1. Early Film History
It used to be considered that film, or the motion picture, was one of the two major arts to have evolved within modern history--the other being still photography, upon which the movie is based. We can now add computer graphics to those arts, which are still used in film--not only in professional feature length films but almost overwhelmingly in short films like television commercials. Film’s modes and conventions and technologies have all developed (and are still developing) in the recent past.

2. Early Film History
The film was developed out of the desire to make a visual record of real life and to study the movement of humans and animals. The precursor to the film was actually a toy. Its entertainments possibilities were only capitalized upon later. Later, as the study (and viewing) of moving images began to become less interesting, the film makers added story; the narratives were very simple at first.

3. Early Film History
As film developed the story-telling capability began to assume more importance, and film makers began to see the potential of film as art. Because when pictures began to move, they acquired duration, and early film makers had to deal with that dimension (fourth). Temporal organization was needed in addition to spatial composition. The need for a beginning, a middle, and an end became clear.

4. Early Film History
Initially, film was just a series of still photos set into motion. Requirements were just proper position of camera and proper lighting of the subject.
The first films in the U.S. were made in the 1890s by Thomas Alva Edison’s film company, and his subjects were usually vaudeville or circus acts. In one of his early films, two trained cats box each other wearing boxing gloves. The first public paid showing of these films was at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City in April 1896.
In France, the Lumières (brothers Louis and Auguste) took their lighter weight camera out into the real world. In their early Feeding the Baby, the infant is the subject as it is fed spoonfuls of cereal. Their first public projection took place in a basement café in December 1895.

5. Early Film History
They began to realize that some subjects were more intrinsically--or inherently--interesting than others. Even with more interesting subjects, the film makers had little control. They basically had only two decisions: where they placed the camera and where they started cranking. Usually, they chose the position of a human observer--straight in front of the subject, at eye level, and far enough back to see all the significant action. Their limitations were great: silence, black and white, two dimensions. Both film makers began to experiment with camera placement.

6. Early Film History
Besides choice of subject, there were major differences between the films produced by Edison and the Lumière brothers. These differences lead into the two main (but divergent) aesthetic modes of film as art which still exist today.
The first is the formative, (Edison) which strives for the “artistic” and uses materials and models from the older arts, such as painting. The film makers, like painters, pose the subjects, arrange the decor and lighting, and manipulate the photographic emulsion to make artistic changes to the film, to the images. Quality of film depends upon the quality of performance, actors using scripts and rehearsing before filming, etc.

7. Early Film History
The second is the realistic, (the Lumières) which takes pride in the verisimilitude of photographic reproduction. It seeks to capture and preserve life as it appears in actuality. “Documentary impulse” was most vigorous at first. No need for studio or prepared material. Subjects moved away from the camera--not just laterally in front of it. These films could find drama in real life, as in the 1895, L’Arroseur arrosé, or The squirter is squirted. Still, it was a decade before acted stories in real settings would be developed. These films were used to begin and end actual vaudeville theatricals--as audiences were entering or exiting the theater--as “chasers.”

8. Early Film History
The story ingredient was eventually added, although many films were lost--so who had the idea “first” is not known. Alice Guy-Blaché, the world’s first woman director, and Georges Méliès (Gaumont film company, 1896) are most responsible for the advent of the full length narrative film.

9. Early Film History
Méliès had a background in the arts; he operated a theatre, which showcased magic acts. He tried to buy a camera from the Lumières, who would not sell, and so he bought an American model and began making movies, much like those of the others. He accidentally realized that the film could be manipulated to fantasy rather than just recording reality.

10. Early Film History
Méliès’s Accident: while filming, his camera jammed. After getting it running, he cranked the film through, and developed it to see if he could salvage anything. When projected, he saw magic. A horse drawn carriage metamorphasized into a hearse. The Vanishing Lady and The Haunted Castle (1896) resulted. His Astronomer’s Dream, or the Trip to the Moon was released in 1899.

11. Early Film History
Méliès mastered the technology of “special effects”: fades, dissolves, superimpositions, mattes, fast and slow motion, animation, miniatures, and the hand-coloring of frames. Additionally, he increased the standard running time of films from less than a minute to ten-fifteen minutes: a reel. In 1897, he founded a studio and the Star Film Company. By 1912, he had produced over 500 films. He never discovered the effect of cutting and editing.

12. Early Film History
Méliès carries on the formative tradition of “artificially arranged scenes.” His trick films are the basis of the avant-garde film tradition.

13. Early Film History
Edwin S. Porter an American, more mechanic than artist, made the next crucial step in the evolution of film as an art. He began in film in 1896 and was hired by Edison in 1900 at a time when film makers were little more than camera operators. He developed a technique of editing--the next crucial step in film as art. His The Great Train Robbery debuted in 1903.

14. Early Film History
The three main artistic modes of film were all present at the outset:
Narrative Fiction (first),
Documentary (1920s), and
Experimental (1920s).
Narrative: desire to tell stories.
Documentary: captures the real world--for educational purposes.
Experimental: explores the imagination and unconscious.