A brief history of the film industry (1890s-1900s)

The invention of the motion picture camera

Cinema is often considered to have been “invented” in the 1890s following the industrial revolution. With the emergence of the middle class came an increase in demand for activities that would fill up newly acquired leisure time. The Kinetograph, which is regarded as the the first motion picture camera, was invented in 1890 by Thomas Edison. Later, in 1894, Edison opened what he called “Kinetoscope Parlors," in which films were displayed to the public thanks to a secondary invention of Edison’s, the Kinetoscope, which projected moving images onto a screen. A similar technological innovation was emerging in France simultaneously, when Auguste and Louis Lumière began holding public screenings of short films projected by their invention, Cinématographe.

The films shown by Edison and the Lumière brothers were simple one shot films, all between thirty and sixty seconds. They depicted regular everyday actions—babies eating, trains approaching, women dancing—but nevertheless, audiences were wowed by the concept of moving pictures. 

 

Storytelling during the Nickelodeon Era

During the Nickelodeon Era, beginning in 1904, films became longer and started developing narratives, requiring multiple shots. Without the use of dialogue, however, it was a struggle for directors to convey narrative importance. Throughout this period, which lasted until about 1912, directors experimented with stylistic techniques that helped with narrative clarity. Certain blocking techniques were used to convey depth within the film, camera placements were changed between shots to highlight important objects or actors' facial expressions. Most importantly were innovations in set design and lighting. Painted backdrops were replaced with three-dimensional sets and real furniture, and the flat lighting of the previous era which relied on sunlight was improved by including additional artificial light.

​