Movie History

In today’s society, going to the movies is so commonplace that it is hard to imagine a world without cinema. We’ve even reached a point to where you can access them on demand through the invention of streaming services, such as Netflix. However, the movie viewing system we have in place today didn’t always exist. Since the creation of film, the type of movies that are produced, and the way that audiences view them has changed dramatically. In this essay, we are going to look at the evolution of film, and the film viewing experience. To begin, we are going to look at the creation of film.

When looking at the creation of film, it didn’t necessarily start with the creation of film, it started with the creation of the illusion of movement. Magic lanterns were an early example of this. Magic lanterns were projectors which would allow you to project images for a crowd of people which showed movement when transitioning between slides. Another example would be the kinetoscope, which used the idea of persistence of vision. Persistence of vision is an optical illusion that allows us to see two pictures at the same time when the two are flashed between one another. A series of photos would be taken that captured movement, and would be flashed at a rate that allowed you to see a moving picture. Parlors were set up with kinetoscope machines where people could pay to see the moving images. The problem with the kinetoscope is that only one person could view the moving images at a time. This problem was solved when the Lumiere brothers combined the ideas of the magic lantern and the kinetoscope to project moving images, changing film viewing from an individual experience to a group experience. Vaudeville theaters were set up across the country in many of the highly populated cities.

One of the interesting things about Vaudeville theaters is that they played films for the duration of the whole day, and you payed to get in. Unlike today, where you pay per movie that you are viewing. Additionally, you weren’t just paying to view a movie. Vaudeville theatres were beautifully constructed, with additional services, such as vendors and baths, that the customer could take advantage of. This brought on the rise of nickelodeons, makeshift movie theaters that were owners would set up chairs in a shut down shop. They were a big contrast to the vaudeville theatres, but they allowed for a cheap film viewing alternative, bringing in an entirely new audience, and popularized the idea of movie viewing. Many sought to own their own nickelodeon, because it was an easy business to enter, with little initial investment. This form of film viewing didn’t last though, as movie palaces began to replace them. The movie palace charged more, and catered towards more affluent audiences by providing a luxury experience. One of the things that surprised me the most is how the United States film industry was launched in large part by WW1. Before WW1, the US was competing with European film industries, and the war helped to remove their competition. One theory for this is that, because the chemicals used to make film are also used to make gunpowder, European governments moved their focus from producing film to producing more gunpowder, causing their film industries to die off.

At the end of the world, the United States produced almost all films in the entire world. Another invention that promoted success in US film industries was the star system, which can be attributed to the work of Carl Laemmle. Laemmle created the Independent Movie Pictures Company of America (IMP), and needed experienced actors. He convinced a well known actor known as “The Biograph Girl” to join his company by promising to make her a star. He released a campaign stating that she had died, gaining attention from the media. He then released an ad stating that she was not dead, and working on a new movie that was being produced by IMP. Her name, Florence Lawrence, became a household name, and became the first “star. ”