What was the first idea—the first step taken to get where we are today in film?
 

Photography became a part of public life in the mid-19th century, especially during the Civil War, when photographers documented American battlefields for the first time.

 

Experimenting with ways to exhibit photographs, several inventors came up with a simple toy that made it possible for a series of pictures to be viewed in rapid succession, creating the illusion of motion. It was called a zoetrope.

 

In October 19, 1878, Scientific American published a series of pictures depicting a horse in full gallop, along with instructions to view them through the zoetrope.

 

The photos were taken by an English photographer, Eadweard Muybridge.

Muybridge's findings fascinated many, and with Stanford's support he created a sequential photo projector—the zoogyroscope in 1879.

 

Meanwhile, in Paris, noted physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey was doing similar work. His studies of animals in motion drove him to experiment with photography, and he fashioned a camera that could take 12 pictures per second of a moving object.

 

The technique, called chronophotography, along with Muybridge's work, were the founding concepts for motion picture cameras and projectors.

 

In 1888 in New York City, inventor Thomas Edison and his British assistant William Dickson worried that others were gaining ground in camera development. The pair set out to create a device that could record moving pictures.

 

In 1890 Dickson unveiled the Kinetograph, a primitive motion picture camera. In 1892, he announced the invention of the Kinestoscope, a machine that could project the moving images onto a screen. In 1894, Edison initiated public film screenings in recently-opened "Kinetograph Parlors."

 

This is where the historical account gets a little sketchy. It is often debated who actually invented the motion picture. Some claim the first person to come up with the idea of a moving image was actually Louis Le Prince in 1888.

 

He created a single-lens camera that could take 12 consecutive frames per second and project them on a screen using his device called the “Praxinoscope.”

 

Although he never patented his invention, he did make plans to do so before being killed by an unknown assailant in 1890 just six years after inventing motion pictures for the first time.

 

Near the same time frame that Dickson and Edison were gaining ground with this invention in America, the French were working towards the same end. In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière introduced the Cinématographe, a projector that could show 16 frames per second. In their public cinema, audiences were spellbound by the films of simple movement and action.

 

1895 to 1910 - The Pioneer Era

 

With zero experience and incredibly simple gear for recording and reproducing film, filmmakers started testing this new storytelling medium by creating film reels focused on recording news, documentaries, and stage plays.

 

The first purposeful film narration began appearing in the early 1900s with the release of George Melies's A Trip to the Moon in 1905. These 5-minute-long short stories became very popular, and soon filmmakers started to emulate Melies and his “trick” filmography.

 

1911 to 1926 - The Silent Era

 

With American filmmakers starting their organized production, silent movies became very popular in both United States and Europe.

 

The film started being longer and slightly edited, producers also used minimal sound effects and music tracks (no dialogue yet) with emphasis on professional-made narrative drama, romances, and comedies.

 

The dynamic Charlie Chaplin was one of the largest stars from this period of the film industry.

 

1927 to 1940 - Talkies and the rise of the Hollywood studios

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1927 was the year Hollywood reinvented itself with the release of Warner Bros bold experimentation with The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length sound movie created and promoted in the United States.

 

This great change enabled theaters to grow, new movie genres to be made (horror and monster movies), bigger stars to appear on the silver screen, and expensive productions to enable the creation of movies that challenged the impossible.

 

Five big Hollywood studios reigned supreme, with Europe and India creating large markets filled with talented filmmakers. However, the arrival of World War II changed everything.

 

1941 to 1954 - Golden Era of Film and restructuring of Hollywood

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As the Great Depression of the 1930s enabled the arrival of new audiences and new filmmakers, World War II brought new kinds of movies.

 

With better production values and available film technology, audiences enjoyed comedies, slapstick, and gangster films, with even few science fiction offerings. Stars like Abbott and Costello, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and others—Hollywood truly became a worldwide phenomenon and trendsetter.

 

During this period, Indian cinema changed significantly and became even more popular and innovative.

 

1955 to 1976 – Changes

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The spreading of television and its organized production capabilities gave audiences more choices, forcing cinemas to fight against TV with film productions that outclassed anything that could be seen on the home screen.

 

Movies in cinemas became more mature, avant-garde foreign films started appearing in US cinemas, and distribution rights were in flux.

 

The film industry was elevated to a new level with innovations from the directors such as Hitchcock, Curtis, Munroe, Bardot, and Taylor. Toward the end of this era, Hollywood explored mature themes that formed Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

 

1977 to late 1990s – Dawn of the modern film industry and appearance of Blockbusters

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Rapid advances in film production techniques and the early age of computer-generated special effects revolutionized Hollywood, which can best be seen with the 1977 release of Star Wars.

 

This first true Blockbuster showed Hollywood how to create true worldwide media events that could earn tremendous money. Movie storylines and plot complexity become a little less popular, but certainly maintain a welcome presence. 

 

New millennium – Modern film industry

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Today, films are created worldwide, with the major business centers being the United States, India, Hong Kong, Canada, France, the UK, Italy, and Germany.  

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With this history in mind, we have included several movies for you to peruse.

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Each movie is entirely different within this particular genre (40s, 50s, 60s).

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