FILM HISTORY

 

The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public screening of ten of the lumiere brothers short films in Paris on 28 December 1895, can be regarded as the breakthrough of projected cinematographic motion pictures. There had been earlier cinematographic results and screenings by others, like the Skladanowsky brothers, who used their self-made Bioscop to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895, in Berlin, but they had neither the quality, financial backing, stamina, or luck to find the momentum that propelled the cinématographe Lumière into worldwide success. Those earliest films were in black and white, under a minute long, without recorded sound, and consisted of a single shot from a steady camera. The first decade of motion pictures saw film move from a novelty to an established mass entertainment industry, with film production campanies and studios established all over the world

Conventions toward a general cinematic language also developed, with film editing camera movements and other cinematic techniques contributing specific roles in the narrative of films.

Popular new media, including television (mainstream since the 1950s), home videos (mainstream since the 1980s), and the internet (mainstream since the 1990s), influenced the distribution and consumption of films. Film production usually responded with content to fit the new media, and with technical innovations (including widescreen (mainstream since the 1950s), 3D, and 4D films) and more spectacular films to keep theatrical screenings attractive.

Systems that were cheaper and more easily handled (including 8mm films, video, and smartphone cameras) allowed for an increasing number of people to create films of varying qualities, for any purpose (including home movies and video art). The technical quality was usually lower than that of professional movies, but improved with digital videos and affordable, high-quality digital cameras

Improving over time, digital production methods became more and more popular during the 1990s, resulting in increasingly realistic visual effects and popular feature-length computer animations

Various film genres emerged and enjoyed variable degrees of success over time, with huge differences among, for instance, horror.