Editing History of film (section)

=== 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.