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The Bet
Eadweard Muybridge bet $25,000 that, while running, all four of the horses legs were off of the ground at one point. Muybridge's friends accepted the bet, and wanted proof that the horses legs did all come off the ground. For proof the lined up a bunch of cameras and when the horse ran past they took the pictures. When they looked at the pictures they noticed two things, one was that Muybridge was right and that it gave the illusation that the horse in the pictures was moving. -
Peephole Kinetoscope
Invented by Thomas Edison, the Peephole Kinetoscopes were a stand that showed pictures at a fast pace. These stands could only show the pictures to one person at a time. When people went to go see the pictures they would say The Moving Pictures instead of movies. -
Filming in California
In California, it was always sunny so you could almost always have good light while filming. As well as the sun there was also very little rain in California so your set and fotoage wouldn't get ruined. -
Filming in New York
If you lived in New York and wanted to film, you had to be approved by Thomas Edison. In addition to dealing with Edison you also had to film everything how you wanted it to look. If you needed light you had to do it when the sun was out. However it rained a lot in New York, so you would lose that time to film. -
The Cinematographe
The Cinematographe was invented by the Lumiere Brothers. The Cinematographe was a projecter, and it was origanally invented by Edison, but he never realised it. The invention of the Cinematographe was a huge hit, because it allowed people to watch the Moving Images with thier friends and family. -
Movies
After the cinematographe was invented, more movies started to come out. These movies started to be played in movie theaters. However the movies back then were only 30 - 60 seconds long and didn't have much of a story to them. One of the first movies was just a little boy's hand, inside of a fish bowl, tring to catch a fish. -
Movie Theaters
Movie Theaters were more like an art museum to the people who went to watch the movie. It only cost one-franc watch one of those movies. All of the movies were between 20 and 60 seconds long, and while that may seem short to us it was pretty long for everyone back then. Everybody was simply amazed with the movies, and how far technology was going. -
Vaudeville
Vaudevilles were small theathers that featured short dramatic skits, comedy routines, and song and dance numbers. They only cost a nickel to watch these short films. Vaudevilles were later renamed to Nickelodeans because of their price. -
Nickelodeans
Nickelodeans were origonally called Vaudevilles, but they changed the name to Nickelodeans in 1900 because it only cost a nickel to watch. By 1910 Nickelodean theaters were attracting 26 million peole each week. Five years after that, the Nickelodean theaters were double that amount. -
The First Real Movie
The first real movie was released December 1, 1903. This movie was called The Great Train Robbery. All of the other movies up until that point had been between 20-60 seconds long, but The Great Train Robbery was 12 minutes long. This was the first movie that had an actual plot. -
Actors and Actresses
Actors and actresses were always unnamed up until around 1910. Edison always thought that his actors and actresses were better kept unnamed. However the indepentent film makers in California saw that some of the actors/ actresses were more loved then others and that people would watch more movies if their favorite actor/ actress were in them. so around 1910 the actors and actresses in California were named and the credits were born. -
Thomas Edison
Most people know Thomas Edison for his invention of the light bulb, but he also invented the Peephole Kinetoscope and he invented his own projecter. Edison didn't share his projecter because he wanted to charge more people buy forceing them to watch one at a time. Once the projecter was out Edison decided to take ownershop of all the filming equipment. If you wanted to film your own movie then you had to go thourgh with Edison.
