Eduqas GCSE Film Studies key developments and technology overview quiz quiz

The arrival of colour film stock and processes

The introduction of wide screen formats

Synchronised sound (the talkies, late 1920s)

Digital distribution to cinemas

From the 1990s onwards, and only ever used for digital special effects shots

Only after the year 2000, once digital cameras had completely replaced film

It was always present from the very start of cinema in the silent era

1930s onwards (e.g. Technicolor), naturalistically or symbolically

Partly to offer spectacle that television could not

To save money, because a wider image was cheaper to film and process

Because the new synchronised sound technology technically required it

To shorten films and fit more screenings into a single day at the cinema

A large annual film festival where all the major studios premiered their newest films to the critics

A few major studios dominating production, distribution and exhibition on a factory-like model

A particular type of camera used by all the major Hollywood studios during the golden age

A government film agency that decided which films American studios were allowed to make

A particular type of film stock that the major studios were required to shoot on

An official list of approved actors who were allowed to appear in studio films

A set of self-imposed content rules restricting what films could show

A government tax charged on every cinema ticket sold across the country

The invention of synchronised sound, which made the old silent studio films feel old-fashioned overnight

The arrival of colour processes such as Technicolor, which made black and white films unpopular

The very start of the studio system itself, which collapsed almost as soon as it had begun

A legal ruling forcing studios to give up cinemas, television competition, and the weakening code

Practical effects are made physically on set (models, stunts, make-up); CGI is created digitally, often after filming

Practical effects are made digitally on a computer after filming, while CGI is built physically on the set during filming

There is no real difference between them, because both terms simply mean the same special effects work

Practical effects are only ever used in comedy films, while CGI is only ever used in action films

It made filming and editing far more expensive and a great deal harder to share, shutting out new and independent filmmakers completely

It made filming and editing cheaper and more flexible, enabled streaming, and lowered barriers for new and independent filmmakers

It brought special effects to an end, because digital cameras could not be used alongside any visual effects work

It only affected the sound of films, leaving the way they were filmed and edited completely unchanged

By simply calling them impressive and praising how realistic and expensive they look

By ignoring them entirely and writing only about the acting and the dialogue instead

By reading them for the meaning and response they create, not just as spectacle

By counting up how many separate effects shots there are across the whole film

It does not matter at all, because the two films should only ever be compared by looking closely at their plots and their main characters and themes

Because both of the mainstream US films were made using exactly the same technology in the very same era and industry conditions

Because understanding the technology completely replaces the need to analyse film form, narrative or representation in either film

Because the two mainstream films were made in different technological eras and industry conditions, which explains why they look and sound different