Impact of Technology

1827 - 1900:

During this period, inventors in the USA and Europe were making similar discoveries and developing recording and exhibition technology. 

1889-1892:

Edison and his employees developed the Kinetograph - a motion picture camera capable of shooting rapid stop-and-go film movement.

1894: 

The first commercial exhibition took place in New York City. Films were shot in black and white but Edison's appeared in colour because he hand painted each frame. He also produced a short film of a man sneezing, which became the first copyrighted US film.

1900-1927 (The Silent Era):

British and American cinema were progressing at the same time until the war in 1914 disrupted British film production.

The Nickelodeon in Pittsburgh opened in 1904. At this point there were enough 7 minute films to fill an hour, and the same film would play for a week until changed. Within a few years there were thousands of Nickelodeons exhibiting films across America.

1906:

Edward R. Turner and George Albert Smith invented the first colour system 'Kinemacolour'.
It required more light during the exhibition stage, therefore creating images that were duller than the black and white alternatives. It went out of fashion around the time of WW2.

Films were silent in this period as the technology had yet to be invented, but they were often accompanied by live musicians and sometimes sound effects/commentary made by the showman or projectionist.

1926:

Invention of the television. Broadcasts did not begin until 1935, and were not present in homes until the 1950s/60s. In the 1960s colour sets were released but people could not afford these until the mid 1980s.
Despite peoples concerns, television had no impact on the film industry - adverts interrupted films, TV sets were small and the image quality was not as good as the cinema.

1927 - 1979:

Constant experimentation with sound was proving hard to overcome. In 1926, Warner Bros. introduced the vita phone system, and were credited by releasing the first movie with synchronised dialogue in 1927 with 'The Jazz Singer'

By 1929 technology improved at  a rapid rate, and most films had sound.

This period marked the start of a recovery for the British film industry and the country was starting to climb out of the war recession.

Parliament brought in a legislation, The Cinema Trades Bill, to protect the British film industry. It stated that 5% of films shown in cinemas had to be British. By 1936, 20% of films shown in the UK were British.

1939:

The post-production process began to change from linear editing (manually cutting up and splicing together the reels) to non-linear editing (video editing using computers).


However, technology did not alter much for the next 40 years and the British film industry went from strength to strength. Unlike WW1 the Second World War actually helped the British film industry because UK audiences wanted the ideology of films to meet the mood of the country, so British patriotic films dominated the British film industry.

1970-1990:

Computer technology began to be used for non-linear editing during the 1970s. At this point, technology was expensive and massive. This gave Hollywood the advantage over the British film industry, because they had more sense and money to experiment with computer technology. The development of computer games inspired CGI editing in films. CGI can also be used to restore old films, which might lead to more revenue for Hollywood.

1982:

Time Magazine altered its tradition of 'Man of the Year' to 'Machine of the Year'


The use of computer-generated graphics in movies took a step forward with Disney's 'Tron'


The 1980s saw the rise of the blockbuster, as Hollywood dominated the market with sci-fi, action and horror films. Star Wars and E.T changed the face of film and audience expectations.

During the 1980s home media technology changed, most households had both a coloured TV and a VCR. Initially, film studios tried to ban VCRs as they feared home videos and piracy would damage the film industry. However, they were unsuccessful with this and so had to adapt.

Cameras were developed that could film straight onto tape, which was a significant development for the British film industry and it cut the costs of low budget films - it also allowed amature film makers to make home movies that could be shown on their TVs. However, the quality of films shot on these types of cameras was no match for Hollywood and it would be another 30 years before studios shot on anything apart from 35mm film. Also, cinemas were still exhibiting films on reels and reels would still have to be produced if the film were to go into cinemas - this didn't happen very often as the quality was terrible.

The development in VCR was an important development for the British film industry because it meant British film makers could make films that could go straight to video more cheaply enabling them to sell their films to the public without having to pay for reels to exhibit in cinemas.

Although this did not really start to  happen in the 1980s (due to the poor quality of videos and a lack of affordable quality editing software) this was an important development for the British film industry because the industry has, for the last 30 years, survived mainly through home media sales unless films have been made in conjunction with Hollywood companies and made it into cinemas. 

The development of VCR caused E.T to be the first victim of video piracy. Seeing that the public were bored of waiting for the film to hit their area, a group of criminals filmed it then ran off copies illegally. Since this point, piracy has continued to be a major problem for both the British and Hollywood film industry (advancing technology has made it easier to copy films). It is arguably the case that the British industry has been impacted more by piracy as it relies more on home media sales.

1990 - 2010:

 In the early 1990s, developed editing software made it possible for British film makers to use non-linear editing methods to create films that could gross a profit through VCR sales. The leading system that went on to revolutionise video and film editing was AVID, a program that is still used today. 

Production equipment was also improved in this decade. Many British films were shot on DV-Pro cameras, edited using programs like Avid then released on TV, in cinemas (if they were converted to reels) and sold on VHS. Some of Hollywood also went digital around this time, and they had the advantage in being able to use top of the range models. The image quality used was noticeably different, making Hollywood films look more professional, giving them the advantage.

From the mid-1990s, many British films that did not have America production/distribution companies grossed more from home media sales than in the box office e.g. Trainspotting (1997).

From 1995 onwards, VHS was replaced by DVDs, which were still an important revenue for British and American films. The majority of people felt that DVDS were superior because the image quality is better. they are digital/interactive, they don't wear out as easily as tapes and they take up less space. 

The Internet:


By the mid to late 90s, more and more people in the UK and USA had home internet access, which meant distributors could target their audiences via the Internet.

As the technology developed it became more and more useful,