Post One

This post will illustrate some of the defining moments of Cinema pre the 1930's.

Pre 1930's Cinema:

1.  The Horse In Motion (1878)

Innovative photographer Eadweard Muybridge took a series of 12 stereoscopic cameras spaced at 21-inch intervals over 20 feet which he used to capture a single horse stride. These pictures were taken at one thousandth of a second. The groundbreaking piece of work when finished shows the stills in motion to the show the racehorse galloping. The piece of film was the first ever animal to be shown moving and can be classed as the first motion picture. Muybridge can be associated with setting the groundwork for the development of motion picture cameras which lead to the entire industry of cinema.

2.  A Trip To The Moon (1902)

French director Georges Melies wrote and acted in his 400th and most notable film, A Trip To The Moon. His black and white silent film can be classed as the first science fiction film. If projected at the standard rate at the time, it lasted 14 minutes with the ending sequence of the parade and statue being added in 2002. The film is most technically innovated for its time with the use of animation and special effects to show the spaceship land in the Moon's eye. Melies later developed the art of double exposure and the use of dissolve and fade.

3.  The Great Train Robbery (1903)

In 1903 former Edison Studios cameraman Edwin S. Porter wrote and produced The Great Train Robbery. This piece of film is among the earliest existing in American Cinema. It was considered a milestone in film making due to presenting the audience with a narrative story with multiple plot lines in which a group of Cowboys set out to hold up a train. The black and white film with some hand tinted coloured scenes included the first close up. It also used a number of innovative techniques which include camera movement, on location shooting techniques and sophisticated editing techniques such as double exposure composite editing.

4.  The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

The silent black and white film directed by D.W.Griffith was an important and key film of all time in American cinema history. The reason this film was so important was it due to containing many new techniques which included a colour sequence at the end, a musical score and the use of subtitles. It was also the longest film at time time lasting 3 hours. Most notably this film was known for being controversial and explicitly racist piece of cinema and was tied to the Ku Klux Klan.

5.  The Jazz Singer (1927)

Historians label The Jazz Singer as a photo-dramatic production and cinematic landmark. It was a massive success in financial terms as it grossed $2,500,000 at the box office. It was a historic milestone for cinema due to it being the first feature-length motion picture with a synchronised musical score and sound effects using Vitaphone's system. The film was a huge success when sound in a film was dismissed as a fad. It went on to win a Oscar and be listed as one of the films you must see before you die.

Sources:

www.filmsite.org

www.imdb.com

www.wildfilmhistory.org