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The Horse Bet
The bet was whether a galloping horse had all four feet off the grioung at the same time or not. The bet was worth $25,000. The men that were involved set up a series of photos. The men analyzed these pictures like a flip book, the horse indeed had all four feet off the groung. -
Moving Images
An invention was later created tp watch a series of rapid moving pictures. They called it "moving images". These inventions allowed only a "one person audience". They had a peephole behind a series of fast moving photos in a sequence. -
Peephole Kinetoscope
Edison invented the peephole kinetoscope. It only allowed one person at a time to view the moving images. e was also the first to invet the prejector. He didnt sell it because he thought he's make more money off of individual people viewing it at a time. -
Vaudeville
a vaudeville is a small theater. It featured short films. In between these films, it showed skits, comedies, and songs with dancing. It was very popular at the time. -
Lumiere brothers
they did what Edison didn't. They created the projector as well and showed it to the public. They called it cinematographie. They did short films(30-60 seconds) in a Paris cafe. They charged one franc per admission. Films were such things as a man falling off a horse or a child trying to catch a fish in a fishbowl. -
Nickelodeons
Vaudevilles expanded into what was called a nickelodeon. they were called nickelodeons because you only had to pay a nickel to get in. They were small storefront-type theaters that featured films with SFX and piano music, along with one or two vaudeville acts. -
1st Narrative
Thomas Edison along with Edwin Porter created the first U.S. narrative film. It was called "The Great Train Robbery". It had a real story line, crosscutting between narratives, different camera positions, and showed distance. Porter was the director. It had 14 scenes and lasted 12 minutes. -
MPPC
PPC stands for Motion Picture Patents Company. It was a monopoly formed by several companies and led by Edison. They planned to control everything in the motion picture industry. they radided independent companies that tried to compete. -
Popularity
Nickelodeons at this time attracted 26 million viewers each week. Five years later that number had more than doubled. The businesses wanted to create a monopoly to control everything, including the profits. -
East/West Coast
Unlike today, films were filmed in the east caost(NYC area). Later it was moved for two reasons. For one thing, it changed to the west for the weather. In New York, the weather is gloomy and dark. Since filming normally took place outside, they wanted more sun. Another reason for filming in the west is that it was father away from MPPC control. If the MPPC decided to come make a movie in the west, the other companies would go to Mexico as a safe place from Edison and his monopoly. -
Actors Pay
One differnce between the MPPC and the west coast companies was that MPPC didnt list the actors names in the movies. They feared they would become too famous and demand more pay. The west coast listed the actored and wanted them to be famous. They also paid their actors well. The west coast allowed their actors to put their signature and handprint on the sidewalk outside so everyone knew who they were. Examples of these actors were mary Pickford(Americas sweethear) and Charlie Chaplin(comedian). -
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was THE comic genius at the time. In the 20th century, Charlie made only $150 a week(which was low income for as good as he was). In 1917, Chaplin made more than one million a year. He didnt just proform comedy, he also sent messages about good and evil, have and have-nots, and made fun of politics and dictators.
