Take a moment to write down 2 questions about the history of sound at the movies that you would like to learn about. What do you want to know about these aspects of sound history?
How much dialogue did they stay with when they started to incorporate sound into film?
Why were so many people against talkies at the start of them?
How would you describe the differences between the bit rates? Why do each of them sound different from each other?
The more the bit rates decrease the more the quality of sound also decreases. The sound gets more muffled and diluted the lower the bit rates go. They all sound different from each other because of the change in bits and hertz with the sounds.
What is frequency in audio? How is it measured?
Frequencies are the completed cycles of a sine-wave and the higher the frequency the higher the noise is and the lower the frequency the deeper the noise is. Frequencies are the tone of the volume but the timbre and character are how to determine what kind of noise it is.
What do you find interesting about this video? How does seeing sound visualized help you understand what sound is?
What I found most interesting is that light and sound kind of go hand in hand in terms of their impact in the way it travels through waves. Another thing was the way you can use parabolic mirrors to see light and sound waves in the air, you can even see the way heat radiates off of things through this. Seeing this video helps me visualize sound because I can see the ripples and waves in which it travels in its directions.
Take a few moments to reflect on what you have learned in this unit. The history of cinema is vast, and we could only cover a short part of it. After watching this video, what do you notice about the evolution of filmmaking? How did it all begin? How far have we come? In your opinion, where are we headed?
Since scratching the surface of the history of cinema I've come to grow more fond of film if I wasn't already. We've come along way from the very early monkeyshines. Cinema has gotten more clear, colorful, and has grown in budget. The one thing that remained the same was the love for storytelling. I think film will only continue to advance, image quality will get sharper and more clear, sound will enhance greatly, and even theaters will change with us.
How were asian actors and characters treated at the time in American films? Which of these actors' stories could you relate to? Explain why you found their achievements so significant.
Much to my surprise Asians were among the A-List celebrities during this time in Hollywood. I think I relate most to Anna May Wong in the way she is American born to a parent from another Country, as well as having a deep love for film and trying to combat the stereotypes being forced on to her. What was so significant about these achievements is because of how prominent racism still was at the time but these Asian Americans persevered through it to make it in the industry.
Why was Micheaux so important in film history? What was so significant about his achievements considering the time period?
Micheaux was so significant to film history because he was the first African-American filmmaker to have one of his films show in a "white theater". Majority of his films revolved around the topic of racism and social issues, especially the racism in Birth of a Nation. His achievements were so significant for the time period cause this was a time when racism was so prominent and accepted post WWII so for an African-American man to have this much praise for his films was groundbreaking.
What are the roots of silent cinema in the Bay Area? How did it play an important role in early cinema history? What famous personalities made films here?
Early silent film roots in the Bay Area can be traced as far as the Market Street shot from the Miles Brothers. Films used to be made in Fremont. A film manufacturing company came out of Fremont. It played an important role because of the Earliest films being traced back to there as well as where film was being manufactured. Charlie Chaplin had made films in the bay area as well as the Miles Brothers making the Market Street shot film there.
If you had to summarize and explain the events that led from the film industry's transfer from New Jersey to Los Angeles, how would you explain it? What was Thomas Edison's role in this transition? What role did patents and Nickelodeons play in this dispute?
In short, Edison wanted control over an industry that thrived off of individualism. His only worry was money, he made the patents to get money and to have control over the film industry, but with the defiance from the other people in the industry they didn't let that happen which led to the transition from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Patents and Nickelodeons were just pawns in the bigger game for control.
What is the Latham loop? How did it change cinema?
The Latham Loop is a way of pulling the film through a camera without it tearing the sprockets. It changed cinema because it helped reduce breakage but also Edison used it to his advantage against the Independents in the patent wars.
After delving deeper into the context of D.W. Griffith's life and career, what are your reflections on his contributions to film? How do you believe Griffith's influence should be perceived and evaluated in the context of 21st-century cinema?
I think he made incredible contributions to film and benefited the industry greatly through all the innovations he pioneered. I think his influence is overlooked in the modern day due to how bad of a person he was so we don't acknowledge his contributions because of the damage he did. I think we should acknowledge the work he contributed but still recognize how bad of a person he is.
What was Porter's contribution to cinema? What was so significant about his work?
Edwin S. Porters contribution to cinema was pioneering parallel storytelling. The significance of The Great Train Robbery was that it was one of the first to truly use of parallel storytelling. It got people to use unique ways to tell a story aside from a one shot actualities.
What is this music video about? Why did the band and the filmmakers choose these images? Why are they significant? What do you think they are paying homage or emulating?
This music video is about a couple taking a trip to the moon and seeing all the anomalies there. I believe that the band and filmmakers chose these images because they wanted to have the whole silent film look so they used the flat backdrop with flat items to create depth of field but keeping true to old silent films. I overall significance of this is the way they emulated old silent films to make their music video but still manage to tell their own story with it. They are paying homage and emulating the silent film A Trip to The Moon.
