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Pinhole Camera
Sir David Brewster, a Scottish scientist was the first man to take a picture using a Pinhole Camera. A Pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens and with a small aperture. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box -
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Film
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chronophotographic camera
William Friese-Greene invented this camera that was capable of taking 10 pictures a second using perforated celluloid film. Sadly it's demonstration and apparent unreliablility failed to impress. His camera appeared in Photographic News and he later sent a clipping to Edison, who probably ripped him off cause that is what Edison did. -
Kinetograph
W.K.L. Dicksonwas the first to patent a camera like that which use today.It operated by taking a series of instantaneous photographs on standard Eastman Kodak photographic emulsion coated on to a transparent celluloid strip 35 mm wide. -
Cinematograph
Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the cinematograph, bringing projection into the medium. It was a camera, printer, and projecter, not to mention a huge success. -
Matches: An Appeal
This stop motion piece was created to encourage the donation of matches to the British government, for soldiers fighting in the Boer war. -
A Trip To The Moon
Georges Méliès, a French film maker, created this fine example of early films, and the silent film ear in general. -
Nickelodeons
Initially the price of viewing a film varied on the amount of film used, it was normally 15 cents per foot in the USA. The first venue to show only films was opened in 1905 in Pittsburgh, this is because by that time there were enough films to fill an hour long programme, and change the programme once a week. After the popularity of this was proven, thousands of these venues had sprung up across the USA by 1906. -
The story of the Kelly Gang
This film entered the UNESCO World Register as the first ever feature lenght film, it was produced in Australia and clocked in at over an hour long. -
How Edison Built Hollywood
As of 1913, most films were still made in New York, but because of Edison's monopoly and evil, lying, thieving lawyers, more people started taking their business to southern California. There, there was a much smaller chance of being sued by Edison's company. -
Developement
There's a lot that happened between 1905 and 1914, so I will summarize by saying the film industry expanded rapidly, entering Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and many other countries. New film techniques were also developed, as will as various shots such as cross-cutting between parallel actions, point of view shots, and reverse-angle cutting. -
The Jazz Singer
Released by Warner Bros. It was mostly silent but contained the first synchronized singing and speaking in a feature film. This is important because it later lead to the sound era. -
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The Golden Age of Hollywood
This is widely regarded as the greatest period in the history of Hollywood. Many developments were made during this period, and many reknowned film-makers and actors lived such as Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart, Walt Disney, The Marx Brothers, and many others. This period saw the release of many famous films including Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Fantasia, The Wizard of Oz, and It's a Wonderful Life. -
Venice Film Festival
The first ever film festival. It is very important because it later led to Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, and Toronto film festivals. -
Seven Samurai/ Maybe it's a Good Thing Japan Lost WWII
In the opinion of many respected film aficionados (such as myself), Seven Samurai is the best film ever made. It's a Kurosawa film, and he is seen not only as a man who truly defined the Japanese film industry, but as one of the greatest film-makers of all time. The reason I say it might be a good thing Japan lost WWII is because of the Westernization that occurred afterwards, the same westernization that I have little doubt greatly affected their film industry. -
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The 60s
The 60s rocked, holy cow. Some fantastic movies came out such as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, The Graduate, Dr. No, and many more! -
Psycho
One can't have a history of film timeline without this classic. Psycho introduced many things into film, it is notable for it's use of music and clever twists as well as the suspense it created. Hitchcock would later go on to be one of the most praised fil makers ever. -
Home Video
Telcan, produced by the Nottingham Electronic Valve Company, was the first home video recorder. Although it was expensive, cumbersome, and could only record 20 minutes of black and white footage, it still paved the way to VCR format. -
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
One of my personal favourites, and widely regarded as one of the all time greatest westerns. This Masterpiece by Sergio Leone is a great example of two things: the spaghetti western which has been prevalent in American film for some time, and Clint Eastwood's acting which would continue to exist for many years (he's still involved with film-making). -
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The 70s
The 70s saw a new group of American filmmakers, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman. Notable films from the era are Taxi Driver, The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars. -
Auteur Theory
The idea that a director's film refelcts his/her own personal outlook. This became popular in the 70s when it became more apparent that different people had different directing styles (though this was already proven by Hitchcock). -
Anime
In 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam was released in Japan, it's widepsread popularity led to the further creation of anime. Other notable works of anime that have been acclaimed by both audiences and critics include Akira (1988), Castle in the Sky (1986), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), and Spirited Away (2001). -
Special Effects and CGI
Terminator 2 was released in 1991, it saw many improvements over the old one in terms of special effects and CGI. It serves as a fantastic example of the new era of film that started around the early 90s, that of CGI and improved visual effects. Most movies made after 1990 are in this category as CGI became more popular, Titanic, for instance. More notable examples are the Transformers movies, and animated films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. -
Reservoir Dogs/Indie film
Tarantino released Reservoir Dogs in 1992, since then is has been acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. It is seen as the most successful independent film ever made, and it is a perfect example of the genre. As the materials to make a movie (cameras, lights, etc.) became cheaper and more available independent films started to rise. -
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2000 to Present
Over the passed 13 years we have seen a large increase of documentaries in the industry. It's entirely possible this is the case because people are becoming more political and willing to learn. Ironically, we've also been going in the opposite direction in many areas, focusing more on special effects than story-telling and acting (Transformers, Skyline, Battle for LA). We've also seen many developments in sci-fi, in 2009 a modern classic (in my opinion) called District 9 was released.
