These days, there are so many easy and convenient ways to watch movies. You can go to a movie theatre, watch online, buy a movie on TV, rent a DVD, or, if feeling a little rebellious, download one illegally. However, if you’re more interested in quality than quantity, the way to go is with the most recent movie-viewing trend: Blu-Ray. These discs, which give viewers crisp HD picture with clear surround sound, are just one of many emerging cinematic technologies that are changing the way we experience movies. Recently Samsung has even developed the first full HD 3D TV complete with special 3D glasses. However, the journey to this amazing age of cinematic technology has not been an easy one.
In 1895 Frenchman, Louis Lumiere, invented the first portable motion picture camera. The movie business started with silent films—which, as you can probably infer, are films that have no audio component. Silent films were often accompanied by live music and sometimes even live actors, who provided dialogue. While early movies were generally in black and white, the first full-length color film was in fact a 1914 film called The World, The Flesh, And The Devil. However, after an expensive production and lukewarm reviews, most filmmakers continued to work in black and white.
The next milestone in the movie-making world came in 1927 with The Jazz Singer, which was the first movie with sound. The film was a major hit and is generally cited as bringing about the end of the silent movie era. It was nominated for two Academy Awards and won a “special” Oscar for the production chief.
Ten years later, a new type of film was introduced when Disney produced the much-loved classic Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (1937), the first traditionally animated feature length film.
Let’s skip ahead a few years to the 1990s. Mega blockbuster hits such as E.T. and Tron have been released in addition to sequels to the ever-popular Jaws, Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the 80’s. During the 90’s many movies were all about special effects: Jurassic Park and Toy Story, the first full length CGI film, were among the popular films of this era. It seemed as though film could go no farther, so what could be next? DVDs and online entertainment, of course! DVDs were starting to replace VHS tapes and in 1994 the world was first introduced to online film distribution.
Continued technological advances in the 2000s saw an increase in quality in home movie-viewing. While Popularity in 3D film was resurrected with movies such as Spy Kids 3D: Game Over and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, it wasn’t until the development of “Real-D 3D” in the late 2000’s that the popularity of 3D film really exploded. Hit movies such as Coraline, Up and the highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar, are all recent examples of “Real-D 3D” movies. Now film studios have been churning out movie after movie in this form of 3D. And although there have been complaints of nausea and headaches, “Real D-3D” remains the most popular way of viewing 3D for now.
The last significant technological advancement to date lies in the home theatre: 3DHDTVs. Developed by Samsung, these pricey TVs require extra 3D glasses (sold separately) that, when turned on, provide a beautiful 3D image at home. Will this be the future of home entertainment? Only time will tell, but for now, whether you want to crack open the old-school VHS tapes or look towards new 3D adventures, the choice is up to you.
Learning a ton from these neat artciles.