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Early Film Time Line
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Horse Bet
Eadweard Muybridge made a bet that at a certain point a horse has all it's hoves off the ground while running. They proved this by having a horse run by, and have several cameras side by side and take a pitcher at the exact same time. They also found out when flipped through all the pictures real quick it gave an illusion of the horse running. This bet lead to the first ever film. -
Time to Peep
This is when Kinetoscope Parlors came out. Its a place where they had a whole bunch of Peephole Kinetoscopes lined up, (made by Thomas Edison) and where a single person could watch a short film on these machines. -
First Film Projected Motion Pictures
The Lumiere brothers in France made the first projector to show motion pictures on a screen. They called it cinematographe. They showed short 30-60 second films in paris cafes. -
The Great Train Robbery
Edwin Porter an employee of Thomas Edision made the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery. It was actually 12 minutes long. -
Nickelodeons
Vaudevilles started show casing small films, which they called Nickelodeons because it cost a nickel to watch them. They were usually accompanied by a short act or two. -
The Creation of the MPPC
Thomas Eddison and several other companies formed a group called the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Their goal was to form a monoply over the film industry by using all their patents to keep other people from creating films. They wanted to do this so they would earn more money by being able to set what ever prices they wanted to, due to not having any competition. -
Moving West
Around this time film companies started to move west to film, this was due to two reasons. First was due to weather, the weather in New York is dreary and cold. While in Califorina it is always sunny and never rains. Second was so companies could get away from the MPPC and their reign of terror. This lead to the creation of Hollywood and why it is where it is today. -
The Creation of Stars
Due to the MPPC thinking they would demand more moneying, the MPPC would not give their actors names to the public. But when film companies moved west they tried to advertise their actors, so people would come to see their movies just because they liked the actor that was in the movie. -
Americas Sweetheart
One of the big time actors/actresses that came out at that time was Mary Pickford or known by every one at the time "Americas Sweetheart". She was one the first big movie star to ever exist. -
Americas Comedian
Another big time star that came around in that time period was Charlie Chaplin. He was renowned comedian he made fun of everything, dictators, politicians, social status, everything.