Film roll

Film History Timeline

By Hiep Nguyen

  • $25,000 Horse Bet

    $25,000 Horse Bet
    A $25,000 bet was settled this day. People claimed that the horse had all four legs off of the ground and other didn't. This caused a bet, which was settled after the use of stop-motion cameras that captured pictures of the horses.

  • Invention of the Kinetograph

    Invention of the Kinetograph
    The Kinetograph was a motion-picture camera. The earliest models of the camera shot at about 40 frames per second onto 50 feet or 15 meters of film. The camera uses pieces of clocks in order to give it intervals between each shot and to have the film strip and shutter operate at the same rate.

  • Dickson Experimental Sound Film

    Dickson Experimental Sound Film
    The Dickson Experimental Sound Film was the first film with live-recorded sound. The film was created by William Dickson. It's known to be the first motion-picture film created for the Kinetophone.

  • Invention of the Cinématographe

    Invention of the Cinématographe
    The cinématographe is the first projector that also functioned as a camera and a printer. It was invented by the Lumière brothers in France. The camera didn't require any battery to function and was instead powered by a handcrank. It shot at only 16 frames per second but because of its portability and the projector, it became a European standard.

  • The Great Train Robbery

    The Great Train Robbery
    "The Great Train Robber" is the first U.S. narrative film. The film was created by an employee of Thomas Edision. The film ran for 12 minutes with 14 different scenes. The film had multiple narratives and camera positions

  • First Film Animation

    First Film Animation
    Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is the first animation ever, created by J. Stuart Blackton. The film was created by drawing faces on a chalk board. Although it wasn't created with any animation programs, it's still considered an animation due to the 2D drawings combined with the stop-motion camera

  • First Musical

    First Musical
    The first musical was a film by Warner Bros called The Jazz Singer. It wasn't the first film to include sound, but it became a blockbuster hit. The Jazz Singer is known for being the beginning of the era of musicals and sound in the film industry.

  • First TV Film

    First TV Film
    The first ever film to be shown on television is The Crooked Circle. Before this, the only way to watch films were through actual movie theaters. The film was broadcasted to only a half-dozen TVs in LA by the experimental station W6XAO since most people didn't own a television set.

  • First "Big Five" Movie Award

    First "Big Five" Movie Award
    It Happened One Night is the first movie to win the "Big Five" award at the Oscars. The Big Five is an award that goes out to a film only if it has five other major awards. Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Frank Capra, Robert Riskin, and the film itself wont a total of five awards. Only two other movies have ever won this award since.

  • First Technicolored Film

    First Technicolored Film
    With our King and Queen Through India is the first full-length film shot in color. The film was made with Kinemacolor. It uses completely natural color and not hand drawn.

  • First PG-13 Movie

    First PG-13 Movie
    Several PG movies were made at the time but none were violent enough to have an R rating. The MPAA came in and created a PG-13 rating which was first given to the movie Red Dawn. Red Dawn is a movie about the cold war and it earned the rank as the most violent film ever because of its 134 acts of violence in an hour.

  • First Entirely-Made CGI Film

    First Entirely-Made CGI Film
    Toy Story is a story about the life of toys when no one is around. It became the first entirely computer generated imagery film. Today, the franchise seems to have generated almost $2 billion worldwide.