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1900s Colour

Colour was first added to film in the 1900s by handtinting, toning and stencilling. Technicolour was used from 1915 onwards, later replaced by the three-colour process in 1932. From the 1930s colour films were widely produced, however were expensive and time-consuming to produce so many films were still made in black-and-white.

1920s Sound

The first feature-length film to use synchronised sound was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Before this, films were silent, often shown accompanied by live music or lectures.

1930s-1940s The Golden Age of Film

In the 1930s and 40s, cinema was at it’s peak as popular entertainment. ‘Super’ cinemas and ‘Picture Palaces’ were built, which held other facilities like ballrooms and cafes. The highest recorded film attendance in Britain was in 1946, with 31 million visits per week.

1950s-Present Advancing Technologies

By 1984, attendance had fallen to 1 million visits per week, due to television allowing viewers to watch films and television shows in their own homes. However, the late 2000s brought a boom in multiplex cinemas, and cinema attendance has risen since. Rapidly advancing technology continues to change both the production and consumption of films, allowing audiences to stream films on phones and laptops as well as watching live in cinemas and on-demand on television.

The production of 3D films, though attempted and abandoned in both the 1950s and 80s, is also being experimented, with audience experience and immersion playing a key role in not only how films are shown but also how they are created.