1877: Eadweard Muybridge develops sequential photographs of horses in motion. Muybridge subsequently invents the zoöpraxiscope in 1879, a device for projecting and "animating" his photographic images.

The 1895 version of the Kinetophone in use, showing the earphones that lead to the cylinder phonograph within the cabinet

1885: The Lumières held their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895.Their first public screening of films at which admission was charged was held on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. This history-making presentation featured ten short films; each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 50 seconds.

So the first films were very simple short clips of everyday events or scenes, but eventually people began to experiment with different camera positions, story lines, costumes and special effects. The Sprinkler Sprinkled Trip to the Moon (1902)

By the 1920’s modern celebrities like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford rise to international fame.. Mary was a Canadian born actress who’s popularity and high demand helped shape the film industry in Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin was most famous for his slap stick comedies were he often played a hobo. Making a Living 1914 First Film (early Chaplin film)

It Pays to Advertise (An early “talkie” film) n&playnext=1&list=PL84092D444D1B : The “Talkies” ( films that now include sound) are introduced. The Jazz Singer opened in October 1927 it has been labelled "The first talking picture" which is not entirely true. There were many experimental films that included sound.

The Golden Age of Hollywood: From 1930 to 1948 The 1930s decade (and most of the 1940s as well) has been nostalgically labeled "The Golden Age of Hollywood" (although most of the output of the decade was black-and-white). The 30s was also the decade of the sound and color revolutions and the advance of the 'talkies', and the further development of film genres (gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horror to name a few). It was the era in which the silent period ended, with many silent film stars not making the transition to sound (e.g., Vilmy Banky, John Gilbert, and Norma Talmadge). By 1933, the economic effects of the Depression were being strongly felt, especially in decreased movie theatre attendance.

Propaganda Films: Hollywood wasn’t the only institution to recognize how lucrative the motion picture could be, politicians also took advantage of its popularity. Many films were made The earliest known propaganda film was a series of short silent films made during the Spanish American War in 1898 created by Vitagraph Studios. One of the early fictional films to be used for propaganda was The Birth of a Nation, although it was not produced for the purposes of indoctrination. In 1918, Charlie Chaplin made, at his own expense, The Bond, a comedic propaganda film for World War I. In the years following the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government sponsored the Russian film industry with the purpose of making propaganda films. Changing bad behaviour (1950’s “educational film” 2min) “What Hitler wants” Soviet Propaganda (8min cartoon)

: Independent documentaries with a politically and socially progressive viewpoint are made. The use and development of Motion Pictures rapidly expands : March Of Time newsreel series is inaugurated, the brainchild of Roy Edward Larsen, its main purpose was to inform and dazzle audiences with "pictorial journalism"—all in neat, minute instalments shown between feature films in theatres. The series runs until : National Educational Television (later the Public Broadcasting Service [PBS]) is founded