KIDS FIRST! Jury Blog

The thing that makes a movie someone’s favorite is what they like the most, or what suits their  personalities. Maybe it’s a mixture of classic or modern treatment or maybe it’s a certain actor. For myself, I can’t say “no” to an Adam Sandler comedy or a Speilberg’s adventure! This can actually be a bad thing for critics. Could this make their view of a film ‘foggy’ or allow them to not look carefully at the film and give it a good rating because they are bias toward a certain sensibility? I know that I have struggled with that in my experience as a film critic.

I see these big name critics and wonder if they have a favorite filmmaker or genre or, if they even allow one. For this job, in which there are no hard and fast rules, Hollywood can deem you good or bad for doing certain things. Confusing? It is true. Society may classify Adam Sandler “bad” for not going along with Hollywood and playing by the rules of the industry but, he is a good producer and comedian and his recent film was a hit. He seems to be getting better and better as the time goes by. However,  in my opinion, everyone have a favorite. It’s human nature which applies, even if you are Mr. Hollywood, that you must like one thing better than the other. What is your favorite type of film?

It’s no secret that the film industry has come a long way from where it started. From the first motion picture created by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878 using multiple cameras and assembling each individual photograph to create the appearance of A Horse in Motion, hence the title. Next, there was the first film ever shot to be shown to an audience in 1895 at the Berlin WIntergarten festival as part of a program of novelties. The first silent film to be released in America appeared in cinemas in 1903, it was a 12 minute long piece called The Great Train Robbery. Then came a huge break through, the first film with sound, also known as a “talkie,” was released in 1927, directed by Al Jolson. The next major advance in film was the use of color. The first known film with color was an obscure piece released in 1935. However, arguably the most well known film to use color is The Wizard of Oz in 1939. Flash forward 21 years to present-day cinema. It’s filled to the brim with special effects, CGI, incredible editing and killer 3D. But, on June 27th of 2014, director Michael Bay made another leap in film history by being the first to use an IMAX Digital 3D camera in a major motion picture. You can tell by watching the stunning visuals of Transformers: Age of Extinction that it’s the next step in advancing our cinematic experience. We’ve come a long way from where the industry started, and I’m sure early filmmakers would be more than impressed with what has been done with this platform. So, what’s the next major advance in film? Only time will tell.