Early Cinema Research Paper

The film industry was created, driven by, and proliferates for the sake of profit. Early in its existence, when photography might have been focused on art, Thomas Edison drove that focus from artistic expression to technological development through the introduction of moving pictures. As the technology for recording and displaying movies grew, further innovation was only possible due the lucrative profits made by the films produced on the new technology. Only when technology reached certain peaks of equal performance, did the narrative begin to have significant effect on the industry. Stories became important instead of just being able to see a moving picture. This was truly the birth of the motion picture industry. Although, it was still driven

The earliest precursors of cinema were slideshows. Often, as cited in American Film (Lewis, 2008), most of these slideshows were focused on the illustration and were in fact, artistic. But, as Eadweard Muybridge emerged on to the scene, he was more interested in the technology vice the art. He worked to develop early cinematic equipment with Edison, who, in true Edison fashion, took the idea for a technology, improved upon it, and made it his own. Edison was focused more directly on the technology than Muybridge, and as illustrated in American Film (Lewis, 2008), where is it clearly stated that his plans were to market the production and display equipment, rather than create

Film equipment needed good lighting and was not suited for rain, thus the warm temperate climate afforded by southern California was so ideal that by 1915, 70% of films were produced in Los Angeles (Lewis, 2008).

Technology limited the growth of the film industry early on, and prevented films from having detailed stories, but that did not prevent early filmmakers from giving their films as much story as possible. While many films were just a scene, early filmmakers like Méliès, Porter, and Griffith, broke from the conventional quest for quantity of films and focused on the quality of their