Crash Course
World Cinema Part One
Hollywood is the place to go if you want to make movies—right? Not necessarily. A fascinating video about the history of 20th century Asian cinema discusses the reflections of Japanese culture in the works of directors Yasujiro Ozu,...
Crash Course
Home Video
Home movies have come a long way from projecting 8mm film onto a wrinkled sheet on the living room wall. Learn about the ways home movie technology has evolved alongside the film industry with a video that covers techniques such as the...
Crash Course
Independent Cinema
The formulaic films that once thrilled audiences in the early part of the 20th century now seemed stale after the stark reality of World War II. Foreign films and American independent cinema answered the call for authenticity, leading to...
Crash Course
The Golden Age of Hollywood
Did movies save America during the Great Depression? Or did the Great Depression save movies? Learn more about the Golden Age of Hollywood with a video that covers the five major film studios, the colorization of big budget movies, and...
Crash Course
Breaking the Silence
The most impressive movie you've ever seen can't compare to the astonishment audiences felt when feature films began to synchronize sound with the picture. Learn about the complex path to the talkie, including the invention of the...
Crash Course
Sound Production
Movies have come a long way since the first talkies. The credits that roll at the end of a movie lists a bewildering number of titles for those involved in sound production. Learn everything you want to know about what these roles entail...
Crash Course
Dissecting The Camera
An episode of a film history playlist looks at camera technology and the roles of the various operators. The narrator presents an overview of different types of film camera lenses, apertures, shutter speed, frame rates, ISO, and codex....
Crash Course
The Silent Era
Young filmmakers watch a short overview of the major studios, players, and political events of the period between 1894 and 1929. In addition, the video narrator briefly outlines the Hollywood scandals that lead to the development of the...
Crash Course
The Language of Film
New ventures and new technologies require new ways of referring to things. In stepped Edwin S. Porter, whose films Life of an American Fireman and The Great Train Robbery used parallel action and cross-cutting to develop his...
Crash Course
Movies are Magic
Persistence of Vision? The Phi Phenomenon? Zoetropes? Camera Obscura? Kinetograph? What part do these concepts and inventions play in the history of movies? Find out with a short video that launches an informative playlist on film history.