SCREEN CULTURE

INTRODUCTION… THE BEGINNING

NOTES PREPARED BY Dr MIOMIR PETROVIC & DAVID MOORE

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DAVID MOORE
AUSTRALIAN

Teacher: 20 years
Graphic: Designer 35 years
Filmmaker: 40 years

Masters of Film & TV by

Coursework
Masters by Research Film and TV in
Screenwriting
Both from Melbourne University

PhD. Candidate UniSA (Uni of South

Australia)
INTRODUCTION
! The following early inventions
discussed in this presentation form
the context for film history and how
we got to where we are today.

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CAMERA OBSCURA
! Camera obscura (dark chamber, dark room) was one of the
first optical devices formerly used as a drawing aid in the sense
of proportion and also an invention that led to the discovery of
photography.
! The Camera obscura was originally believed to be European
invention.
! It is attributed to Roger Bacon, a monk, philosopher and
alchemist around the year 1219.
! Bacon did make observations about observing the sun with a
Camera obscure as device, but he was not the inventor.
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CAMERA OBSCURA
! It was later revealed that Bacon had,
in fact, not discovered the camera
obscura but it had come from an
Arab source
! In fact, the notes of an Arab man
named, Ibn al-Haitam, (in Europe
better known as Alhazen) had brought
the Camera Obscura to Europe
! He was Arab scholar who described
how the Camera obscure was used in
the Tenth century (950 AD).

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CAMERA OBSCURA
! Alhazen observed that on the
white walls of darkened
rooms, or in a tent set in the
sunny landscape of the Middle
East, the light, when passing
through a crack in the wall on
the opposite side, projects
everything that goes on
outside - fluttering of flags,
movements of pedestrians,
horsemen, etc.
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CAMERA OBSCURA
! This natural phenomena and the
phenomena of optics, became
the subject of great interest of
academics and scientists.
! In the Renaissance period
(during the 15th century) the
Camera obscure was as a tool
for scientists, and before all
astronomers, then artists,
architects and painters and it
was the common property of
educated humanists.
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CAMERA OBSCURA
! In the mid-16th century, lenses in the
obscure camera began to be used.
! The first lenses (the double bent –
biconvex lense) seen from the side
looked like brown lentils - a plant
used for human and domestic animal
consumption.
! So LENSES received their name
from the Latin lensit, lens, lens).
! Innovations greatly improved the
properties of the obscure camera:
the image on the projection wall was
brighter and sharper. !"#$%&P&(88*+,--+=8:+/L1/:A1-565+-BC'P-CO-'J->3269546:3492L+51349829=?+84@346-&455:++:A&BM-N-BC'O
LATERNA MAGICA
! The Laterna magica (The magic lamp) is a distant
ancestor of today’s film projectors.
! It was first mentioned in the 17th century,
as an optical device called the
Magic Lantern Projector
! The Magic Lantern Projector was
patented in 1870 in America.
! Unlike the Camera obscura, which
projected an image of the surrounding
space into its interior, the
“magic lamp” projected the
drawn image into space.
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LATERNA MAGICA
! Through this projection, the eyes
and minds of the viewers are
tricked, sometimes for religious or
ideological purposes, and
sometimes for the purpose of
profit.
! The first ‘Magic lamp’ was an
ordinary oil lamp whose glass
walls were filled with cartoon
characters.
! The ‘Magic lamp’ is mentioned in
one of Fontanova's manuscripts
from the year 1420.
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LATERNA MAGICA
! For the first time in the literature,
the term ‘Magic lamp’ (in Latin it
translates as lateral magic) is
found in writings of Kircher
! Kircher writes about in Ars magie
lucis et umbre (translated into
English this is the Magical Skills
of Light and Shadows) in the
year 1646.

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KINETOSCOPE
! A Kinetoscope is an old
display device.
! It is designed to show movies
watched by an individual at one
point through a small window
(hole) on top of the device.
! The name kinematoscope was
came from the Greek term
‘kinema-matos’ and ‘cinematics’,
which means the science of body
movement without considering
their materiality (pure movement).
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KINETOSCOPE
! It was made by Dr. Coleman Selers
II of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
who invented and patented a
cinema telescope (motoscope) in
1861, a hand-operated machine
with a rotating stick, that manually
animated the images.
! This device is considered to be a
significant breakthrough in the
history of the cinema theatre.

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ZOETROPE
! The Zoetrope was a similar device
! The Zoetrope produces the illusion of
movement by viewing individual images
through narrow slits in a rotating
cylinder.
! The zoetrope (pronounced ZOH-uh-
trohp), invented in 1834 by William
George Horner, was an early form of
motion picture projector that consisted
of a drum containing a set of still
images, that was turned in a circular
fashion in order to create the illusion of
motion.
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PHENOCISTOSCOPE or FANTASCOPE
! It was the first machine to give the illusion of real
people moving (unlike the zoetrope) was the
phenocistoscope or fantascope and other inventions
made by various innovators displayed moving objects
and was the first cinema to portray real people, not
just animated objects.
! A projector is a device that sends an image
through a light beam to any surface (usually a
canvas or a wall).
! On the same device, the electrical impulse is
transformed into basic colors, which are mixed
depending on the colors of the recorded objects.
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THE PHI PHENOMENON
! A film is a series of images
that, when displayed on the
screen and we see via an
optical illusion.
! This optical illusion makes
the audience continually
THINK they see movement
between separate objects
that are projected quickly,
one after another…
! This illusion is called the
phi phenomenon.
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THE PHI PHENOMENON
! Today we know the phi phenomenon
illusion as the process of making a movie
as both in art and industry.
! The movie is made by shooting real scenes
with a camera, taking pictures of drawings
or miniature models using the traditional
animation technique or a combination of all
techniques and other visual effects.
! The term cinema (short for cinemas) is
often used to refer to the film industry or
the art of making cinema.
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CONTEMPORARY DEFINITION
! The contemporary definition of
cinema is the art of creating a
simulating experience to
communicative ideas, stories,
perceptions, feelings, beauty, or
atmosphere of recorded or
programmed moving images
with other sensory stimulations.
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HISTORY OF CINEMA
! The films were initially shot via plastic tape
through a projector on a huge screen.
! Many feature films are now fully digital
throughout the entire production, distribution
and exhibition process.
! Movies are cultural artifacts designed by
specific cultures.
! They portray these cultures and in turn
influence them.
! The film is considered an important art
forms, a source of popular entertainment
and a powerful medium for educating
of audience.
! The visual base of the film gives universal
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CINEMA AS ART
! Auguste and Louis Lumière where famous to first promote film
around the world with their film productions.
! The Lumières held their first private screening of projected
motion pictures in 1895.
! This first screening on 22 March 1895 took place in Paris, at
the ’Society for the Development of the National Industry’, in
front of an audience of 200 people, one of whom was Léon
Gaumont, then director of the company the Comptoir géneral
de la photographie.
! The main focus of the demonstration by Louis Lumière was to
display the recent developments in the photograph industry,
mainly the research on polychromy (colour photography).
! It was much to Lumière's surprise that the moving black-and-
white images gathered more attention than the coloured stills
photographs.
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FILM PIONEERS: THE LUMIÈRES
! The American Woodville Latham screened works of
film 2 months later on 20 May 1895.
! The first public screening of films at which admission
was charged was a program by the Skladanowsky
brothers that was held on 1 November 1895 in Berlin.
! The Lumières (right) gave their first paid public
screening on 28 December 1895, at Salon Indien du
Grand Café in Paris.
! This history-making presentation featured 10 short
films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines
Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumière
Factory).
! Each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand
operated through a projector, it would only run
approximately 50 seconds.
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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! Unlike the Lumières, Georges Méliès engaged
more fiction elements in his films.
! Méliès is recognized as one of first main
filmmakers to strongly use Mise-En-Scene
within his productions
! The son of a shoemaker, Méliès was a
professional magician who owned and
operated the Rober-Uden Theater.
! Méliès spent years projecting with the help of
a magic lamp in his magician's tricks before
he started filming.
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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! One afternoon, in the fall of 1896, as Méliès was
filming a street scene in Paris, his camera was
knocked over while shooting by an Omnibus. When
he fixed the camera, he found that the funeral
wagon he was filming turned into another
Omnibus… So when projected it looked like the
omnibus had turned into a funeral wagon.
! Based on that happy accident, Méliès realized the
possibilities of manipulating real time and real
space as essential to editing a movie.
! Méliès realized the potential of creating AMAZING
EFFECTS in camera.
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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! Méliès introduced the theatrical
elements into the film: mise-en-scene,
costume, mask, makeup, special effects.
! Méliès was also the first feature film
artist, as he appeared in most of his
films.
! Méliès invented significant tools of film
narration such as blackouts, blackouts,
overlapping, blending and stop-motion.
! Méliès founded Star Film Company and
built a small production studio on the
foundations of his home.
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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! Méliès founded Star Film
Company built a studio of all
glass, like a glass house for a
indoor garden.
! He did this to ensure he
received as much sunlight as
possible for shooting
! It was in this studio where
Méliès produced, directed, shot
and starred in over 500 films.

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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! After Thomas Edison (the inventor
of the camera) Méliès first applied
the method of painting frame by
frame to color his films.
! His most successful film is Journey
to the Moon by Jules Verne. Other
fiction films: Mephistos Cabinet,
Journey through the Impossible,
Conquering the North Pole.

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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! Méliès mostly worked on fantasy
genre but he also worked on films
based on historical and contemporary
events, such as The Dreyfus affair.
! In 1909, he held a filmmaker’s
congress (Congress of the Fools) in
Paris, discussing the agreeance of
film standards and market sharing,
and promoting the push for longer
films (the first ideas of feature films)
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FILM PIONEERS: Georges Méliès
! Famous actor, Charlie Chaplin
called Méliès ‘the alchemist
of light’
! And Legendary filmmaker
D.W. Griffith was quoted
saying that ‘I owe him
everything’
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GENRE THEORY
AND THE IMPACT TO CINEMA
NOTES PREPARED BY MIOMIR PETROVIC
and DAVID MOORE

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 ! Genre comes from the French word
DEFINITIONS genre, meaning 'kind’ or ‘sort' is any form or
type of communication in any mode
(written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with
socially-agreed-upon conventions as
developed over time.
! Genre is most popularly known as a
category of literature, music, or other forms
of art or entertainment, whether written or
spoken, audio or visual, based on some set
of stylistic criteria.
! Genres form change over time as cultures
invent, change and invite new genres and
discontinue the use of old ones.
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KEY TERMINOLOGY

! GENRE – a category or type of

communication
! SUB-GENRE – a secondary category
underneath (sub) the main category
! MOTIF – a recognisable feature or pattern
! CONVENTIONS – same as motif but it is
not visual, so it can be a recognisable
story type for example.
! META GENRE – means a genre that is BIG
Genre that encompasses many genres

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MAIN GENRES OF CINEMA
! The basic genres of film can be
regarded as drama, in the feature film
and most cartoons, and documentary.
! Most dramatic feature films, especially
from Hollywood fall fairly comfortably
into one of a long list of film genres (see
from next page)
! Many of these genres have a number of
subgenres, for example by setting or
subject, or a distinctive national style, for
example in the Indian Bollywood musical.

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MAIN GENRES The ACTION Genre
! MOTIFS usually include high energy, big-
budget physical stunts and chases, possibly
with rescues, battles, fights, escapes,
destructive crises (floods, explosions,
natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop
motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and
adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-
guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling
'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience
escapism. Includes the James Bond
'fantasy' spy/espionage series, martial arts
films, video-game films, so-called
'blaxploitation' films, and
some superhero films.
! SUB-GENRE films include the disaster film.
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MAIN GENRES The ADVENTURE Genre
! Adventure films MOTIFS include
exciting stories, with new experiences
or exotic locales, very similar to or
often paired with the action film
genre.
! They can include traditional
swashbucklers or pirate
films, serialized films, and historical
spectacles (similar to the epics film
genre), searches or expeditions for
lost continents, "jungle" and "desert"
epics, treasure hunts, disaster films,
or searches for the unknown.
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MAIN GENRES The COMEDY Genre
! Comedies are light-hearted plots
consistently and deliberately designed
to amuse and provoke laughter (with
one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating
the situation, the language, action,
relationships and characters.
! Comedies come in various forms of
comedy through cinematic history,
including slapstick, screwball, spoofs
and parodies, romantic
comedies, black comedy (dark
satirical comedy), and more.
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