The Origins of Film by Barb Karg, Rick Sutherland, & Jim Van Over
Whether you decide to enroll in a film school, or even move to Hollywood to pursue your dream, you need to learn the nuts and bolts of the industry, all its pitfalls and potential, and immerse yourself in its history. By learning about the history of film, you will develop a basic understanding of the fundamental workings of film equipment and a sense of where your project will fit in the constantly evolving industry of film.
Humble Beginnings
The actual filmmaking process has evolved over the decades from the Silent Era to the present-day blockbusters full of special effects. Film continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences the world over and remains one of the few common art forms shared among all manner of people. In 1893 America's first “studio” was built by Thomas Edison in West Orange, New Jersey. The building was called “The Black Maria” because it resembled the era's dark, cramped police patrol wagons known by that name. It was here that Edison filmed his first motion pictures, including Fred Ott's Sneeze, a comical version of one of his employees sneezing for the camera.
At the same time as Edison, French brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere were working on developing projectors that could show a film to a small audience. Their invention, the Cinematograph, was introduced in Europe in 1895. A year later, Edison released his Projectoscope, and the individual Kinetoscopes were gradually replaced.
Before Edison built the studio, he developed a camera to record and show his movies. In 1888, he filed a plan to patent the Kinetoscope, a device that would “do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.” The Kinetoscope recorded objects in motion and reproduced them. A prototype of the device was debuted for a woman's group in 1891 and patented later that same year. The device was revolutionary, but it didn't allow more than one person to view a film at a time. Viewers had to look through a peephole in the top of the device in order to view the film.
How the West Was Won
The earliest western film, Cripple Creek Barroom, was filmed by Edison in 1898. This was followed by the first American narrative film, Edwin Porter's 1903 film The Great Train Robbery, and Edison's 1906 A Race for Millions. These films originated numerous western clichés such as the damsel in distress, claim jumping, and the shootout at high noon. More importantly, they started a trend that sparked the production of more than 5,400 western silent films, shorts, and documentaries filmed between 1898 and 1930.
Screenwriters Are Born
Early films were called actuality films, because they focused on images of everyday life as it occurred. A train rushing by, a vaudeville actor performing, a parade, a sporting event — any event that could be captured on film became a movie. There was no writing done for these films, they were simply slice-of-life imagery. After filmmakers began filming reenactments, such as battle scenes from the Spanish-American War, the idea of portraying fictional stories became popular. As a result, the role of the screenwriter was born and permanently changed the way films were created.
