Brief History of Cinema
- 130 - |
Ptolemy of Alexandria discovers the phenomenon of persistence of vision
|
- 1250 - |
Leon Battista Alberti invents forerunner of the camera obscura
|
- Aug. 24, 1456 - |
Heinrich Cremer finishes binding the first Gutenberg bibles, first books to be printed with movable type
|
- 1800s - |
Development of widespread literacy in England and elsewhere in Europe, and development as a consequence of mass media culture of books, magazines, and newspapers
|
- 1810 -
|
König’s steam-powered printing press
|
- 1824 - |
Persistence of Vision |
Peter Mark Roget describes the characteristic of the human brain to keep pictures, which the eye saw, "in view" for approximately 1/20th to 1/5th of a second after they have been removed from the field of vision.
|
- March 16, 1827 - |
The first African-American newspaper, Freeman’s Journal, appears
|
- 1834 - |
Zoetrope is invented by George Horner
|
- 1879 - |
Series Photography |
Invented by Eadweard Maybridge with his mechanism called "Zoopraxiscope" - he recorded live action continuously for the first time, with series of 12 cameras.
|
- 1882 - |
Etienne-Jules Marey recorded the first series photography of live action in a single camera with his Chronophotographic gun.
|
- 1884 - |
New York manufacturer George Eastman invents film on a roll, rather than on individual slides.
|
- 1887 - |
Hannibal Goodwin first used celluloid roll film as a base for light-sensitive emulsions.
|
- 1889 - |
George Eastman began mass-production of celluloid roll film.
|
- 1891 - |
Kinetograph
|
Invented by William Kenedy, Laurie Dickson is the first true
|
- 1893 - |
"BLACK MARIA" |
Laurie Dickson builds up the first motion-picture studio:
|
- April 14, 1894 - |
In a converted shoe store on 1155 Broadway in NY, Andrew Holland opens the first Kinetoscope parlor.
|
- 1895 - |
Cinematographe
|
Auguste and Louis Lumiere patented camera, projector and film printer all in one.
|
- March 22, 1895 - |
"Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory" |
The Lumiere brothers projected their first film to french audiences.
|
Latham loop |
To avert breaking of the film and to be able to use longer films, Gray and Otway Lathanm place a small loop above and below the projection lens, preserving it with extra set of sprocket holes.
|
- Dec. 28, 1895 - |
The birth of cinema - Lumière brothers showed a short programme of their documentary films (and the fictional one L’Arrosseur arrossé), to a paying audience in a room on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. These included a now famous single shot film called The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station.
|
- 1896 - |
Vitascope
|
Edison buys a machine with Latham loop, powered by electricity, from Thomas Armat.
|
- April 23, 1896 - |
"Butterfly Dance" |
The first color tinted film.
|
- June, 1896 - |
Censorship begins with the Russian authorities confiscating the film showing the tragic coronation of Tsar Nicholas II on March 18, 1896 from Francis Doublier.
|
- 1896 - |
"The Cabbage Fairy" |
Alice Guy-Blache directed perhaps the first ever scripted film.
|
- 1897 - |
"The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight"
|
Enoch J. Rector extended film into another area: commerce.
|
- 1898 - |
George Albert Smith was among the first to film action and then project it in reverse.
|
- 1899 - |
In England, R.W. Paul built the first camera dolly.
|
Georges Melies |
Is the First cinema artist with his manipulation of real time and real space.
|
Alice Guy |
Is the cinema's FIRST FEMALE DIRECTOR working for Gaumont in France.
|
- 1900 - |
"Grandma's reading glass"
|
George Albert Smith inserts the first CLOSE-UPS - motivated by onscreen characters looking through keyholes or spectacles.
|
- 1901 - |
Edwin S. Porter uses TIME-LAPSE when shooting Pan-American exposition by night - exposing a frame every 10 seconds
|
- 1901 - |
"Fire!"
|
James Williamson intercuts between interior and exterior shots of a building.
|
- 1903 - |
"Life of an American fireman"
|
Edwin S. Porter combines STOCK FOOTAGE from Edison archive with stages scenes
|
- 1905 - |
The first permanent movie theater - Nickelodeon (nickel theater) opens in Pittsburg.
|
- 1906 - |
"The True Story of the Kelly Gang" |
Australian John Tait makes the first feature-length film.
|
- 1908 - |
Societe Film d'Art
|
Freres Lafitte establishes the FIRST HIGHBROW MOTION PICTURE MOVEMENT in Paris, with the desire to generate cinema interest within the middle classes.
|
- 1909 - |
"The Jolly Germs"
|
Emile Cohl becomes the father of ANIMATION, pioneering frame-by-frame line drawing, combined with puppets and ordinary objects.
|
- 1910 - |
Carl Laemmle announces that Florence Lawrence and her leading man King Baggott will attend the St. Louis premiere of their first movie together "The Broken Bath" and thus creates the
|
- 1911 - |
"The Loafer" |
The first “eye-line matching," and the very early use of rough reverse angle editing.
|
- 1912 - |
Phi Phenomenon
|
Max Wertheimer, observes the optical illusion that causes us to see a series of still images as moving.
|
- 1913 - |
"Fantomas"
|
Louis Feuillad becomes the begetter of the mise-en-scene, because he creatively uses space and movement within the shot.
|
- 1907-1913 - |
Many production companies move from the East coast to a rather small industrial town on the West coast called Hollywood, because of landscape diversity, better and warmer weather and access to theater actors/actresses.
|
- 1914 - |
"The Squaw Man" |
The first feature-length Western made in Hollywood directed by Cecil B. DeMille
|
- 1916 - |
"Intolerance" |
D.W. Griffith showed that a cut between shots could be a thematic tool, asking the audience to notice, not something about the action or story, but about the meaning of the sequence.
|
- 1917 - |
"El Apostol" |
The first animated feature, which no longer survives. Directed by Frederico Valle (Argentina), used over 58,000 individual drawings and took twelve months to make.
|
- 1917 - |
The first successful movie color system TECHNICOLOR is introduced.
|
- 1918 - |
Thomas Ince pioneered the STUDIO SYSTEM of production when he builds his studio "Inceville" - the first modern Hollywood studio.
|
Mack Sennett |
Is the creator of the most crucial American movie approach of the silent era -
|
- 1919 - |
The first film school is formed in Russia - Moscow Film School.
|
Lev Kuleshov effect |
Every shot has 2 meanings:
|
- 1920s - |
Robert Flaherty creates "NARRATIVE DOCUMENTARY" genre of film production.
|
- 1922 - |
"The Toll of the Sea"
|
Directed by Chester Franklin is the first movie to use Technicolor.
|
- 1924 - |
"The Last Laugh"
|
F.W.Murnau for the first time moves the camera BACKWARD and FORWARD, as well as UP and DOWN and from SIDE TO SIDE.
|
- 1925 - |
"The Joyless Street" |
G.W.Pabst first cuts between shots on character movement, called CONTINUITY EDITING.
|
Schuffan process |
Glass plate with magnifying mirrored surface is placed at a 45-degree angle to the camera and miniatures are reflected onto it.
|
- 1926 - |
The first studio to try sound was Warner Bros. and they are the first to build sound studio.
|
- 1927 - |
"Metropolis"
|
Fritz Lang uses the Schuffan process for first time
|
- 1928 - |
John Logie Baird in London demonstrates Television
|
- 1928 - |
"Lights of New York"
|
Directed by Bryan Foy for Warner Bros. is the first all
|
- 1929 - |
"Hallelujah"
|
Directed by King Vidor is the first film to use POSTSYNCHRONIZATION.
|
- 1930 - |
"Murder" |
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock this film have the first improvised dialogue.
|
- 1931 -
|
"City Streets"
|
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, he for the first time uses
|
- 1932 - |
The first film festival begins - Venice Film Festival.
|
- 1933 - |
"The Private Life of Henry VII"
|
Directed by Alexander Korda it starts the rage of the Historical Biography film.
|
- 1934 -
|
"La Cucaracha"
|
A short live-action movie, which first uses three- color Technicolor process.
|
- Jan. 12, 1940 - |
First American television network broadcast on WNBT-TV, New York, and WRGB-TV, Schenectady.
|
- 1941 - |
"Citizen Kane" |
Orson Welles inovations are:
|
- 1944 - |
Technicolor Monopack system first used for features.
|
- 1945 -
|
"Roma, Open City"
|
Directed by Roberto Rossellini, this is the first neorealist film to be shown outside Italy.
|
- 1946 -
|
Cannes Film Festival founded.
|
- 1948 - |
"Macbeth"
|
Directed by Orson Welles, the film has the first LONG TAKE of continuous dramatic action attempted on celluloid - 10 minute.
|
- 1951 -
|
Lucille Ball’s "I Love Lucy" sets the model for television situation comedy;
|
- 1952 -
|
"Bwana Devil"
|
Directed by Arch Oboler is the first 3–D movie.
|
- Jan. 1954 - |
Francois Truffaut publishes his essay "A Certain tendency in French Cinema" in Cahiers du Cinema, with which he establishes the "AUTEUR THEORY."
|
- 1955 -
|
"La Pointe-Courte"
|
Directed by Agnes Varda is the first feature French New Wave film.
|
- 1957 - |
First demonstration of laser device, by Hughes Aircraft Co.
|
- 1961 - |
"Ersatz"
|
Directed by Vatroslav Mimica and Dusan Vukotic is the first Foreign animated film to win an Oscar.
|
- 1963 - |
Super-8 mm film format introduced for amateur market.
|
- 1964 - |
"Fistful of dollars" |
Directed by Sergio Leone, this movie starts the
|
- 1967 -
|
"Bonnie and Clyde"
|
Directed by Arthur Penn, this film started the New
|
- 1970 - |
"M*A*S*H" |
Directed by Robert Altman - It was the first mainstream American film to ridicule religion and reputedly the first to use the word “fuck.”
|
- 1970 - |
Video movement begins with half-inch portable videotape system hitting the market - Portapak. Made by Sony. |
- 1971 - |
Intel introduces the 4004, first microprocessor chip.
|
- 1975 - |
The Altair 8800 is the first personal computer offered to the public for sale in the U.S.
|
- 1976 - |
"Futureworld" |
Directed by Richard T. Heffron, the film is the debut of 3-D computer animation-wireframe hand for display on a monitor.
|
- 1978 - |
The popular newspaper film critics in Chicago, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, appear on the first PBS film review show, establishing the critical trend for the 1980s. |
- 1981 - |
Paramount’s syndicated Entertainment Tonight becomes first national entertainment
|
- 1982 -
|
"Star Tek II: The Wrath of Khan"
|
Directed by Nicholas Meyer, here we have the first extensive sequence of photorealistic computer animation - dead planet is transformed by missile blast into vibrant place in 60 sec. The first DIGITAL MATTE PAINTING.
|
- 1984 - |
"The Last Starfighter" |
Directed by Nick Castle, is the first feature to simulate ALL of its special effects - 27 minutes of deep-space sequences - 230 separate scenes.
|
- 1984 - |
Michael Jackson’s Thriller (directed by John Landis) is the first music video to list
|
- 1985 - |
"Young Sherlock Holmes"
|
Directed by Barry Levinson, in this movie the stained glass knight is the first COMPUTER-GENERATED CHARACTER using LASER SCANNING - Dennis Muren used laser recorder to scan the knight directly onto the film stock.
|
- 1988 - |
Sony introduces the Mavica, first digital still camera, but few consumers are ready to switch from film, and it fails quickly. Success comes eight years later.
|
- 1989 - |
"The Abyss"
|
Directed by James Cameron, introduced the DIGITAL SET-Dennis Muren in ILM creates digital environment within which he controls lighting, camera position, movement, and the movement of objects on the set.
|
- 1990 - |
"The Hunt for Red October" |
Directed by John McTiernan, this movie first used PARTICLE animation software.
|
- 1991 - |
"Photocopy Cha Cha"
|
Directed by Chel White, is the first animated movie created on a copy machine.
|
- 1994 - |
"Toy Story" |
Directed by John Lasseter is the first fully computer-animated feature.
|
- 1995 - |
Hollywood majors commit to single standard format known as DVD.
|
- 1995 - |
"Casper" |
Directed by Brad Silberling, this movie has the first completely computer generated character.
|
- 1995 - |
Dogme 95 |
Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg, Soren Kragh-Jacobsen and Kristian Levring made the Dogme95 manifesto together with a set of rules called "The Vow of Chastity" which were designed to liberate the cinema from its bondage to illusionist dramaturgy and bourgeois romanticism.
|
- 1996 - |
"The English Patient" |
Directed by Anthony Minghella and edited by Walter Murch, who won an Oscar for Editing, the film is the first Oscar film to be cut entirely on digital equipment.
|
- 1999 - |
“Cambrure” |
Directed by Eric Rohmer this movie is the first digital showing at the Cannes Film Festival
|
- 2003 - |
"Cold Mountain" |
Directed by Anthony Minghella and edited by Walter Murch, the film is entirely edited on a standard Power Mac G4 computer using Apple's Final Cut Pro software.
|