ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
History of Technology 6: Early History of Movies 13 Views
Share It!
Description:
Grab some popcorn, because today, we're learning about the early history of movies.
Transcript
- 00:02
So radios turned sound into a form of mass communication and cameras [woman sitting in a chair listening to the radio]
- 00:08
allowed images to be reproduced gazillions of times so chances are
- 00:12
somebody in the early 1900's could be forgiven for saying well this is it
- 00:18
technology has plateaued because really what could be more [Calvin Coolidge giving a speech]
- 00:22
impressive than turning the President's speech into sound waves and sending it
Full Transcript
- 00:26
thousands of miles away impressive! people everywhere could simultaneously
- 00:30
hear every word he said if he breathed they heard it and if he accidentally swore [Calvin Coolidge breathing heavily down the microphone]
- 00:35
because he stubbed his toe they'd hear it too it's ok Cal everyone does it the modern
- 00:40
age had also brought pictures any given moment time could be caught on film [Person taking photographs and falls off cliff]
- 00:45
weddings births sat on the toilet all the important stuff how could these
- 00:50
magical modern marvels possibly be topped well as it turns out pretty easily [man developing new discoveries]
- 00:55
people could figure out ways to make those pictures move and what would be a
- 00:59
good name for the moving picture oh let's think let's think, yeah movies
- 01:05
so the vast majority of us have watched one or two movies or maybe we should say [Girl with feet up watching a movie]
- 01:09
one or two thousand so yeah we've all seen them but do we all really know what
- 01:15
they are they may seem like magic but movies are really just thousands of [man dressed as a wizard waving a wand at a film reel]
- 01:19
still pictures strung together and moved really fast that's pretty much it.
- 01:25
Thought it'd be more impressive than all that but that's it. Even with simple camera [Horse galloping in a field as person takes a photograph]
- 01:29
technology folks were able to take pictures fast enough to create little
- 01:33
flip books that were like the primordial ancestors of movies.. the first movie ever
- 01:39
was created using this basic tech and showed a few seconds of a guy riding a
- 01:43
horse no it wasn't avatar but it was a start [Man riding a horse and avatar character photo bombs]
- 01:47
so the technological leap from cameras to movie cameras was more like a
- 01:51
technological hop sure it took a couple of decades tinkering but eventually people
- 01:55
in Europe in America had figured out how to reliably capture moving pictures [Global map of countries developing movies]
- 01:58
they also figured out how to reliably capture audience's attention and make
- 02:02
lots of money in the process but the technological side of movies is only
- 02:06
half the story or maybe like 25 percent of the story or 27% tops. The lesson is
- 02:11
mostly about the huge waves of cultural changes wrought by relatively small [Waves approaching the shore]
- 02:15
inventions it's all about the rise of film is a serious money-making industry
- 02:19
and it's about the messages that sent out to viewers all over the world you [Man outside a movie theatre and dollar bills rain down]
- 02:24
know like er, that we should all fear giant apes. Well that can be your take
- 02:28
away from this lesson you're welcome
Up Next
GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
Related Videos
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?