Editing History of film (section)

== Novelty era (1890s – early 1900s) ==

=== Advances towards projection ===
[[File:Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) 7fps.webm|thumb|right|''[[Roundhay Garden Scene]]'' (1888) by [[Louis Le Prince]]]]
Throughout the late 19th century, several inventors such as [[Wordsworth Donisthorpe]], [[Louis Le Prince]], [[William Friese-Greene]], and the [[Max Skladanowsky|Skladanowsky brothers]] made pioneering contributions to the development of devices that could capture and display moving images, laying the groundwork for the emergence of cinema as an artistic medium. The scenes in these experiments primarily served to demonstrate the technology itself and were usually filmed with family, friends or passing traffic as the moving subjects. The earliest surviving film, known today as the ''[[Roundhay Garden Scene]]'' (1888), was captured by Louis Le Prince and briefly depicted members of his family in motion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Paul |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1201301040 |title=The man who invented motion pictures: a true tale of obsession, murder, and the movies |date=2022 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-9821-1482-4 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=on1201301040}}</ref>

In June 1889, American inventor [[Thomas Edison]] assigned a lab assistant, [[William Kennedy Dickson]], to help develop a device that could produce visuals to accompany the sounds produced from the [[phonograph]]. Building upon previous machines by Muybridge, Marey, Anschütz and others, Dickson and his team created the [[Kinetoscope]] peep-box viewer, with celluloid loops containing about half a minute of motion picture entertainment.<ref name="Cook-1990" /> After an early preview on 20 May 1891, Edison introduced the machine in 1893.<ref name=":0" /> Many of the movies presented on the Kinetoscope showcased well-known vaudeville acts performing in [[Edison's Black Maria]] studio.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Grainge |first1=Paul |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1r28dt |title=Film Histories: An Introduction and Reader |last2=Jancovich |first2=Mark |last3=Monteith |first3=Sharon |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-1906-1 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt1r28dt }}</ref> The Kinetoscope quickly became a global sensation with multiple viewing parlors across major cities by 1895.<ref name=":0" /> As the initial novelty of the images wore off, the Edison Company was slow to diversify their repertoire of films and waning public interest caused business to slow by Spring 1895. To remedy declining profits, experiments, such as ''[[The Dickson Experimental Sound Film]]'', were conducted in an attempt to achieve the device's original goal of providing visual accompaniment for sound recordings. Limitations in syncing the sound to the visuals, however, prevented widespread application.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Musser |first=Charles |title=Before the nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company |date=1991 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06080-7 |series=The UCLA Film and Television Archive studies in history, criticism, and theory |location=Berkeley |pages=53–56}}</ref> During that same period, inventors began advancing technologies towards [[Movie projector|film projection]] that would eventually overtake Edison's peep-box format.<ref name=":1" /> [[File:L'ArroseurArrosé.jpg|thumb|left|A frame from the Lumière brothers staged comedy film, ''[[L'Arroseur Arrosé]]'' (1895)]]

The [[Max Skladanowsky|Skladanowsky brothers]], used their self-made [[Bioscop]] to display the first moving picture show to a paying audience on 1 November 1895, in Berlin. But they did not have the quality or financial resources to acquire momentum. Most of these films never passed the experimental stage and their efforts garnered little public attention until after cinema had become successful.

In the latter half of 1895, brothers [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]] filmed a number of short scenes with their invention, the [[Cinematograph|Cinématographe]]. On 28 December 1895, the brothers gave their first commercial screening in Paris (though evidence exists of demonstrations of the device to small audiences as early as October 1895).<ref>{{Cite news |date=1895-10-19 |title=The World Of Science |pages=20 |work=Democrat and Chronicle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104163798/the-world-of-science/ |access-date=2022-06-21}}</ref> The screening consisted of ten films and lasted roughly 20 minutes. The program consisted mainly of actuality films such as ''[[Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory]]'' as truthful documents of the world, but the show also included the staged comedy ''[[L'Arroseur Arrosé]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Film History Before 1920 |url=https://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro2.html |access-date=20 October 2021 |website=www.filmsite.org}}</ref> The most advanced demonstration of film projection thus far, the Cinématographe was an instant success, bringing in an average of 2,500 to 3,000 francs daily by the end of January 1896.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Rossell |first=Deac |date=1995 |title=A Chronology of Cinema, 1889–1896 |journal=Film History |volume=7 |issue=2 |page=140 |issn=0892-2160 |jstor=3815166}}</ref> Following the first screening, the order and selection of films were changed often.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Sklar |first=Robert |title=A world history of film |date=2002 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |isbn=0-8109-0606-6 |edition=2nd |location=New York |page=26 |oclc=46713129}}</ref>

The Lumière brothers' primary business interests were in selling cameras and film equipment to exhibitors, not the actual production of films. Despite this, filmmakers across the world were inspired by the potential of film as exhibitors brought their shows to new countries. This era of filmmaking, dubbed by film historian Tom Gunning as "the cinema of attractions", offered a relatively cheap and simple way of providing entertainment to the masses. Rather than focusing on stories, Gunning argues, filmmakers mainly relied on the ability to delight audiences through the "illusory power" of viewing sequences in motion, much as they did in the Kinetoscope era that preceded it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gunning |first=Tom |chapter=The Cinema of Attraction[s]: Early Film, Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde |date=2006 |title=The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-5356-945-0 |editor-last=Strauven |editor-first=Wanda |pages=381–388 |jstor=j.ctt46n09s.27}}</ref> Despite this, early experimentation with fiction filmmaking (both in actuality film and other genres) did occur. Films were mostly screened inside temporary storefront spaces, in tents of traveling exhibitors at fairs, or as "dumb" acts in vaudeville programs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation: Vaudeville and the Movies |publisher = USC.edu|url=https://scalar.usc.edu/works/birthofanindustry/vaudeville-in-the-movies|first = Nicholas |last =Sammond }}</ref> During this period, before the process of [[post-production]] was clearly defined, exhibitors were allowed to exercise their creative freedom in their presentations. To enhance the viewers' experience, some showings were accompanied by live musicians in an orchestra, a theatre organ, live [[sound effect]]s and commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Rothstein |first1=Edward |last2=B |first2=S.-Ilent Films Were Never Silent When the Evil Landlord Twirled His Moustache |date=8 February 1981 |title= Silent Films Had a Musical Voice |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/08/movies/silent-films-had-a-musical-voice.html |access-date=4 November 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=American Cinema 1890–1909: Themes and Variations |date=2009 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-4442-7 |jstor=j.ctt5hhz03}}</ref>

[[File:La Fée aux Choux.webm|thumb|A 1900 restaging of the 1897 film ''[[La Fée aux Choux]]'', directed by [[Alice Guy]]]]
Experiments in film editing, special effects, narrative construction, and camera movement during this period by filmmakers in France, England, and the United States became influential in establishing an identity for film going forward. At both the Edison and Lumière studios, loose narratives such as the 1895 Edison film, ''Washday Troubles,'' established short relationship dynamics and simple storylines.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bohn |first=Thomas W. |url=http://archive.org/details/lightshadowshist0000bohn_a8u0 |title=Light and shadows: a history of motion pictures |date=1987 |publisher=Palo Alto, Calif. : Mayfield Pub. Co. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-87484-702-4 |pages=12}}</ref> In 1896, [[La Fée aux Choux|''La Fée aux Choux'' (''The Fairy of the Cabbages'')]] was first released. Directed and edited by [[Alice Guy-Blaché|Alice Guy]], the story is arguably the earliest narrative film in history, as well as the first film to be directed by a woman.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gaines |first=Jane M. |date=2004 |title=First Fictions |journal=Signs |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=1293–1317 |doi=10.1086/421882 |issn=0097-9740 |jstor=10.1086/421882 |s2cid=225091235}}</ref> That same year, the [[Edison Manufacturing Company]] released [[The Kiss (1896 film)|''The May Irwin Kiss'']] in May to widespread financial success. The film, which featured the first kiss in cinematic history, led to the earliest known calls for [[film censorship]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Hunt |first=Kristin |date=7 May 2020 |title=The First Movie Kiss |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-first-movie-kiss/ |access-date=16 September 2021 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref>

Another early film producer was Australia's [[Limelight Department]]. Commencing in 1898, it was operated by [[The Salvation Army]] in [[Melbourne]], Australia. The Limelight Department produced evangelistic material for use by the Salvation Army, including [[lantern slide]]s as early as 1891, as well as private and government contracts. In its nineteen years of operation, the Limelight Department produced about 300 films of various lengths, making it one of largest film producers of its time. The Limelight Department made a 1904 film by [[Joseph Perry (cinematographer)|Joseph Perry]] called [[Bushranging in North Queensland]], which is believed to be the first ever film about bushrangers.

=== Proliferation of actualities and newsreels ===
{{Main|Actuality film}}

In its infancy, film was rarely recognized as an art form by presenters or audiences. Regarded by the upper class as a "vulgar" and "lowbrow" form of cheap entertainment, films largely appealed to the working class and were often too short to hold any strong narrative potential.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Routledge companion to film history |date=2011 |editor=William Howard Guynn |isbn=978-1-136-89939-3 |location= New York |oclc=1241889104}}</ref> Initial advertisements promoted the technologies used to screen films rather than the films themselves. As the devices became more familiar to audiences, their potential for capturing and recreating events was exploited primarily in the form of [[newsreel]]s and actualities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=de Klerk |first=Nico |date=1999 |title=A Few Remaining Hours: News Films and the Interest in Technology in Amsterdam Film Shows, 1896–1910 |journal=Film History |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=5–17 |issn=0892-2160 |jstor=3815253}}</ref> During the creation of these films, cinematographers often drew upon [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] values established by past art forms such as [[Framing (visual arts)|framing]] and the intentional placement of the camera in the [[Composition (visual arts)|composition]] of their image.<ref name="Turvey-2004" /> In a 1955 article for ''The Quarterly of Film Radio and television,'' film producer and historian [[Kenneth Macgowan]] asserted that the intentional staging and recreation of events for newsreels "brought storytelling to the screen".<ref name="MacGowan-1955">{{Cite journal |last=MacGowan |first=Kenneth |date=1955 |title=The Story Comes to the Screen: 1896–1906 |journal=The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=64–88 |doi=10.2307/1209964 |issn=1549-0068 |jstor=1209964}}</ref>

With the advertisement of film technologies over content, actualities initially began as a "series of views" that often contained shots of beautiful and lively places or performance acts.<ref name="Turvey-2004">{{Cite journal |last=Turvey |first=Gerry |date=2004 |title=Panoramas, Parades and the Picturesque: The Aesthetics of British Actuality Films, 1895–1901 |journal=Film History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=9–27 |doi=10.2979/FIL.2004.16.1.9 |issn=0892-2160 |jstor=3815556}}</ref> Following the success of their 1895 screening, The Lumière brothers established a company and sent cameramen across the world to capture new subjects for presentation. After the cinematographer shot scenes, they often exhibited their recordings locally and then sent them back to the company factory in Lyon to make duplicate prints for sale to whoever wanted them.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gina De Angelis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daHmkclqERYC&q=Lumi%C3%A8re+Besan%C3%A7on+Lyon&pg=PA34 |title=Motion Pictures |publisher=The Oliver Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-881508-78-6}}</ref> In the process of filming actualities, especially those of real events, filmmakers discovered and experimented with multiple camera techniques to accommodate for their unpredictable nature.<ref>{{Cite book |editor=Tom Elsaesser |url=http://archive.org/details/earlycinemaspace0000unse |title=Early cinema: space, frame, narrative |date=1990 |publisher=London : BFI Pub. |isbn=978-0-85170-244-5}}</ref> Due to the short length (often only one shot) of many actualities, catalogue records indicate that production companies marketed to exhibitors by promoting multiple actualities with related subject matters that could be purchased to complement each other. Exhibitors who bought the films often presented them in a program and would provide spoken accompaniment to explain the action on screen to audiences.<ref name="Turvey-2004" />

The first paying audience for a motion picture gathered at Madison Square Garden to see a staged actuality that purported itself to be a boxing fight filmed by [[Woodville Latham]] using a device called the [[Eidoloscope]] on May 20, 1895. Commissioned by Latham, the French inventor [[Eugene Augustin Lauste]] created the device with additional expertise from [[William Kennedy Dickson]] and crafted a mechanism that came to be known as the [[Latham loop]], which allowed for longer continuous runtimes and was less abrasive on the celluloid film.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Early Cinema |date=2004-03-01 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-56676-1 |editor-last=Abel |editor-first=Richard |doi=10.4324/9780203482049}}</ref>

In subsequent years, screenings of actualities and newsreels proved to be profitable. In 1897, ''[[The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight]]'' was released. The film was a complete recording of a heavyweight world championship boxing match at [[Carson City, Nevada]]. It generated more income in box office than in [[live gate]] receipts and was the longest film produced at the time. Audiences had probably been drawn to the Corbett-Fitzsimmons film en masse because [[James J. Corbett]] (a.k.a. Gentleman Jim) had become a [[matinee idol]] since he had played a fictionalized version of himself in a stage play.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Woods |first=Alan |date=1976 |title=James J. Corbett: Theatrical Star |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43609159 |journal=Journal of Sport History |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=162–175 |jstor=43609159 |issn=0094-1700}}</ref>

From 1910 on, regular newsreels were exhibited and soon became a popular way of discovering the news before the advent of television{{snd}} the [[British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13|British Antarctic Expedition]] to the South Pole was filmed for the newsreels as were the [[suffragette]] demonstrations that were happening at the same time. [[F. Percy Smith]] was an early nature documentary pioneer working for [[Charles Urban]] when he pioneered the use of time lapse and micro cinematography in his 1910 documentary on the growth of flowers.<ref name="BFIso0001">{{cite web |last=Dixon |first=Bryony |title=Smith, Percy (1880–1945) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/594315/ |access-date=24 April 2011 |work=BFI Screenonlinee}}</ref><ref name="WFH01">{{cite web |title=Percy Smith |url=http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/person/193/Percy++Smith.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928234155/http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/person/193/Percy++Smith.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 28, 2008 |access-date=24 April 2011 |work=wildfilmhistory.org}}</ref>

===Experimentation with narrative filmmaking===

==== France: Georges Méliès, Pathé Frères, Gaumont Film Company ====
[[File:Melies's Montreuil studio.jpg|thumb|[[Georges Méliès]] (left) painting a backdrop in his studio]]

Following the successful exhibition of the Cinématographe, development of a motion picture industry rapidly accelerated in France. Multiple filmmakers experimented with the technology as they worked to attain the same success that the Lumière brothers had with their screening. These filmmakers established new companies such as the [[Star Film Company]], [[Pathé|Pathé Frères]], and the [[Gaumont Film Company]].

The most widely cited progenitor of narrative filmmaking is the French filmmaker, [[Georges Méliès]]. Méliès was an illusionist who had previously used magic lantern projections to enhance his magic act. In 1895, Méliès attended the demonstration of the Cinematographe and recognized the potential of the device to aid his act. He attempted to buy a device from the Lumière brothers, but they refused.<ref name="Gazetas, Aristides 2000222">Gazetas, Aristides. ''An Introduction to World Cinema''. Jefferson: McFarland Company, Inc, 2000. Print.</ref> Months later, he bought a camera from [[Robert W. Paul]] and began experiments with the device by creating actualities. During this period of experimentation, Méliès discovered and implemented various special effects including the [[Substitution splice|stop trick]], the [[multiple exposure]], and the use of [[Dissolve (filmmaking)|dissolves]] in his films.<ref name="Cook-1990">{{Cite book |last=Cook |first=David A. |title=A history of narrative film |date=1990 |publisher=Norton |isbn=0-393-95553-2 |edition=2nd |location=New York |pages=5–13, 20, 22 |oclc=18834152}}</ref> At the end of 1896, Méliès established the [[Star Film Company]] and started producing, directing, and distributing a body of work that would eventually contain over 500 short films.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wakeman |first=John |title=World film directors: Volume I 1890–1945 |date=1987 |publisher=H. W. Wilson |isbn=0-8242-0757-2 |oclc=1153630930}}</ref> Recognizing the narrative potential afforded by combining his theater background with the newly discovered effects for the camera, Méliès designed an elaborate stage that contained trapdoors and a [[fly system]].<ref name="MacGowan-1955" /> The stage construction and editing techniques allowed for the development of more complex stories, such as the 1896 film, [[The House of the Devil (1896 film)|''Le Manoir du Diable'' (''The House of the Devil'')]], regarded as a first in the horror film genre, and the 1899 film [[Cinderella (1899 film)|''Cendrillon'' (''Cinderella'')]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Film History Milestones – Pre-1900s |url=https://www.filmsite.org/milestonespre1900s_2.html |access-date=22 September 2021 |website=www.filmsite.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kovács |first=Katherine Singer |date=1976 |title=Georges Méliès and the "Féerie" |journal=Cinema Journal |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.2307/1225446 |issn=0009-7101 |jstor=1225446}}</ref> In Méliès' films, he based the placement of the camera on the theatrical construct of [[proscenium]] framing, the metaphorical plane or [[fourth wall]] that divides the actors and the audience.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kessler |first=Frank |title=The Gentleman in the Stalls: Georges Méliès and Spectatorship in Early Cinema |date=2012-12-31 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9789048515059-005/html |work=Audiences |pages=35–44 |editor-last=Christie |editor-first=Ian |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |doi=10.1515/9789048515059-005 |hdl=1874/384504 |isbn=978-90-485-1505-9 |s2cid=192341772 |access-date=2022-07-28|hdl-access=free }}</ref> Throughout his career, Méliès consistently placed the camera in a fixed position and eventually fell out of favor with audiences as other filmmakers experimented with more complex and creative techniques.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wexman |first=Virginia Wright |url=http://archive.org/details/historyoffilm0000wexm |title=A history of film |date=2010 |publisher=Boston : Allyn & Bacon |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-205-62528-4}}</ref> Méliès is most [[Georges Méliès in culture|widely known today]] for his 1902 film, ''[[A Trip to the Moon|Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon)]]'', where he used his expertise in effects and narrative construction to create the first [[science fiction film]].<ref name="DixonFoster-2018" />

In 1900, [[Charles Pathé]] began film production under the [[Pathé|Pathé-Frères]] brand, with [[Ferdinand Zecca]] hired to lead the creative process.<ref name="Abel-1993">{{Cite journal |last=Abel |first=Richard |date=1993 |title=In the Belly of the Beast: The Early Years of Pathé-Frères |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27670731 |journal=Film History |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=363–385 |jstor=27670731 |issn=0892-2160}}</ref> Prior to this focus on production, Pathé had become involved with the industry by exhibiting and selling what were likely counterfeit versions of the Kinetoscope in his phonograph shop. With the creative leadership of Zecca and the capability to mass-produce copies of the films through a partnership with a French toolmaking company, Charles Pathé sought to make Pathé-Frères the leading film producer in the country. Within the next few years, Pathé-Frères became the largest film studio in the world, with satellite offices in major cities and an expanding selection of films available for presentation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toulet |first=Emmanuelle |url=http://archive.org/details/birthofmotionpic00toul |title=Birth of the motion picture |date=1995 |publisher=New York : Abrams |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8109-2874-9 |pages=78}}</ref> The company's films were varied in content, with directors specializing in various genres for fairground presentations throughout the early 1900s.<ref name="Abel-1993" />

The [[Gaumont Film Company]] was the main regional rival of Pathé-Frères. Founded in 1895 by [[Léon Gaumont]], the firm initially sold photographic equipment and began film production in 1897, under the direction of [[Alice Guy-Blaché|Alice Guy]], the industry's first female director.<ref>Willems, Gilles "Les origines de Pathé-Natan" In ''Une Histoire Économique du Cinéma Français (1895–1995), Regards Croisés Franco-Américains'', Pierre-Jean Benghozi and Christian Delage, eds. Paris: Harmattan, Collection Champs Visuels, 1997. English translation: [http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/classics/rr1199/gwrr8b.htm The origins of Pathé-Natan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109223643/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/classics/rr1199/gwrr8b.htm|date=9 January 2008}} La Trobe University</ref> Her earlier films share many characteristics and themes with her contemporary competitors, such as the Lumières and [[Méliès]]. She explored dance and travel films, often combining the two, such as ''Le Boléro'' performed by Miss [[Saharet]] (1905) and ''Tango'' (1905). Many of Guy's early dance films were popular in music-hall attractions such as the [[serpentine dance]] films – also a staple of the Lumières and [[Thomas Edison]] film catalogs.<ref name="Alice Guy Blaché Cinema Pioneer">{{cite book |last1=Simon |first1=Joan |title=Alice Guy Blaché Cinema Pioneer |year=2009 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-15250-0}}</ref> In 1906, she made ''The Life of Christ'', a big-budget production for the time, which included 300 extras.

==== Germany: Oskar Messter ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv N 1275 Bild-361-01, Oskar Messter.jpg|thumb|right|Oskar Messter]]
German inventor and film tycoon [[Oskar Messter]] was an important figure in the early years of cinema. His firm [[Messter Film]] was one of the dominant German producers before the rise of UFA, with which it merged eventually. Messter first added a [[Geneva drive]] on the projectors to oscillatingly cause intermittent movement to advance the frames of the film and he set up the first film studio in Germany in 1900.

From 1896, Messter was interested in the search of a method of reproduction and synchronization of the sound effects of the cinematographic performance at the time of the [[silent movies]]. So Messter invented the Tonbilder Biophon to show films, in which a gramophone played [[Unter den Linden]] accompanying the projection of animated images, but it was not a simple add on but to precisely match the series of musical pieces with moving images. In effect, to add sound to the silent cinema, it was necessary to solve problems of synchronization, since the image and the sound were recorded and reproduced by separated devices, which were difficult to initiate and to maintain rigged. On August 31, 1903, Messter held the first sound projection that took place in Germany at the "Apollo" Theater in Berlin.

==== England: Robert W Paul, Cecil Hepworth, The Brighton School ====
Both [[Cecil Hepworth]] and [[Robert W. Paul]] experimented with the use of different camera techniques in their films. Paul's 'Cinematograph Camera No. 1' of 1895 was the first camera to feature reverse-cranking, which allowed the same film footage to be exposed several times, thereby creating [[multiple exposure]]s. This technique was first used in his 1901 film ''[[Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost]]''. Both filmmakers experimented with the speeds of the camera to generate new effects. Paul shot scenes from ''On a Runaway Motor Car through Piccadilly Circus'' (1899) by cranking the camera apparatus very slowly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Strauven |first=Wanda |chapter=From 'Primitive Cinema' to 'Marvelous' |date=2006 |title=The Cinema of Attractions Reloaded |pages=105–120 |editor-last=Strauven |editor-first=Wanda |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-5356-945-0 |jstor=j.ctt46n09s.10 |jstor-access=free}}</ref> When the film was projected at the usual 16 frames per second, the scenery appeared to be passing at great speed. Hepworth used the opposite effect in ''The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder'' (1901). The Chief's movements are sped up by cranking the camera much faster than 16 frames per second, producing what modern audiences would call a "[[slow motion]]" effect.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder |url=https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-indian-chief-and-the-seidlitz-powder-1901-online |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=[[British Film Institute]] |language=en}}</ref>

The first films to move from single shots to successive scenes began around the turn of the 20th century. Due to the [[Lost film|loss of many early films]], a conclusive shift from static singular shots to a series of scenes can be hard to determine. Despite these limitations, Michael Brooke of the [[British Film Institute]] attributes real film continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, to Robert W. Paul's 1898 film, ''[[Come Along, Do!]]''. Only a still from the second shot remains extant today.<ref name="BFIso01">{{cite web |last=Brooke |first=Michael |title=Come Along, Do! |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444430/ |access-date=24 April 2011 |work=BFI Screenonline Database}}</ref> Released in 1901, the British film ''[[Attack on a China Mission]]'' was one of the first films to show a continuity of action across multiple scenes.<ref name="MacGowan-1955" /> The use of the [[intertitle]] to explain actions and dialogue on screen began in the early 1900s. Filmed intertitles were first used in Robert W. Paul's film, ''Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davidson |first=Ewan |title=BFI Screenonline: Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/698299/index.html |access-date=2022-07-20 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> In most countries, [[intertitle]]s gradually came to be used to provide dialogue and narration for the film, thus dispensing the need for narration provided by exhibitors.

Development of continuous action across multiple shots was furthered in England by a loosely associated group of film pioneers collectively termed "the [[Brighton School (filmmaking)|Brighton School]]". These filmmakers included [[George Albert Smith (filmmaker)|George Albert Smith]] and [[James Williamson (film pioneer)|James Williamson]], among others. Smith and Williamson experimented with action continuity and were likely the first to incorporate the use of [[Insert (filmmaking)|inserts]] and [[close-up]]s between shots.<ref name="MacGowan-1955" /> A basic technique for trick cinematography was the [[Multiple exposure|double exposure]] of the film in the camera. The effect was pioneered by Smith in the 1898 film, ''[[Photographing a Ghost]]''. According to Smith's catalogue records, the (now [[Lost film|lost]]) film chronicles a photographer's struggle to capture a ghost on camera. Using the double exposure of the film, Smith overlaid a transparent ghostly figure onto the background in a comical manner to taunt the photographer.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Natale |first=Simone |date=2012-03-21 |title=A short history of superimposition: From spirit photography to early cinema |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17460654.2012.664745 |journal=Early Popular Visual Culture |language=en |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=125–145 |doi=10.1080/17460654.2012.664745 |issn=1746-0654 |hdl=2318/1768934 |s2cid=192110872|hdl-access=free }}</ref> Smith's ''The Corsican Brothers'' was described in the catalogue of the [[Warwick Trading Company]] in 1900: "By extremely careful photography the ghost appears *quite transparent*. After indicating that he has been killed by a sword-thrust, and appealing for vengeance, he disappears. A 'vision' then appears showing the fatal duel in the snow."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leeder |first=Murray |title=The modern supernatural and the beginnings of cinema |date=10 January 2017 |isbn=978-1-137-58371-0  |page=86 |publisher=Springer |oclc=968511967}}</ref> Smith also initiated the special effects technique of [[reverse motion]]. He did this by repeating the action a second time, while filming it with an inverted camera, and then joining the tail of the second negative to that of the first.<ref>{{cite web |title=Santa Claus (1898) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/725468/ |publisher=BFI Screenonline}}</ref> The first films made using this device were ''Tipsy, Topsy, Turvy'' and ''The Awkward Sign Painter''. The earliest surviving example of this technique is Smith's ''[[The House That Jack Built (1900 film)|The House That Jack Built]]'', made before September 1900. Cecil Hepworth took this technique further by printing the [[Negative (photography)|negatives]] of the forward motion in reverse frame by frame, producing a print in which the original action was exactly reversed. To do this he built a special printer in which the negative running through a projector was projected into the gate of a camera through a special lens giving a same-size image. This arrangement came to be called a "projection printer", and eventually an "[[optical printer]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Montanaro |first1=Carlo |title=Silver Screen to Digital: A Brief History of Film Technology |last2=Gabhann |first2=Liam Mac |date=2019 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-86196-746-9 |pages=65 |jstor=j.ctvsn3pvn}}</ref>
[[File:Telesc4.gif|thumb|upright=1.35|The first two shots of ''[[As Seen Through a Telescope]]'' (1900), with the telescope POV simulated by the circular mask]]
In 1898, George Albert Smith experimented with close-ups, filming shots of a man drinking beer and a woman using sniffing tobacco.<ref name="MacGowan-1955" /> The following year, Smith made ''[[The Kiss in the Tunnel]],'' a sequence consisting of three shots: a train enters a tunnel; a man and a woman exchange a brief kiss in the darkness and then return to their seats; the train exits the tunnel. Smith created the scenario in response to the success of a genre known as a [[phantom ride]]. In a phantom ride film, cameras would capture the motion and surroundings from the front of a moving train.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gray |first=Frank |title=The Kiss in the Tunnel |url=http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/staff/frank-gray/the-kiss-in-the-tunnel |access-date=17 August 2020 |website=University of Brighton College of Arts and Humanities |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Smith, G.A. (1864–1959) Biography |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/449633/index.html |access-date=17 August 2020 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> The separate shots, when edited together, formed a distinct sequence of events and established [[causality]] from one shot to the next.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gray |first=Frank |date=1998 |title=Smith the Showman: The Early Years of George Albert Smith |journal=Film History |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=8–20 |issn=0892-2160 |jstor=3815398}}</ref> Following ''The Kiss in the Tunnel'', Smith more definitively experimented with continuity of action across successive shots and began using inserts in his films, such as ''[[Grandma's Reading Glass]]'' and ''[[Mary Jane's Mishap]]''.<ref name="MacGowan-1955" /> In 1900, Smith made ''[[As Seen Through a Telescope]].'' The main shot shows a street scene with a young man tying the shoelace and then caressing the foot of his girlfriend, while an old man observes this through a telescope. There is then a cut to close shot of the hands on the girl's foot shown inside a black circular mask, and then a cut back to the continuation of the original scene.<ref name="BFIso001">{{cite web |last=Brooke |first=Michael |title=As Seen Through a Telescope |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444530/ |access-date=24 April 2011 |work=BFI Screenonline Database}}</ref>

James Williamson perfected narrative building techniques in his 1900 film, ''[[Attack on a China Mission]]''. The film, which film historian [[John Barnes (film historian)|John Barnes]] later described as having "the most fully developed narrative of any film made in England up to that time", opens as the first shot shows Chinese Boxer rebels at the gate; it then cuts to the missionary family in the garden, where a fight ensues. The wife signals to British sailors from the balcony, who come and rescue them.<ref>{{cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Attack on a China Mission (1900) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/520615/index.html |access-date=18 August 2020 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> The film also used the first "reverse angle" cut in film history.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buscombe |first=Edward |url=https://www.screenstudies.com/encyclopedia?docid=b-9781838710590 |title=100 Westerns: BFI Screen Guides |date=2006 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |isbn=978-1-83871-059-0 |doi=10.5040/9781838710590.0039}}</ref> The following year, Williamson created ''[[The Big Swallow]]''. In the film. a man becomes irritated by the presence of the filmmaker and "swallows" the camera and its operator through the use of interpolated close-up shots.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brooke |first=Michael |title=BFI Screenonline: Big Swallow, The (1901) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444628/index.html |access-date=2022-07-19 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> He combined these effects, along with superimpositions, use of [[Film transition|wipe transitions]] to denote a scene change, and other techniques to create a film language, or "[[film grammar]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Mary Jane's Mishap or, Don't Fool with the Paraffin (1903) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/438170/ |access-date=18 August 2020 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=BBC – A History of the World – Object: Kinemacolor 35mm cine-camera |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/QSDX659XRxOCqfyZlaxTnw |access-date=18 August 2020 |website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> James Williamson's use of continuous action in his 1901 film, ''[[Stop Thief!]]'' stimulated a film genre known as the "chase film."<ref name="BFI-Stop">{{cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Stop Thief! (1901) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/539423/ |access-date=18 August 2020 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> In the film, a tramp steals a leg of mutton from a butcher's boy in the first shot, is chased by the butcher's boy and assorted dogs in the following shot, and is finally caught by the dogs in the third shot.<ref name="BFI-Stop" />

==== United States: The Edison Company and Edwin S. Porter ====
[[Image:The Great Train Robbery 0018.jpg|thumb|Still from ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'', produced by [[Edwin Stanton Porter|Edwin S. Porter]]]]
''[[The Execution of Mary Stuart]]'', produced in 1895 by the Edison Company for viewing with the [[Kinetoscope]], showed [[Mary Queen of Scots]] being executed in full view of the camera. The effect, known as the [[Substitution splice|stop trick]], was achieved by replacing the actor with a dummy for the final shot.<ref>{{cite web |title=The execution of Mary Stuart 1895 |work=Lomography |url=http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lifestyle/2011/11/04/the-magic-of-early-cinema-the-execution-of-mary-stuart-1895 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230232353/http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lifestyle/2011/11/04/the-magic-of-early-cinema-the-execution-of-mary-stuart-1895 |archive-date=30 December 2013 |access-date=30 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Reid |first=Steven |date=21 January 2019 |title=Opinion: Yes, the new Mary Queen of Scots film is inaccurate – but historians can't agree on her anyway |language=en |website=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/mary-queen-scots-film-history-saoirse-ronan-real-true-story-elizabeth-oscars-a8738301.html |access-date=16 August 2020}}</ref> The technique used in the film is seen as one of the earliest known uses of special effects in film.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Soloski |first=Alexis |date=14 September 2018 |title=A Bloody Rivalry for the Throne, This Time With Margot Robbie |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/movies/mary-queen-of-scots.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=16 August 2020 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/movies/mary-queen-of-scots.html |archive-date=2 January 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The American filmmaker [[Edwin Stanton Porter|Edwin S. Porter]] started making films for the [[Edison Manufacturing Company|Edison Company]] in 1901. A former projectionist hired by Thomas Edison to develop his new projection model known as the [[Vitascope]], Porter was inspired in part by the works of Méliès, Smith, and Williamson and drew upon their newly crafted techniques to further the development of continuous narrative through editing.<ref name="Cook-1990" /> When he began making longer films in 1902, he put a dissolve between every shot, just as Georges Méliès was already doing, and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves.

In 1902, Porter shot ''[[Life of an American Fireman]]'' for the Edison Manufacturing Company and distributed the film the following year. In the film, Porter combined [[stock footage]] from previous Edison films with newly shot footage and spliced them together to convey a dramatic story of the rescue of a woman and her child by heroic firemen.<ref name="Cook-1990" />

Porter's film, ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' (1903), had a running time of twelve minutes, with twenty separate shots and ten different indoor and outdoor locations. The film is seen as a first in the [[Western (genre)|Western film genre]] and is significant for the use of shots suggesting simultaneous action occurring at different locations.<ref name="Cook-1990" /> Porter's use of both staged and real outdoor environments helped to create a sense of space while the placement of the camera in a wider shot established depth and allowed for an extended duration of motion on screen.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mashiah |first=Igal I. |date=1980 |title=EDWIN S. PORTER'S THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: A Focus on the Origins of Narrative Structure |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42575500 |journal=ETC: A Review of General Semantics |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=355–362 |jstor=42575500 |issn=0014-164X}}</ref> ''The Great Train Robbery'' served as one of the vehicles that would launch the film medium into mass popularity.<ref name="Gazetas, Aristides 2000222" /><ref>{{cite web |title=The Great Train Robbery (1903) |url=https://www.filmsite.org/grea.html |access-date=18 August 2020 |website=www.filmsite.org}}</ref> That same year, the [[Miles Brothers]] opened the first [[film exchange]] in the country, which allowed permanent exhibitors to rent films from the company at a lower cost than the producers that sold their films outright.<ref name="North-1973">{{Cite book |last=North |first=Joseph H. |url=http://archive.org/details/earlydevelopment0000nort |title=The early development of the motion picture (1887–1909) |date=1973 |publisher=New York, Arno Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-405-04101-3}}</ref>

[[John P. Harris]] opened the first permanent theater devoted exclusively to the presentation of films, the [[Nickelodeon (movie theater)|nickelodeon]], in 1905 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The idea rapidly took off and by 1908, there were around 8,000 nickelodeon theaters across the country.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowser |first=Eileen |title=The transformation of the cinema, 1907–1915 |date=1990 |publisher=C. Scribner |isbn=0-684-18414-1 |pages=4–6 |oclc=433110272}}</ref> With the arrival of the nickelodeon, audience demand for a larger quantity of story films with a variety of subjects and locations led to a need to hire more creative talent and caused studios to invest in more elaborate stage designs.<ref name="North-1973" />

In 1908, Thomas Edison spearheaded the creation of a [[corporate trust]] between the major film companies in America known as the [[Motion Picture Patents Company|Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC)]] to limit infringement on his patents. Members of the trust controlled every aspect of the filmmaking process from the creation of film stock, the production of films, and the distribution to cinemas through licensing arrangements. The trust led to increased quality filmmaking spurred by internal competition and placed limits on the number of foreign films to encourage the growth of the American film industry, but it also discouraged the creation of feature films. By 1915, the MPPC had lost most of its hold on the film industry as the companies moved towards the wider production of feature films.<ref name="DixonFoster-2018">{{Cite book |last=Wheeler Winston Dixon, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster |title=A Short History of Film |publisher=Rutgers University Press |date=30 March 2018 |isbn=9780813595146 |edition=3rd |pages=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Short_History_of_Film_Third_Edition/fF9TDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22History+of+film%22+-wikipedia&printsec=frontcover}}</ref>