American film began with Thomas Edison who “envisioned a kind of ‘coin-operated/entertainment machine’ in which motion pictures made by the Kinetograph would illustrate the sound from the phonograph.”(Cook 8) He owned a studio called “Black Maria” in New Jersey. In 1894, Edison named his company the Edison Manufacturing Company. When WKL Dickson started his company, the Biograph, he started the patents war simultaneously. Before the Biograph was formed, Edison and his company were successfully dominated the motion picture field. Even the Lumiere brothers came to the U.S. with their cinematograph, Edison found it easy to keep his dominance power. Domestic competitions were happened very soon after the success of Edison. The first competitor was Biograph Company. This was a special case with Dickson because he had worked with Edison to create the Kinetograph, a 35mm camera, and he knew how to challenge Edison. Moreover, he created a different camera called Mutoscope which could shot 70 mm film. Besides, as the demand of the market was exceeded the supply, this also induced the competition. Nevertheless, with the set up of Vitagraph by Stauart Blackson, competition between these three major studios became more serious. Even Edison filed over twenty lawsuits to confront these challenges, he was failed to bring an end to these new companies. It was dramatically hard for Edison to file lawsuit on Biograph, for Dickson was his former employer and remained a great threat to his company. After that, many smaller companies emerged to the market, increasing the competition. By then, Edison strongly felt the need to remain the dominated power, so he introduced the MPPC. Subsequently, Edison and Biograph companies formed The Motion Picture Pat... ... middle of paper ... ...ory of Narrative Film. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print. "Before the Nickelodeon." UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. Web. 17 June 2011. http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3q2nb2gw. "Edison Film Production - Litigation and Licensees." Inventors. Web. 17 June 2011. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_Edison_Motion_Pictures4.htm. "Independence in Early and Silent American Cinema - Independent Film - Movie, Show, Name, Scene, Role, Documentary." Film Reference. Web. 17 June 2011. http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Independent-Film-INDEPENDENCE-IN-EARLY-AND-SILENT-AMERICAN-CINEMA.html. "Film History: The Motion Picture Patent Wars « The Cinephile Fix." The Cinephile Fix. Web. 17 June 2011. .
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Grainge, P., Jancovich, M., & Monteith, S. (2012). Film Histories; An introduction and reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Reed, Elanine Walls. "'A very unusual Practise [sic]': miscegnation and the film industy in the Hays era." West Virginia Univesity Philological papers 50, 2003: 42-53.
Thompson, Kristin , and David Bordwell. Film History : An Introduction. 3 ed. New York:
McCrisken, T. B., & Pepper, A. (2005). American History and Contemporary Hollywood Film. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Phillips, W. (2002). Thinking about film . In Film an introduction (pp. 403-438). Boston : Bedford/St.Martin's .
The American film industry’s early attempts at the narrative Western were limited and in the early years were produced mainly in the east. During this early time in the film industry the...
Dean, Katie. “Film Piracy Steals the Show”. WIRED. December 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61673,00.html . accessed Nov. 16, 2004
Brownlow, Kevin 1994, ‘Preface’, in Paolo, C, Burning Passions: an introduction to the study of silent film, British Film Institute, London: BFI, pp. 1-3.
Carl Laemmle who was a film exhibitor, and producer formed the American motion picture studio in 1912. The studio started off creating low budget films, until it was purchased by the Music Corporation of America, which formed it into the most profitable and largest company for films and television in the world.
D. W. Griffith is widely recognized as a pioneer and father of early filmmaking, though in reality he was just a creature of circumstance. In 1907, Griffith departed his theatrical career as failed playwright and somewhat accomplished stage actor to work for the Biograph Company with his first role as the Father in Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest. Griffith entered the American film industry at crucial moment that would shape and define his career. During this time Edison Company was waging a war to monopolize the American film industry through lawsuits against other American companies using versions of Edison’s patented Kinescope without paying royalties. These lawsuits ravaged and prevented the industries growth as film’s popularity was increasing in the United States. In 1907, to meet the growing popularity of nickelodeons (early movie theaters that would charge a nickel for admission and show case 3-4 short films), 1,200 films were released in the United States, of those only ...
Sklar, Robert. Movie-made America: A Social History of American Movies. New York: Random House, 1975. Print.
On December 28, 1895 Georges was an audience member of the first seen movie or “moving picture” made in the world. This was a very short single reel, one shot film documenting a train pulling into the station. When the image of the train started approaching the audience, the audience screamed thinking they would actually get run over by the train. This revolutionary new type of “magic” was discovered by the Lumiere Brothers, who used their invention, the Cinematographe, to capture the first movie ever made. Melies soon after asked to purchase a camera from the Lumiere Brothers, but they refused. In desperate attempt to utilize this new entertainment tool, he set out to build his own camera.
The American motion picture studio was formed in 1912 by Carl Laemmle who was a film exhibitor, and producer. The studio started off creating low budget films, until it was purchased by the Music Corporation of America, which formed it into the most profitable and largest company for films and television in the world.