Development of Narrative Film in the Early 20th Century Research Paper

Narrative film production is believed to have started in the late 19^th Century. However, major developments were witnessed in early 20^th Century such that by 1910, narrative film production had become a major industry employing a lot of people. This era was characterized with the development of film as a form of visual art and many people used to fill cinema halls just to catch a glimpse of the action. It had become a new way to spend leisure time by 1920’s.

A narrative film is a story showing series of events in such a way that the audience can be able to deduce the time and place it was shot. Narrative films are also called fictional films and are meant to show the audience what they normally hear or read about but have not had a chance to actually see. As films expanded in length and technical options due to increase in technology, narrative strategies as well as genres increased as well. Stories could develop more complex characterization with creation of unique characters to add more flavors to the act; more and interesting themes were also developed to give the audience varierity. Sound devices were also incorporated to the act and other visual effects were also added (HMP, 2004-2011).

According to Daniel (2008), Thomas Edison did not have the idea of developing a film but, his invention of a kinetoscope opened the way for other people to expand their imagination on other things the equipment can be able to do. This scientific equipment was made to be used for educational purposes in industrial training; it could allow people to see images from a film that passes through its shutter thereby coaching them by repetition on industrial processes. By 1900, some great minds had already started testing projection of images from a kinetoscope on a screen which they thought would make the equipment more appealing (2008).

Actualities were the first movie forms to be produced as the film was at its inception stage, The film makers would produce short clips of moving objects and they really fascinated the audiences to which they were shown because some had not already had the chance to see moving objects before for example they would show a clip of a moving locomotive. Even though to the current standard this might be considered boring, it had a great impact on the audience at the time. When shown images of a train rushing towards the camera, for example, the audience ran out of the theatre room thinking that the locomotive would run over them (HMP, 2004-2011).

Actualities were clips telling stories of real objects for example a clip of a ship moving along the harbor. This, together with early comedies, which were a bit playful like the famous Charlie Chaplin, were the earliest form of films. However, development of other genres in film did not take long due to changing tastes. Notably, the film industry, during this period, was a reflection of lifestyle at the time.

The rise of the middle class in America in the late 19^th Century with the industrial revolution created some level of sophistication in their lifestyles and therefore some artistic forms were discovered. Acting in the ancient times was only done in the form of dramatization of the characters to a live audience in the streets or in the theatre. The development of kinetoscope by Thomas Edison provided the best opportunity for improvement of the visual art where images on a film would be seen passing through the shutter, one after another.

The rapid uptake of film can be attributed to the high amount of disposable income among the citizens because they used to attend the theatre in large numbers till the great depression hit America in the 1930’s.

Research that was being done at various learning institutions in the developed world, during the second half of the 19^th Century, helped in the development of projectors and the film. Technological advancements, for example the invention of kinetoscope, provided the base for the development of modern day camera. The ‘loop’ technology, which was discovered at the French laboratory, also helped greatly in increasing the length of films by reducing the vibration caused by the film at the shutter.

This caused the rise of the film especially in the early 20^th Century because Americans were increasingly getting educated and democracy was just setting in. The people, during this time, could use the film as a means of passing messages to the government. A good example of this is the production of a movie that talks about environmental conservation in an indirect way. Another example is the use of the film to pass or highlight the plight of Africans who were taken as slaves in the United States of America.

Thomas Edison and his assistant started working on his project, the kinetoscope in 1890, and the resultant invention was a motion picture camera. This was later enhanced technically and by 1891, a peephole viewing machine was used to allow audiences to view projected images of film passing through the shutter. Initially, the motion picture in the viewing machine showed short clips of short movement footages, for example, a man making body movements (HMP, 2004-2011).

The development of the film with the initial 1.5 inch film gave room for further improvements and set basis for today’s standard 35mm film used in modern day cameras. Edison used his studio christened ‘The Black Maria’ to make films for his kinetoscope which had aroused so much interest by then.

According to Mark (2006), by the year 1894, the kinetoscope technology had already been adopted by other developers like the Holland brothers who made an improved kinetoscope of their own. Edison built this equipment for educational purposes but the new entrants wanted to expand its possibilities by looking into how the equipment could be used as a source of entertainment to the masses. All these developments were possible because Thomas Edison had not patented the original idea by the copyright society of America. The same year saw Charles Francis Jenkins, an American whose research specialized in motion picture projection, produce the first projection to an audience (2006).

W.K.L. Dickson, who had been working with Edison, broke ranks with him and went on to form another company with other partners. Later, Dickson and his compatriots developed an Eidoloscope, which was an improved Kinetoscope and it would take longer films because it decreased the vibration at the shutter (Eileen, 1990).

There were a number of developments of the kinetoscope in the decade with Latham, who was Dickson’s partner, developing a projecting kinetoscope. This technology used a loop film to absorb the shock brought about by film movements inside the shutter. However there were still some misgivings on the image quality even though it allowed longer films to roll.

The major breakthrough which is touted to be the first movie was however developed by the Lumière brothers who invented the Cinèmatographe. They shot a film on a normal day at their factory and showed it to an audience in an exhibition conference. That was the longest any film has ever done and the projector was the first ever to be offered for sale. The Lumiere’s film showed motion pictures of rail workers alighting from a train, walking and going about their duties. The viewers could develop stories out of what they saw. Nonetheless, the narrative film lacked depth and creativity at the time.

The year 1897 saw the 35mm film gauge being widely accepted as the standard gauge for motion pictures. This was because, during this time, the motion picture technology had gone overseas to countries like India and China and some level of standardization was, therefore, needed in order for the industry to develop uniformly. An example of situation arising from this is when the French, since they used to import the film from America, regulatory framework hindered the trade since their equipment were incompatible. Moreover, this made the French (Charles) to abandon production of motion pictures for sometime.

The first theatre known as ‘Edison’s Vitascope Theatre’ was opened in New York. It is the first permanent venue in the United States constructed specifically to show motion pictures. This served as an example since thereafter many theatres sprung up around the world with the French also building theirs as a competition for supremacy in the film industry.

By the end of the decade, Biograph introduced a new tripod head that allowed quick, easy, and smooth movement of the camera as the shots were taken from a distance. Although the vast majority of films still consisted of a single shot, a few multi-shot films began to be produced in the increasingly sophisticated consumer market. By the turn of the century in 1904, the 35mm film width, and a cinema projection speed of 16 frames per second became accepted as an industry standard (HMP, 2004-2011).

Reel filming was introduced in the 1920’s so that many scenes could be recorded onto one film reel and marking them into different shots to give timelines. The development of sound and introduction of different media into the film was also incorporated at this time. Soundtracks and sound effects were audio components meant to create a mood in the mind of the audience and provide some form of entertainment. Image clarity was also enhanced with the initial tests made on the use of color to make the images appear more real.

The initial films produced were very short due to the limited film size. However, the developments in film required equivocal improvements in terms of content generated since the audience used to get bored when a story type is repeatedly shown to them. This opened room for creativity to be applied to the works so that the sales could go up. The first works to be produced were short fictions, playful and witty story acts (David, 1995).

Events of everyday life seemed to inspire most productions. An example is the Spanish-American war (1896) which gave the producers an idea of producing war films as a widely accepted source of entertainment and education in the society.

The introduction of visual and sound effects, to indicate motion and time in space, was introduced by a French magician called Georges Méliès.In fact, he became cinema’s first narrator by producing short dramas covering real life issues in which he attempted to link individual scenes into simple narratives by incorporating a number of effects. He also made a variety of comedies and trick films which entertained audiences in the French theatre halls.

According to Geoff (2002), the motion picture industry was further revolutionized by the growing popularity of story films which were longer than actualities (stories of daily life). Although these story films were more expensive to make than actualities and records of news events, they could be protected by copyright law. This was because the American courts had ruled that a movie can be patented in its totality and not frame by frame, as was done earlier. This created a boon for story films and more directors came to the fore to develop scripts (2002).

The turn of the 20^th century saw a marked improvement in terms of creativity employed into production of films. Scripting was introduced to guide the acts and characterization, film companies moved to marketing of the film, while matters concerning filming were left for the directors and the rest of the production team. Resultantly, documentaries were produced, feature stories were shown in the theatres, comedies received a wider acceptance, and satirical stories, which were meant to positively ridicule the ruling class, were also produced (HMP, 2004-2011).

The late 19^th Century saw sales majorly derived from the sales of kinetoscope since they were still testing the market (Daniels, 2008). Creativity in terms of thematic development also improved later on with the increased appreciation of the various film art forms. In the second half of 1984, kinetoscope and film sales exceeded $170,000 which was a high gross at the time. By 1906, Edison projectors which had undergone some major transformation by then, selling for $135 each, generated over $182,000 in sales in America. This is a 131% jump in profits over the previous year (Mark, 2006).

Harry Davis opened the “Nickelodeon” theatre in America which was a low-cost theatre aimed at the high number of people who wanted to see the acts yet did not have so much money. Similar storefront theaters quickly came up such that within two years, almost 9,000 Nickelodeons had sprouted in the U.S. showing programs that lasted up to one hour. Nickelodeon attendance surpassed two million per week, and easily became the highest grossing in the world (HMP, 2004-2011).

The great depression that set in 1930 made the Americans cut on spending on non-essential items since movies were considered a luxury. Movie theaters lowered ticket prices to reflect the current economic times, and giving offers lie ‘watching two movies at the price of one.’ These were initiatives meant to increase theatre attendance. However, despite all these interventions to increase audience size, many theaters went out of business.

The 1910’s saw a drop in the overall sales volume in the United States of America because of a drop in overseas sales partly because the overseas markets were developing their local film industry and thereby introducing some unfair trade practices like protectionism. This affected sales in America together with the fact that the domestic market was already getting saturated by many film-making and marketing companies coming up—thus creating a massive production of materials for a single market. This caused a decline in revenues by American companies. The entry of countries like Germany into the film production also added to the competition in 1913 (Eileen, 1990).

The film industry’s sail in the 1930’s was marked by a steep decline in margins because of the low attendance at the theatres with people still feeling the effect of the economic slump. There were takeovers by bigger companies on smaller vulnerable ones and boards were changed as a matter of engaging expertise.

According to Daniel, the battle for content regulation started in 1895 when Senator Bradley stopped the airing of a film showing a partially dressed woman dancing. This was the first time the morality of the films came into perspective since the authorities did not want this form of art to have adverse negative effects on the children. This is the first case of censorship in the moving picture industry (2008).

Patent wars were witnessed from the 1890’s because of lack of a clear inventor of the motion picture—with both the French and the Americans wanting to own it. The French were the first to declare their patency to the Kinetoscope which was later bought by some businessmen on behalf of Thomas Edison from the French. On getting the exclusive ownership rights, Edison filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Biograph Company on illegal, but profitable, usage of Edison’s products which was against the patent law. Edison’s lawyers then visited two theater producers and warned them against showing foreign films in America since he had the exclusive rights (The History of Motion Pictures, 2004-2011).

In the beginning of the 20^th Century, the courts in America ruled that a film does not have to be copyrighted frame-by-frame in terms of individual shots, but rather that it can be covered as a whole production by one copyright submission. This meant that movies which were a series of different shots could be patented as a single entry. The previous law was for the patent of individual shots.

In 1906, the churches in America decried the rise of the film and its power to incite the youth to violence and they forwarded memoranda to the authorities to rein in to prevent juvenile delinquency and other related crimes. However, studies could not independently link the movie to the alleged crime rates.

1910’s and 1920’s saw the domestic film industries regulating the business environment to allow only a small number of foreign film production companies to their country in order to develop the local film industry. This trend was started by America. However, when they realized that they could not cope with the high demand that was witnessed in the turn of the century; they allowed French and German companies—which were at their infancy stages at the time—to send their productions. An example is in 1928 when the British government brought up a regulation for local production that stipulated that gave a 7.5% domestic quarter when screening. The market was not liberalized in the early film days (HMP, 2004-2011).

By 1930’s, the top American film studios accepted the new “Code of Production”. This was to regulate the way crime, brutality or ruthlessness, and sexual situations are brought out in the films, it also handled once and for all, matters to do with vulgarity, obscenity, and blasphemy.

The potential of the film industry has not been reached yet but, late 19^th Century to early 20^th Century marked a very important era in the development of the film. A lot of inventions came up from scratch at the time, from the entry of the kinetoscope to its modifications, development of better film sizes, incorporation of sounds and other devices to the film. All these worked to improve the industry has grown over the years to the levels that it supports a huge audience today.

List of References

1. David, P., 1995. History of Film. New York: Routledge
2. Daniels, T., 2008. Hybrid cinematic: rethinking role of filmmakers of color in America. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
3. Eileen, B., 1990. The transformation of cinema 1907-1915 (history of the American cinema, vol. 2). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
4. Geoff, K., 2002. New Hollywood cinema: an introduction. New York: Columbia University Press.
5. Mark, C., 2006. The story of film: a worldwide history. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.
6. The History of Motion Pictures. (2004-2011). The picture show man. Web.