History of Movies
2 min read
Today we can watch a film on a phone, but movies have a long and surprising history.
The Very Beginning
Before movies, inventors made toys and devices that showed pictures in quick succession so they seemed to move. In 1895 the Lumière brothers held one of the first public film screenings in Paris. Audiences watched short scenes of everyday life and were amazed.
The Silent Era
Early films had no recorded speech. Title cards showed the dialogue, and musicians in the cinema played live music. Comedy stars used clever movement and expressions to make people laugh without a single spoken word.
Early Pioneers
Before film cameras existed, photographer Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs of a galloping horse in the late 1870s to show how it moved. In the 1890s, Thomas Edison’s laboratory developed the Kinetoscope, a cabinet that let one person at a time peek at moving pictures. The Lumière brothers then found a way to project films onto a screen for a whole audience.
The Golden Age of Hollywood
From the 1920s to the 1940s, big studios in Hollywood made many of the films that are now called classics. Actors, directors, and crews often worked under contract at one studio, which gave each studio its own style.
Sound Arrives
In the late 1920s, films with synchronized sound became popular. The Jazz Singer from 1927 is often described as the first feature film with synchronized speech and singing. Soon almost every new film had a soundtrack.
Color and Animation
Color film improved over the following decades. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was the first full-length cel-animated feature. The Wizard of Oz in 1939 is famous for the moment its story shifts from black-and-white to color.
The Computer Age
In 1995, Toy Story became the first feature film made entirely with computer animation. Digital cameras and computer effects soon changed how every kind of film was made.
Streaming
In recent years many families watch at home through streaming services as well as at the cinema. The tools have changed, but the heart of movies remains the same: telling stories that people enjoy together.
