Cinema, as a form of expression, is a mere infant on the history humankind timeline compared with the existence of infographics. Cinema has presented narratives of visual storytelling, influential, informational and empowering documentaries for over 110 years at this point, with more revelations to come. Infographics, on the other hand, existed well before recorded human history. Revelations abound when you compare how each visual element has impacted rhetoric and expository patterns. These revelations will come to light by using and comparing two well-known infographics with one relating to the history of films, while the other image represents the top 250 films of all time. As an introduction, a brief history of films and infographics shall demonstrate their enormous impact on human civilization and recorded history.
Noted film historians recognize December 28, 1895 as the official birthdate of cinema. On that day, the Lumière brothers played their collection of documentaries to a paying crowd who were to become the first moviegoers, and they were astonished and awed by the power of film. (Cousins) Other important innovators in the history of film emerged as the nineteenth century drew to a close: Edison for inventing the Kinetoscope (a box where a series of still images flipped over gave the illusion of movement), and the wildly imaginative, Georges Méliès who directed and wrote fanciful movies of journeys to the moon and underneath the sea. (Cousins) Méliès’ used his knowledge of magic, and the illusory skills involved, to project depth and prospective; modes of imagery used in infographics as well.
The first infographics evolved from pre-history in many forms, such as the cave paintings in Lascaux, France, which date back to 15,000 B.C. Petroglyphs, or rock carvings, have been sighted around various parts of the world as well, some dating back to 7,000 B.C. (Wikipedia) These first attempts at visual imagery used spatial qualities, depth and color design properties to tell stories, impart animal inventories, and to provide evidence of humankind’s very existence. The Egyptian hieroglyphics furthered the evolution of infographics with the first written language by using daily object symbols and animals for depicting sounds and words. (Visual.ly) Their dwelling walls featured pictures of gods and their stories. Most famously, the walls of the pyramids used infographics to capture the biography of the deceased, to provide an accounting on one’s treasures, and finally, to ease the deceased’s journey into the Egyptian ideal of nirvana– Aaru (the field of reeds).
Infographics in the last 300 plus years started out representing statistical data for either land mass use or to further medical theories and advancements. Present day infographics really came along in 1933 when Harry Beck designed the map of the London subway, the “tube” which displayed only lines representing the transit routes and stations. (Visual.ly) This milestone in infographic history will be detailed later. Today, the Internet has exploded with infographics, as visual information has become the accepted standard communication method which bodes well with the generation that has grown up with a mouse, or a joystick, in their hand before they even used a spoon. It speaks to our ever-shortening attention span that we like our information in short categorized spurts with interesting graphics and pleasing color combinations.
Cinema History Captured
This infographic by Larry Gromley, “The History of Film,” (see Figure 1) captures and categorizes over 2,000 films made in a span of over 100 years. Gromley worked on this infographic off and on for five years. By researching through Academy Awards archives, the noted film critic Roger Ebert’s books and website, the American Film Institute (AFI) database, and the Harvard Library he collected over 3,000 qualified films. From that original number, he pared the selection down to 2,000, which he deemed was all that could be viably represented on a graphic of this size (the 42” x 22” print can be purchased for framing). Gromley chose the starting point of 1900 and concluded what films had more public appeal, key importance to its’ genre or director, awards won, and, finally, box office success and classified them according to genre (and sub-genre), release date, and relevancy for inclusion. (Gromley interview).
Figure 1: Gromley’s History of Film, 2012
Gromley uses spatial flow, position, color and scaling to carefully list and delineate the movies through the specific era-defining periods of cinema such as the silent era, rise of the independents, and the new Hollywood era. By dividing the films into epochs of creativity he provided orientation and sequence, pointing out the prominent differences in genre popularity as the most influential films progress through the span of the century. Gromley’s infographic color and form is very similar to “The Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music” from the Edward R. Tufte’s Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative” depicted below (Figure 2).
Figure 2: “The Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music” by Reebee Garofalo
This infographic represents 700 artists in 30 different styles of music and covers the period of 1955 to 1978. The graphic time period covers the length of time that each artist remained a major hit maker, plus it divides the artists into their particular musical styles, which provides a “somewhat divergent perspective on popular music: songs are not merely singles — unique, one-time, de novo happenings — rather, music and music-makers share a pattern, a context, a history.” (Tufte)
Both infographics utilize strong lines, similar content, color and parallelism to represent both types of artistic entertainment in a poetic form. (Tufte). Additionally, both provide a rhythm that makes them easy to read and to comprehend, while each film or artist relates easily to the other genre and musical styles, respectively. It is obvious that great care, research and knowledge were exercised in presenting the truthful and accurate information exhibited in both infographics.
The Best of the Best
The next historical infographic on movies is “The Best Movies of All Time Map” by David Honnant (see Figure 3). This infographic is mentioned often in cinephile circles and it is specifically featured on the very popular and revered French movie website, Vodkaster.com. These 250 films were collected from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) as of June 2009. These movies intersect one another through different colored lines, which represent the various genres. Honnant takes what is considered “universally significant films” and intersects them in their particular genre creating sub-genres and unique categories.
Figure 3: The Best Movies of all Time infographic designed by David Honnant
It is impossible not to notice that this infographic looks like a “tube” subway map which catapulted the modern era of infographics into mainstream use. In 1933, Beck’s original map design “morphed London’s unwieldy geography into neat shapes with only two angles: 90 degrees and 45 degrees.” It also used a specifically designed font to serve as the titles and captions. (Fastcodesign) Unfortunately, Beck’s map doesn’t meet Edward Tufte’s criteria for integrity of design any longer. The new London Tube map adds two more angles, a more condensed and legible font and adds lines, so that 30% of tube customers no longer take the wrong train. The newest map may even be more accurate than the using an iPhone map.
Works Cited
Cousins, Mark. The Story of Film. London: Pavilion Books, 2004. Print
Gromley, Larry. http://www.historyshots.com/film/index.cfm
Tufte, Edward R. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. 3rd rd. Cheshire: Graphics Press, 1998. Print
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664662/the-london-tube-map-redesigned-for-a-multiscreen-world
http://www.historyshots.com/rockmusic/index.cfm
http://visual.ly/history-of-infographics
http://www.vodkaster.com/actu-cine/Top-5-des-infographies-cinephiles-370
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
The Art of Moving Images 