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25000 dollar bet (creation of film)
In an effort to settle a bet an experiment was set up in which a rapid sequence of photos was taken of a running horse. This was to prove that at some point when a horse is running that all four of its hooves are off of the ground. They then discovered that when you do this the pictures look like they are moving. -
Peephole Kinetoscope
Thomas Edison devised the peephole kinetoscope. He was making a lot of money by showing the film to one person at a time. He thought that as long as he can get every one to watch the film one at a time then he could make a lot of profit from it. -
The very first movie theatre
Once the principle of creating the illusion of motion from a series of still images was realized, devices were invented that would fascinate anyone who wanted to watch "moving things." People would come into a room and watch a 60 second film on a large screen. -
Cinematography
The Lumiere brothers in France devised a projector that could show motion pictures on a screen for an audience. They did the exact thing that Tomas Edison did not want to do. They eventually ended up making more money and Edison got angry. -
Vaudeville/Nickelodeon
Small theaters that featured short dramatic skits, comedy routines, and song and dance numbers. Expanded into nickelodeon. These were small storefront theaters that films along with one or two vaudeville acts. -
the first U.S. narrative film
The Great Train Robbery. A real story line involving crosscutting between different narrative sequences and different camera positions and distances were all introduced. People were not used to seeing things that looked this realistic and so the film ended up scaring the people. -
MPPC
The MPPC is a group formed by Thomas Edison and they wanted to be the only film people. In result of this they didn't want to list the names of actors in their films because they feared that the actors would become well known. And would subsequently want more money. -
Famous actors
Independent studios on the West Coast immediately recognized an advantage in developing popular stars. And that audiences would pay to see them time and time again. So they created the Hollywood walk of fame and started mentioning the actors at the end of their films. -
Nickelodeon theaters attract 26-million viewers
The popularity of films soon attracted the potential for big profits. And so they created a monopoly in an attempt to control everything. They stared showing longer films which drew in more people. -
Charlie Chaplin
One of the first actors to get their name put on the Hollywood walk of fame. He started out working at $150 a week, and by 1917 was making more than a million a year. And got famous because of the types of roles he would play in films. -
Southern California
Film moved from New York because most films were shot outside. And it is very dreary there and a lot of light was needed to accommodate the slow speed of the film in those days. This is one reason they migrated over to Southern California. -
moved to get away from MPPA control
Film also moved to the west coast so that they were much farther away from MPPA and Thomas Edison. They wanted to get away from them because it started to get dangerous if you wanted to create a film. If the MPPC found out that you created a film then they would show up to your house and destroy all of your equipment.
