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The motion picture project
Thomas Edison’s assistant W.K.L. Dickson devoted himself to the “motion picture project”. He and some staff created a horizontal-feed motion picture camera. -
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Motion Picture timespan
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The Kinetograph
A peephole viewing machine was created by Thomas Edison during a convention. It showed a man taking his hat off, smiling, and bowing. He called it a kinetograph and the peephole a kinetoscope. -
New Film
Thomas Edison’s use of 1 1/2 film in his vertical-feed motion picture camera established the basis of our 35mm film gauge. -
The Black Maria
Edison builds a film studio in New Jersey. It is called “The Black Maria”. It is a slang word for a police patrol wagon that the studio is said to resemble. -
Censorship
The Holland brothers opened the first kinetoscope parlor on April 14. They had over $16,000 gross receipts. Also Senator Bradley forbid one of Edison’s films because it showed a dancer’s under garments. This was the first censorship in movie history. On June 6 Charles Francis Jenkins was the first person to project something for an audience. -
1895-1900
Edison’s film sales and kinetoscope exceeded $177,000. Charles Raff and Frank Gammon bought a “phantoscope” (it was made by Thomas Armat) and renamed it “Edison’s Vitascope”. Edison files a patent-infringement suit against the Biograph Company.Vaudeville theatres establish permanent relations with motion picture exhibition services. Biograph introduces a new tripod head that allows quick, smooth panning of the camera.The actualities (scenes of daily life), the news events (both real and reconstr -
1901-1909
Edison introduces a new projector that can take up 1,000 feet of film on a single reel. Thomas L. Tally's Electric Theatre becomes the first permanent movie theatre in the U.S. Edison's key motion picture patents were declared invalid, terminating all of Edison's lawsuits for patent infringement. Edison hires some of Biograph's most creative talent. The Kalem Film Company and the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company are formed. Edison projector sales generate over $418,000 in sales. Mary Pickford -
Robert Gottschalk
Robert Gottschalk, the founder and president of the Panavision Corporation, has introduced a variable prismatic lens that enables Panavision's 35mm anamorphic process to considerably reduce the distortion inherent in all of the other competing widescreen processes.
Most movies are now exhibited in the “standard widescreen” aspect ratio of 1.85:1 in the U.S., and 1.66:1 in Europe.
