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IT Management Slideshow:
10 Technologies that Changed Hollywood

By CIOinsight on 2009-02-27


One of the better moments of the recent Academy Awards telecast involved Jessica Biel waxing ecstatic about software. The actress was congratulating Ed Catmull, who wrote the computer graphics software that's become the industry standard for Hollywood. Biel also gave a shout out to Jerry Lewis, who holds the patent on a key piece of movie-making technology.

Without technology, Hollywood wouldn't exist, and technology has continued to remake the art of film across the generations. Here's our celebration of geeks and film.


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Lumiere Cinematographe Before the Lumiere brothers developed a machine that could project moving pictures onto a screen, movies were seen on novelty toys and devices that allowed only one viewer at a time.

Moviola Its first incarnation as a home-projection system flopped, but it was repurposed in 1924 to help editors splice their reels and dominated for decades. Only in the digital age has the Moviola been mostly retired.

Vitaphone With help from Western Electric, Warner Brothers introduced a system that allowed audiences to hear actors speak. The talkie was born, and The Jazz Singer was a smash in 1927.

Technicolor Not the first, but the most successful, Technicolor changed the palette of movies forever. Color took off when it introduced a three-strip process that didn't need special projectors. Early adopter: Walt Disney, with the animated short Flowers and Trees.

Greenscreen TechnologyOfficially known as chroma key technology, it lets directors filter out solid color backgrounds and add fantastic scenery during editing. Developed for The Thief of Baghdad in 1940.

Computer Generated Imagery Matte-painting artists painted realistic backgrounds, but they were limited by the static nature of the medium. CGI helped usher in a new era of realistic and kinetic scenery.

Surround Sound The 1970s saw, er, heard the introduction of Dolby Surround Sound, which let moviemakers to immerse audiences in a whole new level of auditory experience.

Videotape Introduced in the late 1970s, videotape brought movies into the homes of millions of viewers, changing the perception that commercial-free movies could only be enjoyed at the theatre.

Digital Video Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones was the first Hollywood blockbuster shot completely on digital. It provides editing flexibility, and is cheaper than film - thus advancing the art of cinema by letting more people participate.

Broadband Internet Streaming movies, downloading them, and sharing via P2P networks via broadband has changed consumption habits. In some ways, we've reverted to watching flicks all by our lonesome, just like the pre-cinematographe days.

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