Films have been a major part of America’s history, as well as its identity, for many years, and they have developed alongside our country. Movies have been popular since their debut in the late 1800s, and the people’s fascination and pure adoration of them has not died down since. This infatuation has led to the development of filmmaking, because, as Americans, we are always striving for better; therefore, American filmmakers have been creating numerous ways to advance movies to become more inspiring and more emotional to keep the viewers’ love alive. The process was a long one, and in the three decades of the 1920s, the 1950s, and the 1990s, we find major milestones for the filmmaking industry.
Let’s start at the 1920’s – the time of gangsters, …show more content…
In the middle of the decade, major studios began selling their film rights to pre-1948 films, such as the Wizard of Oz, for broadcast and viewing on TV. Studios also came up with new ways to get audiences back in their theaters. The first was Cinerama, introduced in 1952 by Paramount. It was a wrap around, big screen technique that required three camera, three projectors, interlocking and semi-curved (at 146 degrees) screens, and four-track stereo, making the audience feel as if they were at the center of the action. As described in this newspaper article from October 8, 1952, Cinerama was a significant milestone that provided numerous possibilities, such as big musicals and top grossing numbers. It has been likened by reviewers to the importance of the advent of sound in the 1920s. Next, there is the beginning of 3D movie experiments, also in 1952. Special polarized, ‘stereoscopic’ goggles or cardboard glasses worn by viewers made the action jump off the screen; yet, in reality, the glasses were unpopular and chunky, the viewing was blurry, and the 3D effect was unable to compensate for the inferior level of most of the films. In 1959, Charles Weiss introduced the Aroma-Rama and Smell-O-Vision, systems of pumping oriental scents into the theater through the air-conditioning system. These three creations, however, were unpopular due to the lack of technological development in the fifties and were soon
Let’s start at the 1920’s – the time of gangsters, …show more content…
In the middle of the decade, major studios began selling their film rights to pre-1948 films, such as the Wizard of Oz, for broadcast and viewing on TV. Studios also came up with new ways to get audiences back in their theaters. The first was Cinerama, introduced in 1952 by Paramount. It was a wrap around, big screen technique that required three camera, three projectors, interlocking and semi-curved (at 146 degrees) screens, and four-track stereo, making the audience feel as if they were at the center of the action. As described in this newspaper article from October 8, 1952, Cinerama was a significant milestone that provided numerous possibilities, such as big musicals and top grossing numbers. It has been likened by reviewers to the importance of the advent of sound in the 1920s. Next, there is the beginning of 3D movie experiments, also in 1952. Special polarized, ‘stereoscopic’ goggles or cardboard glasses worn by viewers made the action jump off the screen; yet, in reality, the glasses were unpopular and chunky, the viewing was blurry, and the 3D effect was unable to compensate for the inferior level of most of the films. In 1959, Charles Weiss introduced the Aroma-Rama and Smell-O-Vision, systems of pumping oriental scents into the theater through the air-conditioning system. These three creations, however, were unpopular due to the lack of technological development in the fifties and were soon