Gallery: Breakthroughs and Busts: Mapping Cinema's Technological Evolution
01cinematographe
The history of cinematic technology is littered with stunning achievements and epic fails. From pioneering exercises in technique to feature-length shames and riotous gimmicks, there's no shortage of film stock worth analyzing. This Day in Tech:[](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) [Oct. 6, 1927: *The Jazz Singer* Gives Movie Audiences the 'Talkies'](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) Milestones marked in the gallery above include cinematic breakthroughs and busts. Some are technical masterpieces, like Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon and James Cameron's immersive 3-D experiment Avatar. Others, like Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer — whose [blackface birthday](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) arrives Wednesday — are painful reminders that filmmakers can be handy with the tech and still utterly suck at social engineering. __Above:__ The Cinematographe ------------------ __Now showing:__ The [cinematograph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematograph), one of Earth's first film cameras and projectors. __Back story:__ Although similar machines were invented in the mid-1890s, [August and Louis Lumière](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re) are popularly credited with creating the cinematographe. The French siblings are also credited with launching the first public, commercial film screening in 1895. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. Shortly after redefining pop culture, the Lumière brothers declared that "cinema is an invention without any future" and promptly abandoned it at the turn of the 20th century to concentrate on color photography. Fade to lame.
02cinematographe
The history of cinematic technology is littered with stunning achievements and epic fails. From pioneering exercises in technique to feature-length shames and riotous gimmicks, there's no shortage of film stock worth analyzing. This Day in Tech:[](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) [Oct. 6, 1927: *The Jazz Singer* Gives Movie Audiences the 'Talkies'](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) Milestones marked in the gallery above include cinematic breakthroughs and busts. Some are technical masterpieces, like Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon and James Cameron's immersive 3-D experiment Avatar. Others, like Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer — whose [blackface birthday](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/10/1006warner-bros-premieres-jazz-singer/) arrives Wednesday — are painful reminders that filmmakers can be handy with the tech and still utterly suck at social engineering. __Above:__ The Cinematographe ------------------ __Now showing:__ The [cinematograph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinematograph), one of Earth's first film cameras and projectors. __Back story:__ Although similar machines were invented in the mid-1890s, [August and Louis Lumière](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_and_Louis_Lumi%C3%A8re) are popularly credited with creating the cinematographe. The French siblings are also credited with launching the first public, commercial film screening in 1895. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. Shortly after redefining pop culture, the Lumière brothers declared that "cinema is an invention without any future" and promptly abandoned it at the turn of the 20th century to concentrate on color photography. Fade to lame.
03melies-trip2themoon
*A Trip to the Moon* -------------------- __Now showing:__ French filmmaker [Georges Méliès](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s)' 1902 movie Le Voyage Dans la Lune, aka A Trip to the Moon. __Back story:__ Poor Méliès. He tried to buy the Lumiere brothers' cinematographe to make this pioneering sci-fi and special-effects film, but they wouldn't sell. When the cinemagician wanted to open [A Trip to the Moon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Trip_to_the_Moon) in the United States, Thomas Edison's film technicians pirated and distributed copies, perhaps contributing to Melies' eventual bankruptcy. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. Even today, the narratively clumsy sci-fi movie, based on the work of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, sparkles with jump-cut FX and *[trompe l'oeil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l%27%C5%93il)* tricks.
04birthofanation
*The Birth of a Nation* ----------------------- __Now showing:__ Director [D.W. Griffith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._W._Griffith)'s 1915 silent film, [The Birth of a Nation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation). __Back story:__ Griffith revolutionized film language with The Birth of a Nation, from his depth-of-field and editing mastery to his sprawling action sequencing. But he also glorified the [Ku Klux Klan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan)'s terrorist crusade to keep America white, stunting social and cinematic evolution in the process. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. For all its technical achievements, Griffith's myopic cinematic hatefest is mostly an instructive historical example of feverish American racism.
05jazz-singer
The Jazz Singer --------------- __Now showing:__ Director Alan Crosland's 1927 movie, The Jazz Singer. __Back story:__ The most popular of film history's first talkies, [The Jazz Singer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jazz_Singer_%281927_film%29) shoveled dirt on the silent-film era in the roaring '20s. Produced utilizing the [Vitaphone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitaphone) sound-on-disc system, the film's technological achievement unfortunately highlighted its embarrassing preservation of [blackface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface) in cinema, which is a cultural taboo unless [Robert Downey Jr. does it](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/files/2009/01/blackface-at-th.html). __Blockbuster or flop?__ Gah. Do we even need to go there? Look at that picture; Al Jolson, the movie's star, is a fool. And this film, even with its synchronized dialogue innovations, is surround-sound terrible.
06disney-snowwhite
*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* --------------------------------- __Now showing:__ 1937 animated masterpiece [Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29). __Back story:__ Walt Disney's [Grimm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm)-hearted classic is the first full-length cel-animated feature in cinema history, as well as America's first animated feature film. Its fantasy escapism transports a population broken by the Great Depression into a much happier place for 83 minutes. __Blockbuster or flop?__ [Pure blockbuster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_and_the_Seven_Dwarfs_%281937_film%29#Reception). *Snow White* still scares toddlers straight and dazzles animators and critics.
07bwana-devil
Bwana Devil ----------- __Now showing:__ Director Arch Oboler's 1952's 3-D disaster [Bwana Devil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwana_Devil). __Back story:__ Widely considered to be the first American-born color 3-D film in history, Bwana Devil's schlocky yarn of man-eating lions proves pretty unwatchable. It is roundly hosed as a novelty that had no chance of luring in viewers transfixed by television. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. Bwana Devil may have moved 3-D forward by inches, but it's no Avatar. DC Comics' not-great hero [B'wana Beast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27wana_Beast) is more popular, for reasons we've yet to understand.
08bwana-devil
Bwana Devil ----------- __Now showing:__ Director Arch Oboler's 1952's 3-D disaster [Bwana Devil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwana_Devil). __Back story:__ Widely considered to be the first American-born color 3-D film in history, Bwana Devil's schlocky yarn of man-eating lions proves pretty unwatchable. It is roundly hosed as a novelty that had no chance of luring in viewers transfixed by television. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. Bwana Devil may have moved 3-D forward by inches, but it's no Avatar. DC Comics' not-great hero [B'wana Beast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27wana_Beast) is more popular, for reasons we've yet to understand.
09expo67-circlevision360-dchillier
Circle-Vision 360° ------------------ __Now showing:__ The Walt Disney Company's nine-camera, nine-screen system, [Circle-Vision 360°](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle-Vision_360%C2%B0). __Back story:__ Extrapolated from Raoul Grimoin-Sanson's 1900 film experiment [Cinéorama](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9orama), Disney's Circle-Vision 360° expands cinema's panoramic possibilities. The first wraparound film using the technique, America the Beautiful, debuts in 1955, but later films hypnotize audiences, including a screening a decade later at Canada's [Expo 1967](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_67) (above). Circle-Vision goes dark in 1997 as Imax begins to make waves. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Will you accept *blop*? Before Imax, Circle-Vision 360° made viewers feel like they were inhabiting film itself. But not being able to sit down killed that sensation before too long. *Photo courtesy [Yvon Bellemare/City of Montreal](http://www.dchillier.com/expoextra)*
10girlcanthelpit
The Girl Can't Help It ---------------------- __Now showing:__ Jayne Mansfield's 1956 romp, The Girl Can't Help It. __Back story:__ Although [color movies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_motion_picture_film) appeared sporadically in Britain and the United States in the early part of the 20th century, they don't go mainstream until the wide-screen '50s, when sex symbol Mansfield and pioneering rocker Little Richard team up with Looney Tunes animator [Frank Tashlin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Tashlin) to reboot pop culture's post-war party. Shot in CinemaScope and rinsed with DeLuxe Color, [The Girl Can't Help It](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Can%27t_Help_It) helps give birth to The Beatles, rock cinema and the [anamorphic format](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_format) in one fully stacked film. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. Here's Paul McCartney, from [The Beatles Anthology](http://books.google.com/books?id=HWuQu8EMDKcC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=paul+mccartney+jayne+mansfield+girl+can%27t+help+it+anthology&source=bl&ots=4N4Yg21xBx&sig=hM_kVSedgpebLE-NbemQdbw2-uo&hl=en&ei=vOunTPmgCJSasAP-ktWVDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false): "There is a famous moment at the beginning when \[actor\] [Tom Ewell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Ewell) ... pushes the picture out and it becomes a wide screen. Then he clicks his fingers and it changes from black-and-white to color; the big epic, exactly what we wanted! Then Jayne Mansfield comes on and the game's over."
11castle-tingler
*The Tingler* ------------- __Now showing:__ 1959 buzz film [The Tingler](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tingler). __Back story:__ Filmmakers and studios tried everything to get the public's eyes off television in the '50s. B-film maestro [William Castle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Castle), who never met a gimmick he didn't like, scared audiences with fake life-insurance policies and involved them with interactive punishment polls. For The Tingler, starring the timeless Vincent Price, Castle's [Percepto](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tingler#Percepto:_.22Scream_for_your_lives.21.22) campaign placed buzzers beneath audience seats to enhance their, er, anxiety. Get the picture? __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. John Waters is a fan of Castle's naked ambition and interactive cinema, and so are we, even though the films are mostly stoner and geek fare. (What's wrong with that?)
12sensorama
*Scent of Mystery* in Smell-O-Vision ------------------------------------ __Now showing:__ 1960 film *Scent of Mystery* delivers a whiff of failure in [Smell-O-Vision](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smell-O-Vision). __Back story:__ Cinema's quest to beat television in the '50s and '60s yielded strange fruit, which you could actually smell if you went to see [Scent of Mystery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scent_of_Mystery) in 1960. It remains the only feature to be screened in Smell-O-Vision, a system that used a motorized contraption that fanned scents into the audience during key scenes. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Flop. Smell-O-Vision was a stinky communal version of [Morton Heilig's Sensorama](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorama) (above), a virtual cinema predecessor whose shining moment has yet to arrive.
13800px-imax-camera-atlantwiki
Imax ---- __Now showing:__ [*Tiger Child*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Child), the first Imax film. __Back story:__ Imax's quest to maximize resolution on movie screens measured in stories rather than feet begins with 1970 nature short Tiger Child, which was followed by more-expansive documentaries and explorations. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. Any Hollywood movie looking to make a major cultural impact these days needs an Imax option, which is why the five highest-grossing films of 2010 have one. (Caveat: We're not promising that the [3-D television channel](http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/discovery-imax-sony-form-3d-television-channel) formed by Imax, Discovery and Sony is going to work.) *Photo courtesy [Atlant/Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IMAX_camera_1.jpg)*
14starwars
*Star Wars* ----------- __Now showing:__ [Star Wars](http://www.starwars.com/) changes everything in 1977. __Back story:__ We're pretty certain you know this already, but let's just put it this way: George Lucas, sci-fi, technical revolution, merchandising bonanza, industry revitalization, THX, ILM, perennial peripherals, park rides, postmodern reboots, undying mythology, bulletproof legacy. That should do it. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Pffft.
15apocalypse-now
Apocalypse Now -------------- __Now showing:__ Apocalypse Now surrounds moviegoers with Dolby Stereo in 1979. __Back story:__ Francis Ford Coppola's surreal Vietnam war epic, the first Dolby Stereo 70mm film with surround sound, delivers immersive, wide-screen chaos. Dolby's technical breakthrough upgrades [Apocalypse Now](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now)'s swollen vision of martial madness, which literally gave its star Martin Sheen a heart attack. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. Coppola's unsentimental, utterly mental cinematic dissection of the fog of war has yet to meet its match.
Pixar16toystory-0
Toy Story --------- __Now showing:__ Toy Story makes animated history in 1995. __Back story:__ Animation limitations evaporate after [Toy Story](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story) becomes the first feature-length CGI film — and a box-office conquering blockbuster. The franchise is still going strong, unlike almost every toy we ever bought: [Toy Story 3](http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2010&p=.htm) is the highest-grossing film of the year so far, as well as a unanimous critical favorite. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster, by any standard. Toy Story 3 is supposed to be the franchise's last film, but there's plenty of milk left in that computer-generated cash cow.
17torrentcomp-small
BitTorrent ---------- __Now showing:__ BitTorrent changes everything in 2001. __Back story:__ Peer-to-peer digital distribution irrevocably affects all forms of entertainment, including the film industry. As of last year, the [BitTorrent protocol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29), which divides the downloading process among multiple servers, remains the [king of P2P](http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-still-king-of-p2p-traffic-090218). Whether its controversial crown can be taken by a burgeoning stream-on-demand market has yet to be decided. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Blockbuster. Critics acknowledge BitTorrent's sheer cultural and economic power, and fans won't let go of it until the copyright cops come calling. *Image courtesy Wikiadd/Wikpedia*
18redcamera-christianstoll
Digital Film ------------ __Now showing:__ [Digital film](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_film) scores with Attack of the Clones. __Back story:__ Shooting directly to digital didn't impress until 2002's not-great Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones became the first blockbuster to be shot in 24 frame-per-second HD digital video (on a Sony HDW-F900 camera, if you must know). Since then, next-gen units like the [Red Digital Camera](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-09/ff_redcamera?currentPage=all) (above) and others have slashed production costs and found adherents in A-list directors as well as indie auteurs. __Blockbuster or flop?__ Beyond blockbuster. Digital cinematography will dominate the 21st century like film dominated the 20th.
19avatar-2
Avatar ------ __Now showing:__ Avatar reignites 3-D in 2009. __Back story:__ [James Cameron's enviropocalyptic sci-fi](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/magazine/2009/11/ff_avatar_cameron/) classic, shot in stereoscopic HD 3-D using the director's digital [Fusion Camera System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinematography_cameras#Fusion_Camera_System), becomes Earth's highest-grossing film of all time. Avatar also ushers in a new epoch of immersive cinema that's light-years ahead of anything seen in the past century of film. __Blockbuster or flop?__ From its technology to its earnings, [Avatar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29) is the king of cinema's world.
