-
The Bet
$25,000 bet that a horse could not be off all four of its feet at the same time. To prove it, a rapid sequence of pictures were taken of a running horse. This is where the idea of a stop motion picture came to be. -
Peephole Kinetoscope
Created by Thomas Edison. One person could view the stop motion at a time through a peephole. He made some money, but it ended up being major marketing miscalculation. -
Vaudeville
A small theater that showed short dramatic skits, song and dance acts, and comedy routines. They became quite popular and to get ahead later started showing short films. -
Lumiere Brothers
They did what Edison did not want to. They devised a projector big enough to show a stop motion to an audience. -
Their Short Films
The brothers then started to create 30-60 second short films. These films were shown at a cafe in Paris. -
The Great Train Robery
Edwin Porter created the first U.S. narrative film. It had 14 scenes and lasted 12 minutes which was epic back then. -
Nickelodeon
Vaudevilles expanded into these small theaters that showed short films. They also still performed a couple vaudeville acts. -
No Credit
The MPPC had decided to not put actors/actresses names in the credits due to fear of them becoming too well-known. They never wanted to give them more money than already being paid. -
Motion Pictures Patents Companies
Led by Thomas Edison companys wanted to collect all their patents and combined them so they could control things. Things such as, production of raw film stock, and film distribution ad exhibition. They wanted to control just about everything in the motion picture industry. -
The move
The movie capital moved from the east coast to the west for two reasons. To get away from the MPPC, and to change scenery. East coast weither was very bipolar and they needed a right kind of lighting to make the film look right. West coast was the perfect place to go. -
Charlie Chaplin
The first 20th century superstar. "Comedic genius." Worked in silent films bringing comedy to these films. Ended up making around a million dollars a year. Died December 25th, 1977. -
America's Sweetheart
Mary Pickford was one of the two people that were actually famous back then. Died May 29th 1979