Horizon High School
Film History
1895 Birth of Cinematography
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Robert W. Paul
invented a film
projector, giving his
first public showing
in 1895
Movies were seen
mostly via
temporary
storefront spaces
and traveling
exhibitors or as acts
in vaudeville
programs.
1895 Birth of Cinematography
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Films under a minute
long and usually
presented a single
scene, authentic or
staged, of everyday
life, a public event, a
sporting event or
slapstick.
No cinematic
technique: no editing
and usually no camera
movement, and flat,
staged compositions.
1895 Birth of Cinematography
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Sally Rand, The Fan
Dance
An exotic dancer and
actress.
During the 1920s, she
acted on stage and
appeared in silent
films.
Arrested a few times
due to indecent
exposure while
dancing, but the nudity
was only an illusion.
Silent Era 1895-1927
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Paris stage magician
Georges Méliès did
films of fantasy and the
bizarre, including A Trip
to the Moon (1902). He
pioneered many of the
basic special effects
techniques used in
movies for most of the
twentieth century. He
also led the way in
making multi-scene
narratives as long as
fifteen minutes.
Silent Era 1895-1927
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Edwin S. Porter,
pushed forward the
sophistication of
film editing in works
like the first movie
Western, The Great
Train Robbery
(1903). Porter
arguably discovered
that the basic unit
of structure in a film
is the shot, rather
than the scene.
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
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Western filmed in New
Jersey.
Originally distributed with a
note saying that the
famous shot of the bandit
firing his gun at the camera
could be placed either at
the beginning or at the end
of the film, or both.
Audiences at the time, for
whom moving pictures
were still very new and
unfathomable, would
usually scream in fear, then
laugh in relief.
Silent Era 1895-1927
Boom in nickelodeons, the first
permanent movie theaters.
 10,000 in the U.S. alone by 1908
(Cook, 1990).
 Standard length of a film remained one
reel, or about ten to fifteen minutes,
partly based on producers'
assumptions about the attention spans
of their still largely working class
audiences.
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Silent Era 1895-1927
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Leading the trend
for longer movies,
in America was
director D.W.
Griffith with his
historical epics The
Birth of a Nation
(1915 - 190
minutes) and
Intolerance (1916 –
197 minutes).
Birth of a Nation (1915)
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Credited with securing
the future of feature
length films (films over
40 minutes) as well as
solidifying the language
of cinema.
Pioneered techniques as
deep focus, jump-cut,
and facial close-ups, now
integral to conventional
cinematic style.
Introduced cinematic
innovations, special
effects, and artistic
techniques.
Birth of a Nation (1915)
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Voted one of the "Top
100 American Films" (#
44) by the American Film
Institute in 1998.
In its day, the highest
grossing film, taking in
more than $10 million at
the box office (equivalent
to $300 million in 2006).
In 1992 the United
States Library of
Congress deemed it
"culturally significant"
and selected it for
preservation in the
National Film Registry.
Silent Era 1895-1927
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1920s, U.S. produced
an average of 800
feature films annually,
or 82% of the global
total (Eyman, 1997).
The comedies of
Charlie Chaplin and
Buster Keaton, and the
Swashbuckling
adventures of Douglas
Fairbanks and the
romances of Clara Bow,
made these performers’
faces iconic on every
continent.
Talking Pictures 1927
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Turning point came
in 1927, when
Warner Brothers
Studios released
The Jazz Singer,
which was mostly
silent but contained
the first
synchronized
dialogue (and
singing) in a feature
film.
Golden Age of Hollywood
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1927-1940’s
American cinema
reached its peak of
efficiently
manufactured
glamour and global
appeal during this
period.
Golden Age of Hollywood
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Top actors of the
era are now
thought of as the
classic movie stars,
such as Clark Gable,
Katharine Hepburn,
Humphrey Bogart
and the number
one box office draw
of the '30s, child
performer Shirley
Temple.
Golden Era of Radio 1930’s
1930’s
 Affordable for every household
 Brought the world to your living room
 Broadcasts included; Opera,
Melodrama, Variety Shows, game
Shows, Comedies and Dramas.
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Golden Era of Film 1940’s
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1940’s, started in
1939 with The
Wizard of Oz and
Gone With the
Wind.
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US involvement in
WWII brought a
proliferation of
movies as both
patriotism and
propaganda.
Golden Age of Film 1940’s
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Notable American
films from the war
years include Watch
on the Rhine
(1943); Shadow of
a Doubt (1943),
directed by Alfred
Hitchcock; Yankee
Doodle Dandy
(1942), starring
James Cagney, and
Casablanca (1942),
with Humphrey
Bogart.
Golden Era of Film 1940’s
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Bogart would star in
36 films between
1934 and 1942
including John
Huston's The
Maltese Falcon
(1941), one of the
first movies now
considered a classic
film noir.
Golden Era of TV 1950’s
Television introduced to the American
public at the 1939 NY World’s Fair
 Regular broadcasts didn’t begin until
after WWII.
 Prime Time viewing (family hour) 6-8
p.m.
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Golden Era of TV 1950’s
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Famous 1950’s
television shows.
I Love Lucy 19511957
Invented the three
camera technique
Introduced a live
audience
Filmed her ‘sitcom’
Film History Review
1895 Birth of Cinematography
 1895-1927 Silent Era
 1927 Talking Pictures Introduced
 1927-1940’s Golden Age of Hollywood
 1930’s Golden Era of Radio
 1940’s Golden Era of Film
 1950’s Golden Era of Television
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