Class Film Technologies

Today, cinematographic reflection and thinking increasingly consider the technological dimension throughout history and its weight in the aesthetics of the works produced. Mastering the history of technological changes in their relationship with the history and aesthetics of cinema allows the application of theoretical and epistemological tools in the multiple areas of practice in the archive field. Students will be able to identify, qualify and situate film works based also on their technique and aesthetics, in a new perspective of cinema historiography.

1. Technologies of silent cinema
1.1 Cellulose Nitrate; negative and positive formats; cellulose acetate (“Safety” films) 1.2 The photosensitive emulsion in black and white
1.3 The “color” techniques – stencil /tinting/toning processes
2. History of silent cinema through its techniques
2.1 The 34th FIAF Congress in Brighton (1978) and the new film history
2.2 Documentary and newsreels
2.3 Animation
3. Talking pictures techniques and technologies
3.1 Safety films and Estar/Cronar films – main formats
3.2 The “color” photosensitive emulsion and its evolution

3.3 The digital image (register and transmission/projection)

4. Talking pictures history through its technology
4.1 Feature films, Documentaries and Animation (main lines)
4.2 The amateur films
4.3 The digital image since 1990 – a film history “in becoming”

.

Ballerini, F. (2018). Historia do Cinema Mundial.
Bordwell, D., Staiger, J.,Thompson. K. (1985). The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. Columbia: Columbia University Press.
Bordwell, D., Thompson. K. (2018). Film History: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education; 3rd Edition. Gaudreault, A. & Lefebvre, M. (dir.) (2015). Techniques et technologies du cinema : Modalites, usages et pratiques des dispositifs cinematographiques a travers l'histoire. Rennes: PU RENNES.
Montanaro, C. (2019). Silver Screen to Digital: A Brief History of Film Technology. New Barnet UK: John Libbey Publishing.
Salt, B. (2003). Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis.
Slide, A. (2000), Nitrate won't wait: a history of film preservation in the United States, Jefferson: McFarland & Company. Usai, P. C. (2001). The Death of Cinema: History, Cultural Memory and the Digital Dark Age. London: British Film Institute.