Early Film History – Flashcards
Flashcard maker : Karen Combs
Vertical Integration
Practice where a single entity (ie a production company or studio) controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution
Paramount Act of 1948
stated that vertical integration constitutes a monopoly and is therefore illegal (often ignored today)
Kinetoscope
Housed in “parlors,” pre-projection.
Developed by Thomas Edison, the first continuous-film motion picture viewing machine to gain public acceptance. An individual peered through an eyepiece at a continuous 50-foot loop of 35mm positive film, which established the 35mm format as the motion picture standard.
Nickelodeon
The very first “movie theaters” of which there were over 5,000 in the US in 1908.
H.L. Mencken
newspaper writer; suggested movies were appropriate entertainment for the “booboise” of America.
Camera Obscura
A move towards projection; used a mirror system.
Daguerrotype
a photograph made by an early method on a plate of chemically treated metal (developed by Louis JM Daguerre)
Edward Muybridge
Hired by Leland Stanford (governor of California in 1878) to win a bet proving that at one point, a horse’s hooves are all off the ground at the same time; thus, captured motion with still frames.
Phenakistoscope
Spinning wheel that had a rod in the back that you would use to spin it. Focus on one part of the circle to create image
Dickson Sound Film Experiment
Purportedly recorded sound synchronously with the use of the Edison wax cylinder.
Black Maria Studio
Edison’s film studio
Celluloid Perforations
Allowed film to be moved, held, and exposed.
“Serpentine Dance”
Early film with aesthetic, quality, and thematic value.
Phantasmagoria
18th Century example of early projection device.
Lumiere Brothers
French brothers who created early mobile camera, were the fathers of film in France and were developing the medium in France at the same time as Edison in America. Believed in capturing “reality,” not stories.
“Mary, Queen of Scots”
Created by Edison; considered the first “effects” film.
“Humorous Phases of Funny Faces”
created by James Stuart Blackton; first American animated film
David Belasco
one of the most important figures in theater. American playwright, director, producer. Known for excessive emotion. His rules of melodrama and farce were used by early film directors, especially Griffith.
George Melies
A Magician and “genius”; French filmmaker famous for leading many technical developments in early cinema, he is most famous A Trip to the Moon ( Le voyage dans la Lune)
Brighton School
Originated techniques like close-up, tracking shot, POV, pan, and cross-cut.
R.W. Paul
First used multiple camera positions for the same action (coverage).
Henry Ford
in 1913, introduced the assembly line, and the notion of division of labor.