settle down after a long day of school. In high school, I was told to read a classic novel. I love challenging myself and never take the easy route with anything. As a result, I decided to take on the challenge of reading “Gone with the Wind” within the quarter. This book is over a thousand pages long, but after I read the first page, I was captivated. It never felt like an assignment that had a due date, though I did start feeling a time crunch near the end. I had never read a book like this before. It was full of history, mystery, drama, and the most beautiful imagery. After I finished the book and my project, I want desperately to watch the film to watch and see if it lived up to the classic novel’s expectations.

“Gone with the Wind”, the movie, was released on January 17, 1940. Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and Sam Wood, were the amazing actors and actresses, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Clark Gable. These people were the backbone behind one of the greatest films ever made. They created a film that captivated the viewers attention as much as the book did. They somehow took the four hour movie and turned it into an experience. You lived the story, you weren’t just viewing it. You felt the distress and agony of the Civil War as vividly as the dramatic Scarlett O’Hara. The gorgeous dresses and extravagant parties made you wish you lived in such a time.

Since its release, the timeless film, “Gone with the Wind” has been an unforgettable film. It will forever be a classic. All generations still enjoy its beauty as a well directed and captivating film.