Thomas_Nguyen_History_of_Film

Stop-Action-Series Photographs

1873

This was the first moving picture. It was a bet that at one point in time while galloping, a horse has all 4 feet off the ground. people took these pictures and realized that this was true. Not only did people found this out, they also realized that making motion films would be a good idea, thus sparking cinematography.

Roundhay Garden Scene

Oct 14, 1888

This is the oldest surviving and first ever film ever made. While it is only 2.11 seconds, it is still considered a film. It showed the people in the film dancing, and was made by Louis de Prince.

Kinetoscope

1889

This was the first "movie projector. It shows a "film" by moving the conveyor belt of images over a light source, allowing you to see the images. You saw the images by paying to watch it and then looking through a small peephole in the machine. This was still a prototype, and all the films were silent.

Clyclographe

1890

This was the first panoramic camera, allowing the user to move the camera around 360 degrees. People could now take shots of a landscape, without having to move backwards enough to take it. It wasn't the first panoramic camera, but it was the better and more popular camera in that time.

The Great Train Robbery

Dec 1, 1903

This film was a 12 minute silent short film, and it featured no credits. The film had a lot of camera techniques that weren't normal back then, such as composite editing, on-camera shooting, and frequent camera movement. It was also one of the first films to use Cross Cutting, where two scenes where occuring at the same time but in different locations.

Cupid Angling

Jun 16, 1918

This was the first ever colorized film, but it wasn't the first technicolor film. It was colorized using the Douglas Natural Color process. It just showed many images of children playing.

Brownie Camera

1920

This version of the Brownie camera was made in 1920 although the first one was made in the 1900's. This was a simple camera, allowing regular people to take pictures. It now allowed amateurs to make pictures, and eventually movies.

The Jazz Singer

Oct 9, 1927

This was the first "sound" film, as it was still without regular dialogue and was rather singing from the characters. However, it still ended the silent era, and movies and shorts were made with sound, and eventually dialogue. It is about a jazz singer and his adventures in life, such as trying to balance jazz and his Jewish family's rules.

The Wizard of Oz

Aug 25, 1939

This was the first technicolor film, but not the first colorized film nor the first adaptation of the book. It is about a girl and her dog who gets swept away by a tornado the Oz, where they meet three other characters, each with their own flaws. This was a milestone in the film industry, for they made most of their films in color after this.

The Mark of Zorro

Nov 1, 1940

While there were no milestones in the film industry, there were a lot of successful movies being made, such as this one. The story takes place in California, where Don Diego sees people being mistreated by a corrupt ruler. He then takes on the identity of Zorro, a man dressed in all black, fighting for the common people.

Ben-Hur

Nov 18, 1959

There are still no milestones for the film industry, and there won't be any until 1980, but the film industry still improved during this time. One of those improvements is Ben-Hur, a Jew who is forced into slavery by a childhood friend. He then goes on many adventures, eventually becoming free and reuniting with his mother and sister.

Psycho

Jun 16, 1960

This movie was one of the most famous movies of all time, becoming famous for its trademark sound effect. It takes place in mostly the Bates Motel, where two murders took place. The murderer is Norman Bates, a man who killed his mother and her lover ten years earlier. Afterwards, he exhumes his mother's body, and treats it as it is still alive, as he changes into feminine clothes and speaking like her. He then gets consumed by this, and kills anyone who is a woman or tries to look into his past.

Jaws

Jun 20, 1975

This movie was so impactful, people started to hunt sharks, and laws were placed to stop them. This story is about a monster great white that attacks and kills people, they kill it with one shot to the head, but not before multiple people die from the shark. It puts sharks in a bad light, and the author regretted doing so, as people then became terrified of sharks, to the point of mass genocide of them.

Digital Cinematography

1987

Sony first came up with idea of "electric cinematography" in the late 1980's, and made the first HD movie, Juila and Julia (1987). After this, people started to make more and more HD digitally captured, recorded, and edited movies. This is still being used today as the main source of video capturing and recording.

The Internet

1990

When the internet got created, the film industry exploded. People could now transfer videos they've already made or in the process of making. People also could edit their films with ease, thanks to video editing software downloaded from the internet. When Youtube and other video platforms were created, the film industry exploded once again, with professionals, amateurs, and regular people now uploading their videos into the internet itself.