CAMS 210: Film History 1

Instructor: Carol Donelan
Cinema and Media Studies
Fall 2011

Course Description
This course surveys the first half-century of cinema history, focusing on film structure and style as well as transformations in technology, industry and society. Topics include series photography, the nickelodeon boom, local movie-going, Italian super-spectacles, early African American cinema, women film pioneers, abstraction and surrealism, German Expressionism, Soviet silent cinema, Chaplin and Keaton, the advent of sound and color technologies, the Production Code, the American Studio System, Britain and early Hitchcock, Popular Front cinema in France, and early Japanese cinema. Assignments aim to develop skills in close analysis and working with primary sources in researching and writing film history.

Researching and Writing Film History: "To the Archives!"

Your task in this assignment is to research a development in early film history, making use of primary documents available in microfilm, microfiche and digital database collections as well as relevant secondary sources.

  1. Develop a research topic relevant to the time period covered in the class (origins-1945) that is possible to trace through the primary sources available in the library.
    • Primary industry materials Primary industry materials available on microfilm and microfiche include Major Film Periodicals for Media Research (Film Daily), Cinema Pressbooks from the Original Studio Collections (Warner Bros, Monogram and United Artists), BFI Cinema Pressbooks (Columbia, Fox, Samuel Goldwyn, Paramount, Republic, RKO, etc.) and the History of Cinema, Series I: Hollywood and the Production Code. Digital database collections on early cinema include but are not limited to Archives Unbound (Motion Picture World 1907-1917), Proquest Historical Newspapers, New York Times Film Reviews, European Film Gateway, Readers Guide Retrospective, Scientific American, and the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers. Below you will find a list of possible research topics gleaned from our textbook as well as assigned readings. Please consult with me as you develop and refine your topic.
    • See the Gould Library course guide for CAMS 210.
  2. Compile an annotated bibliography of all primary sources relevant to your topic, using the formatting specified by the Chicago Manual of Style (available on the CAMS 210 course guide). You might also study the use of Chicago Style in Cinema Journal, available electronically from the library.
    • An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
    • Requirement for in-text notations: use 1, 2, 3 rather than i, ii, iii
    • The number of citations you find can vary depending on your topic, but at least 10-12
      sources is expected. Your annotated bibliography is due in class on Thursday, October 6.
  3. Write a five-page overview of your discoveries (this time documenting your primary and secondary sources in accordance with Chicago style, but leaving off the annotations). Does the history you are writing bring any new dimensions to our understanding of the topic? How does your version of the story fit with published histories (in the Cookbook or elsewhere)? What does this assignment tell us about the nature or process of film history research and writing? Your final paper is due in class on Tuesday, October 18.
  4. You are expected to integrate relevant visual evidence or data into your paper as in-text pictures or charts (minimum: at least one image or chart, but more are encouraged). Include only those materials to which you directly refer in your discussion.

Deadlines
Your annotated bibliography is due in class on Thursday, October 6.
Your final paper is due in class on Tuesday, October 18.

People & Library Resources
Research assistance: Matt Bailey, Research and Reference Librarian, mbailey@carleton.edu
CAMS 210 Library Course Guide
Chicago Style Online
Citing Sources
Media History Digital Library

Research Topics
The topics below were gleaned from the Cookbook and assigned readings; they may be overly broad and will require further refinement as you proceed with your research. As you begin your research, you might start with Film Daily Yearbook for a broad overview of events and then proceed to Film Daily. Consult with Carol and librarian Matt Bailey as you identify and refine your topic. You may discover topics not listed below that are worth pursuing. See us to discuss.

  • The emergence of a Hollywood studio(Inceville, Keystone, Triangle, Paramount, UA, MGM, etc.)
  • The activities of a studio mogul (Thomas Ince, Adolf Zukor, Mack Sennett, etc.)
  • Hollywood scandals in the early 1920s
  • The creation of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA)
  • Discourses on early film acting
  • The star system, early stars
  • Early sound films or sound technologies (Vitaphone, Fox Movietone, etc.)
  • Early color films or color technologies (Technicolor, etc.)
  • The Production Code Administration, the Production Code, issues related to film censorship.
  • Roles held by women (other than stars) in early Hollywood.
  • Commentary on some aspect of film history related to a national cinema other than Hollywood (Italian superspectacles, boycotts against American films, German expatriates in Hollywood, etc.)
  • Commentaries on theater ownership, film distribution and exhibition, etc. (Get beyond the production focus).
  • Early cinema technologies (series photography, celluloid roll film, early film stock, etc.) See Scientific American (online 1845-1900; also on microfilm 1866-1900, 1949-1970; also in print 1901-present). [Note: the Internet Archive project (archive.org) has digitized some of the Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (about 1930-1945 or so), but it is not for the faint of heart in terms of content or ease of use].
  • Race movies or commentary on movie culture in the African American community. Research The Chicago Defender (on microfilm, starting in 1917; online from 1921-1975) and The Los Angeles Sentinel (online, 1934-2005) and/or research the advent of films in Hollywood featuring "all black casts" (Hearts in Dixie, Hallelujah, Bronze Venus, etc.) in Film Daily and Cinema Pressbooks (on microfilm).