This history course explores how fundamental changes in film technology affected popular Hollywood storytelling. We will consider the transition to sound, to color, and to widescreen, and the current "digital revolutions." Each change in technology brought new opportunities and challenges, but the filmmaker's basic task remained the emotional engagement of the viewer through visual means. We will survey major directors and genres from the studio era and point forward to contemporary American cinema. Our aim is to illuminate popular cinema as the intersection of business, technology, and art. Through film history, we will learn about the craft of filmmaking and how tools shape art. |