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Horse Racing
the making of film all started when an englishmen decided to make this outrageous bet of $25,000 that when a horse is moving at full speed, all four hooves would be off the ground. To figure this out, the lads had to take multiple pictures back to back to get the right shot, and when they laid all the images out. it appeared that the horse looked to be running. -
vaudeville
short skits and performances were popular during this time and was mainly what they showed in a "cinema" . They were extremely short and needed something to fill the time between each clip. -
peephole kinectoscope
Thomas Edison took this idea and invented the peephole kinectoscope. To get an income, he was selfish and had people pay indivdually for each viewing. -
A Kinectoscope Parlor
Once they discovered that you could do motion pictures, a kinectoscope parlor was made. Basically you would put one eye up to the peephole to look inside to look at the moving pictures. -
cinematographe
As we have movie theaters now, back then they were called cinematographes which are much smaller than today invented by Lumiere. Their showings were only 30 seconds long and pictured a short clip of people falling off a horse or a child trying to catch a fish in a fishbowl. -
nikelodeon
Nickelodeons were small "outings" that would show piano playing and one or two short vaudeville. It gots it's name because people would pay one nickel for a showing. -
First Narrative Film
The first ever narrative film was called "The Great Train Robbery" and was only 12 minutes long. There were actors, camera angles, and plot of the "epic". -
Why Hollywood?
Many films were taken in California due to the gorgeous weather. Unlike New York where it is mostly hazy for the majority of the year, Hollywood is the place to be where persuing actors turn into stars and where movies are shot at. -
monopoly
In an attempt to control the amount of profit that the nickelodeons were getting, a monopoly was created. Several companies formed a trust called the Motion Picture Patent Company (MPPC) which was led by Thomas Edison. -
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford is one of the first famous actors along side of Charlie Chaplin. She starred in several short films and jumped between several studios between 1912 and 1919. -
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin is one of the first famous actors in the early 20th century. He worked for only $150 a week and later on by 1917 he was already making more than a million each year. His films weren't only for laughs, but also subtly sent out messages about good and evil in society. -
Unnamed Actors Now Known
Instead of actors being unknown to the public, when the films industry changed from NY to Southern California, studios believed that those people deserved to be showcased to the crowd. The independent studios believed that if people knew about a certain actor being in a film, they would come watch sometimes regardless of what it is about.
