History of Cinema
World cinema from optical toys to streaming: how historians work with archives and lost films, the invention of motion pictures, early and silent cinema including the Ouimetoscope and early Canadian features, international silent movements, the coming of sound, the studio system and Technicolor, wartime propaganda, Grierson and the National Film Board, postwar cinemas and widescreen, the new waves and Quebec direct cinema, New Hollywood and the building of a Canadian feature industry from the CFDC to Telefilm, world cinema since the 1980s, digital cinema, streaming and the Online Streaming Act, and a research project.
FILM-120 Year 1 3 credits 12 lessons · 5 h 30 min
Offered by HSM University · Visual Media Foundations
This is the Canadian version of this course. See the American version.
What you'll learn
- Explain why cinema history matters to image makers, distinguish kinds of film history and evaluate periods, canons, archives and lost films
- Describe pre-cinema devices and the invention of motion pictures, and calculate film length and running time from frame rates
- Trace the development of editing, the feature film, the star system and early exhibition, including early Canadian cinema and a critical view of The Birth of a Nation
- Compare German Expressionism, Soviet montage, French Impressionism and the avant-garde, and Japanese silent cinema
- Explain the coming of synchronized sound, the studio system, the Production Code, studio-era genres and three-strip Technicolor
- Analyze wartime propaganda and the documentary tradition, including John Grierson and the National Film Board of Canada
- Describe Italian Neorealism, postwar Japanese and Indian cinema, festivals, the Paramount decision and the widescreen revolution
- Compare the new waves of the late 1950s and 1960s, including direct cinema and Quebec cinema of the Quiet Revolution
- Explain the rating system, New Hollywood, the blockbuster, American independent film and the growth of a Canadian feature industry
- Compare national cinemas from the 1980s to the 2000s, including Hong Kong, China, Iran, South Korea, Nigeria, India and Indigenous cinema
- Explain the transition to digital capture, effects and projection, the rise of streaming, and Canadian and American policy and labour responses
- Plan and carry out a cinema history research project using evaluated primary sources, quantitative evidence and correct citation
Course content
12 lessons · 5 h 30 min total · final exam
- 1 Why cinema history matters and how historians work 28 min · quiz
- 2 Pre-cinema and the invention of motion pictures 30 min · quiz
- 3 Early cinema and the silent era 27 min · quiz
- 4 International silent cinema 27 min · quiz
- 5 The coming of sound and the studio era 27 min · quiz
- 6 World War II, propaganda and the documentary tradition 27 min · quiz
- 7 Postwar cinema: neorealism, golden ages and widescreen 27 min · quiz
- 8 The new waves of the 1950s and 1960s 27 min · quiz
- 9 New Hollywood, the blockbuster and Canadian cinema's growth 28 min · quiz
- 10 World cinema from the 1980s to the 2000s 26 min · quiz
- 11 Digital cinema and streaming 28 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: a cinema history research project 28 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Description
World cinema from optical toys to streaming: how historians work with archives and lost films, the invention of motion pictures, early and silent cinema including the Ouimetoscope and early Canadian features, international silent movements, the coming of sound, the studio system and Technicolor, wartime propaganda, Grierson and the National Film Board, postwar cinemas and widescreen, the new waves and Quebec direct cinema, New Hollywood and the building of a Canadian feature industry from the CFDC to Telefilm, world cinema since the 1980s, digital cinema, streaming and the Online Streaming Act, and a research project.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 1.