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History of Technology 6: Early History of Movies 13 Views


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Description:

Grab some popcorn, because today, we're learning about the early history of movies.

Language:
English Language

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

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

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