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The Bet
A rich man and his friends were watching horse races, and one man bet $25,000 that when a horse runs at its full speed, it has all four legs off the ground. To prove that it was true, they set up a line of cameras, and as the horse ran by, they snapped a bunch of pictures of the horse. When they looked at the pictures, they noticed that when they moved it really fast, it looked like it was moving. -
Peephole Kinetoscope
In 1889, Thomas Edison and his workers invented the peephole Kinetoscope, which allowed people to watch the 30-60 second films through a hole in a large box. It was only a one-person audience, so Edison found this as a way to make more money. -
Cinematographe
The Lumiere brothers lived in France, and they invented what Thomas Edison initially made, but didn't want to do. They made a projector that could show motion pictures on a large screen so that big audiences could watch at the same time. They called it cinematographe. -
Short Films and Vaudeville
In 1895, they began producing short films that were 30 to 60 seconds. They first showed them in a Paris cafe and charged only one franc. Vaudeville was eventually made, showing these short films in small theatres. -
Nickelodeon
As the 1900s came, Vaudeville eventually evolved into Nickelodeons. People would come in and only payed a nickle to watch a film. -
The Great Train Robbery
In 1903, an empolyee of Thomas Edison created the first U.S. narrative film called The Great Train Robbery. A strong story line was created with this film. It was 12 minutes long and had 14 scenes. People called this an epic. -
Monopoly
By 1910, Nickelodeon theatres had 26 million viewers each weekm and that eventually doubled five years later. Thomas Edison saw this as an opportunity and ended up leading the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). They combined patents controlled things like raw filmstock production, projection equipment, and film distribution. Independent companies tried to compete, but Thomas and his team threated and ruined their equipment. -
East to West
Films were shot in the east coast originally, but the bad weather, and terrible lighting led to the decision of independent studios to move to the west coast. Another reason is because they thought it was a good idea to get far away from the MPPC. It was close to mexico, so if Thomas Edison and his team came to hurt them, they could flee to Mexico. -
Famous Actors
The MPPC didn't list the names of their actors because they felt that they would evenutally become famous, and request more money. The independent studios use this as an advantage, and let their audiences develope a liking to their actors and want to come and see them more. -
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin was a very famouse actor in the early 1900s, who was a genius in silent comedy films. In his early career, he only made $150 a week, and then in 1917 he was making over a million dollars a year.
