Editing Film stock (section)

===1888–1899: Before standardization===
Early motion picture experiments in the 1880s were performed using a fragile [[paper]] roll film, with which it was difficult to view a single, continuously moving image without a complex apparatus. The first transparent and flexible [[film base]] material was [[celluloid]], which was discovered and refined for photographic use by [[John Carbutt]], [[Hannibal Goodwin]], and [[George Eastman]]. [[Eastman Kodak]] made celluloid film commercially available in 1889; Thomas Henry Blair, in 1891, was his first competitor. The stock had a frosted base to facilitate easier viewing by transmitted light. Emulsions were [[orthochromatic]]. By November 1891 [[William Kennedy Dickson|William Dickson]], at [[Thomas Edison|Edison]]'s laboratory, was using Blair's stock for [[Kinetoscope]] experiments. Blair's company supplied film to Edison for five years. Between 1892 and 1893, Eastman experienced problems with production. Because of patent lawsuits in 1893, Blair left his American company and established another in Britain. Eastman became Edison's supplier of film.{{source needed|date=April 2024}}

Blair's new company supplied European filmmaking pioneers, including [[Birt Acres]], [[Robert W. Paul|Robert Paul]], [[George Albert Smith (film pioneer)|George Albert Smith]], [[Charles Urban]], and the [[Lumière Brothers]]. By 1896, the new [[movie projector]] required a fully transparent film base that Blair's American operation could not supply. Eastman shortly thereafter bought the company out and became the leading supplier of film stock. [[Louis Lumière]] worked with [[Victor Planchon]] to adapt the Lumière "Blue Label" (Etiquette Bleue) photographic plate emulsion for use on celluloid roll film, which began in early 1896.{{source needed|date=April 2024}}

Eastman's first motion picture film stock was offered in 1889.<ref name="aipcinema.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aipcinema.com/ficheiros/Conteudos/KODAK_FILM_HISTORY.pdf|title=KODAK FILM HISTORY Chronology of Motion Picture Films - 1889 to 1939|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515033307/http://www.aipcinema.com/ficheiros/Conteudos/KODAK_FILM_HISTORY.pdf|archive-date=15 May 2013|access-date=2 February 2013}}</ref> At first the film was the same as photographic film. By 1916, separate "Cine Type" films were offered.<ref name="aipcinema.com"/> From 1895, Eastman supplied their motion picture roll film in rolls of 65 feet, while Blair's rolls were 75 feet. If longer lengths were needed, the unexposed negative rolls could be cemented in a [[darkroom]], but this was largely undesirable by most narrative filmmakers. The makers of [[Actuality film]]s were much more eager to undertake this method, however, in order to depict longer actions. They created cemented rolls as long as 1,000 feet. [[American Mutoscope and Biograph]] was the first known company to use such film for the [[James J. Jeffries|Jeffries]]-[[Tom Sharkey|Sharkey]] fight on 3 November 1899.