I could use your 2 cents...

[shells n cheese]

Hi,

I'm a student at the University of Houston taking Film Appreciation. I have an individual project to do of my own choosing on any topic in film. I'm interested in what exactly it is that's different in films from say the 50s and before and modern films. Social changes aside, I think the difference is in the increased use of technology to achieve artistry. My professor says this is too broad. I was hoping that some of you might be able to share your opinions, as I believe Cinematography has been the most impacted aspect of film by technological advancement. Thank you!!

 

[Alessandro Machi]

Film stocks are more light sensitive than before and cameras are more sophisticated and lighter, this has allowed film to take on a leaner meaner application, more guerrilla style of filmmaking, more shooting in places with less lighting requirements has helped the low budget filmmaker who cannot afford a film studio.

 

[Lazlo]

The look of films to some extent (up until about the 40's or first golden age of hollywood) was affected by the almost purely commercial interests of the studios. They needed to churn out so many films, and were in every sense of the word "factories". However, there were really good directors that obviously showed quite a lot of artistry such as howard hawks and john huston, and john ford. On "Stagecoach", John Ford shot the movie in such a way that it could only make sense if cut a certain way: his way. But generally, the look was most primarily influenced by the producers and studio executives. And today we still see a lot of this in the mainstream hollywood features, but the rules of old hollywood were much stricter. There was a hollywood production code that allowed very little... if you ever get a chance to read it, its quite incredile just how censored so many things were. So the look of films was highly impacted by this regimented factory mentality, and production code. Now after world war two, the so called "new": hollywood emerged... and that's really a separate post...

 

[David Mullen ASC]

"Shells" must have written the paper by now...

A good reference on this very topic -- how style and technology affect each other -- is Barry Salt's "Film Style & Technology: History & Analysis."

 

[smokeythebear]

special make up effects has changed movies alot!

 

[Kevin_Zanit]

I am sure you got the paper done by now, however out of interest:

I think there is a combination of factors that would account for changing style (technology clearly a major factor). Perhaps the most significant style change was the sort of fall of the traditional studio system (as someone began to point out above talking about “New Hollywood” or “New American Cinema”).

A combination of the Hollywood Studio films making very little money, and the rise of the auteur theory (from Sarris) bringing much of the French New Wave to prominence in the USA. You also had the fact that successful New Wave films proved that "art" movies could indeed make money, and thus independent producers felt more comfortable financing smaller, lower budget movies with lesser known talent (i.e. Coppola, Lucas, etc). And then to really blow things up, Bonnie and Clyde came out and was a huge hit. That is when everyone scrambled to make movies with "outsider" characters and with a completely non-traditional style of production (mimicking to some extent the New Wave guys).

This is a very watered down version of some of the history, and there are many many other factors one could attribute to the changes in movies over time.

Kevin Zanit