1. “First came the inventors, then the artists who sought to use the invention creatively. The problems posed by the discovery of the moving picture seem to suggest, even in the first crude efforts of film-makers, that a new art had been born. This is a rare phenomenon in history.” –John Howard Lawson from Film: the Creative Process

6. Persistence of Vision
The human brain has a threshold below which separate images exposed to it will appear to be continuous
The speed at which film is projected (24 frames per second), is below that threshold.

7. Magic Lantern The Magic Lantern was an early projector.
Invented by Christiaan Huygens (an astronomer) late 1650s
Just still images (like a slideshow)

8. Zoetrope
A pre-film animation device which created the illusion of movement
A cylinder with vertical cuts on the sides. As the cylinder moves, the viewer looks through the cuts and the illusion of movement is created.
Zoetrope example

9. Leland Stanford & Eadweard Muybridge
In 1872, Stanford and Muybridge were trying to win a bet about the hooves of a horse leaving the ground
The Experiment for the “Flying Horse”
Led to serial photography
The Weird World of Eadweard Muybridge
Leland Stanford
Eadweard Muybridge

10. Eadweard Muybridge – The Horse in Motion

11. Eadweard Muybridge – Zoopraxiscope
Muybridge created the zoopraxiscope to project the photographs
Zoopraxiscope example

12. Thomas Edison & William K.L. Dickson
Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor in Newark, N.J.
He developed the phonograph – a device to record and play back sound
William K.L. Dickson was a Scottish inventor who worked for Edison.

13. Thomas Edison did not invent the film camera in 1891
William Kennedy Laurie Dickson was asked by Edison to invent the kinetograph in It is considered the first film camera.

14. Perforated film and sprockets

15. Kinetoscope
W.K.L. Dickson Greeting – Early film

16. Firsts related to Thomas Edison
First experiments with film camera was in 1889
First film studio was Edison’s and it was called the Black Maria (1892)
First film showings of the new technology (to investors and scientists) was in 1893

17. Thomas Edison Edison saw the PROFIT POTENTIAL in films
He focused on “exploitative” films
The Sneeze
Turkish Dance, Ella Lola
Boxing Cats (That’s right – Boxing Cats)

18. Filmmaking in France – 1890s
The next big film camera (supposedly better than Edison’s (boo hoo for him))
The Cinématographe (where we get our word for cinematography).
The Lumière Brothers (Auguste and Louis) created it though there is debate about whether they stole the idea from someone else)
This camera was special because it had a film camera, printer, and projector all-in-one.
Noted for the first public exhibition/ screening of films for an audience on December 28, 1895

19. The Mystery of Louis Le Prince
A French inventor heralded as the “Father of cinematography” until 1930
Considered now as the “forgotten inventor of motion pictures”
In October 1888, he shot his first film on an oily, paper film using his 16 lens camera, the LPCC-16, in Leeds, UK after living in New York and experimenting with his own film camera
In September 1890, he was to have a public demonstration in New York, but disappeared
His luggage and body have never been found
Roundhay Garden Scene – the oldest surviving film
New York Times article

20. The Vitascope
Not to be outdone, Edison bought the patent to an early version of a projector called the Vitascope
Debuted April 23, 1896 at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in NYC

21. Kinds of Films in Early History
Actualités: non-fiction films of everyday life, a precursor to documentary film. Coined by Lumiere Brothers.
Trick films: films with optical/visual tricks
Filmed theater: not their official title but it works. Instead of creating original stories, early film relied on theater for its stories.
Historical films: many filmmakers wanted to try and portray history on film.
Story films: not a focus on story. Filmmakers of the day thought Americans did not have the focus to watch long films so they kept them short.

22. Early Film Pioneers
George Melies – experimented with visual effects – A Trip to the Moon
Alice Guy – First female director – Cabbage Patch Fairy
Edwin S. Porter – experimented with INTERCUTTING (EDITING) – The Great Train Robbery

23. How the Movie Industry works
There are three PRIMARY PARTICIPANT / ENTITIES in the movie industry:
1) PRODUCTION STUDIO – A company, which makes the actual movie / film (creative decisions are made like the actors, directors, the sets, lighting, etc.)
2) DISTRIBUTOR – A company, which makes prints of the movie (made by the PRODUCTION STUDIO) and markets / sells the movie and distributes the movie
3) EXHIBITOR – A company, which screens the movie; usually at a movie theater

24. Examples 1) PRODUCTION STUDIO – (Before The Avengers):
2) DISTRIBUTOR –
3) EXHIBITOR –
Mel Gibson story

25. Thomas Edison (again…)
Edison tried to monopolize the film industry
Joined forces with six other production companies to create ONE MASSIVE COMPANY – the Motion Picture Patents Company (AKA The Edison Trust or The Trust)
George Eastman of Kodak agreed to only sell film to the Trust until 1911
Latham Loop

26. Carl Laemmle Carl Laemmle battled the Trust
Created International Moving Pictures (IMP) and eventually founded Universal Pictures
William Fox also ignored the Trust
Laemmle’s film exchange
Worked with Thomas Ince – made 200 short films for IMP
Created the image of Florence Lawrence (a former Biograph Girl) as a movie star
Carl Laemmle
William Fox

27. Florence Lawrence
Hailing from Canada, Lawrence became known as The “First Movie Star” aka the “Biograph Girl”

28. The Trust Falls
As a way to avoid lawsuits, early film producers moved to the West coast
In 1915, the Trust was embroiled in litigation
Courts deemed that it was a monopoly after the U.S. Justice Department sued – United States v. Motion Pictures Patents Co. – October 1, 1915

29. The Birth of the Studio System
A method of film production and distribution dominated by a small number of “major” studios
Refers to:
a) producing movies on their own studio lots with creative personnel under long-term contracts
b) Dominating exhibition through VERTICAL INTEGRATION

30. Thomas Ince – Producer / Director
Starting directing for Laemmle, but left IMP in 1911
Developed the first Hollywood studio facility
Introduced the “Assembly line” system of filmmaking
He would oversee the productions and would make many films at one time
The directors were creatively stifled at “Inceville”
Died a mysterious death in 1924

31. The Big Five Warner Brothers Famous Players – Lasky (Paramount) RKO
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)
Movie Tone Newsreels (would become 20th Century Fox)

32. The Little Three Universal (Carl Laemmle) United Artists
Columbia (Originally CBC film sales)

33. Poverty Row Low budget and independent producers Included:
Disney Pictures
Selznick International Pictures
20th Century Pictures
Republic Pictures