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History
Reflection
of Light
Moving
Picture Toys
Action
in Pictures
Movies
with a Story
The
Industry Grows
Coping
with Television
Movies
Today
History
Reflection
of Light
Moving
Picture Toys
Action
in Pictures
Edison
and Lumiere
movies
with a Story
Timeline
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TV
Competes with movies
The 1950's was a decade of change in the motion picture industry. Television
began to pose a major threat to the movies. THough still available only
in black and white, TV was becoming very popular.
In some ways, watching TV was jsut like going to the moview. The shows
were entertaining, with lots of action, drama, and comedy. Best of all,
once a person bought a television set, watching it was free. Audiences
didn't even have to leave home to be entertained.
Filmmakers struggled just to keep up with television. Trying to steal
some of TV's thunder, Hollywood started a trend toward the "epic"
production. Such films had huge budgets and were filmed almost entirely
in foreign locations. movie makers also made it a special point to show
things that still couldn't be seen on TV. Horror films and epic westerns
were very popular. THey used special effects and sceneds that could only
be appreciated in color on the big screen.
Another innovation was Cinerama. This process used a wrap-around screen
to put audiences right in the middle of the action. Three projectors displayed
the image on three sides of the theater. The audience felt like it was
par tof what was happening.
The problem with Cinerama was that huge theaters had to be built to handle
the system. This was too costly to be practical, and Cinerama soon fell
by the wayside.
3D
3D also pumped some life into movies in the 1950's, although it didn't
last long. 3D was process that made things on the screen seem to be real,
or three-dimensional. To create the effect, a special two-camera filming
technique was used. Two projectors, each showing a slightly different
image, presented the film. Audience members had to wear special cardboard
glasses that had a different colored lens for each eye. This combination
made 3D effects possible.
The 3D effects were supposed to make people fell that they could reach
out and touch things on the scree--or that the movie on the screen could
reach out and touch them. Sometimes the effects worked well, such as in
the classic 3D film "Creature From the BLack Lagoon." MOst of
the time, however, 3D was disappointing. The effectw weren't much different
from a normal movie.
Scripts for 3D movies were often weak, with plots based on finding new
ways to "fling arrows" at the audience. And people didn't like
to wear the special glasses, which often caused headaches. As a result,
3D films quickly lost popularity.
 
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