The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by about fifty years. In 1833, Joseph Plateau introduced the principle of stroboscopic animation with his Fantascope (better known as the phenakistiscope).
Plateau suggested an early method to animate stereoscopic photographs in 1849, with a stop motion technique.
Early successes in instantaneous photography in the late 1850s inspired new hope to develop animated (stereo)photography systems, but in the next two decades the few attempts once again used stop-motion techniques. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge used a row of a dozen cameras to record a running horse (as suggested by others much earlier) and surprised the world with the results, published as The Horse in Motion cabinet cards with rows of small still pictures.
Jules Duboscq produced a simplified device in 1852, but it never wasn't very successful.
Early successes in instantaneous photography in the late 1850s inspired new hope to develop animated (stereo)photography systems, but in the next two decades the few attempts once again used stop-motion techniques. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge used a row of a dozen cameras to record a running horse (as suggested by others much earlier) and surprised the world with the results, published as The Horse in Motion cabinet cards with rows of small still pictures.
American inventor George Eastman, who had first manufactured photographic dry plates in 1878, made headway on a stable type of celluloid film in 1888. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" (1894 in film – 1929 in film).
Ottomar Anschutz had much success with his Electrotachyscope since 1887, with very clear animated photographic images displayed on a small milk-glass screen or inside coin-slot viewers, until he started projecting the images on a large screen in 1894.
American inventor George Eastman, who had first manufactured photographic dry plates in 1878, made headway on a stable type of celluloid film in 1888. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" (1894 in film – 1929 in film).
This technique was designed to capture the effect of the live performances of Loie Fuller, beginning in 1891, in which stage lights with colored gels turned her white flowing dresses and sleeves into artistic movement.
His recordings only lasted a few seconds, and inspired the Edison Company to compete with films that could last circa 20 seconds in their Kinetoscope peep-box movie viewers from 1893 onward. == Silent film era == The work of Muybridge, Marey, and Le Prince laid the foundation for future development of motion picture cameras, projectors and transparent celluloid film, which lead to the development of cinema as we know it today.
Ottomar Anschutz had much success with his Electrotachyscope since 1887, with very clear animated photographic images displayed on a small milk-glass screen or inside coin-slot viewers, until he started projecting the images on a large screen in 1894.
Intertitles (or titles as they were generally called at the time) "often were graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action". === Live music and other sound accompaniment === Showings of silent films almost always featured live music starting with the first public projection of movies by the Lumière brothers on December 28, 1895, in Paris.
Hand tinting dates back to 1895 in the United States with Edison's release of selected hand-tinted prints of Butterfly Dance.
This was furthered in 1896 by the first motion-picture exhibition in the United States at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
The amounts given are gross rentals (the distributor's share of the box-office) as opposed to exhibition gross. == During the sound era == === Transition === Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, only from the early 1920s were the basic technologies such as vacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality loudspeakers available.
Méliès began hand-tinting his work as early as 1897 and the 1899 Cendrillion (Cinderella) and 1900 Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) provide early examples of hand-tinted films in which the color was a critical part of the scenography or mise en scène; such precise tinting used the workshop of Elisabeth Thuillier in Paris, with teams of female artists adding layers of color to each frame by hand rather than using a more common (and less expensive) process of stenciling.
Méliès began hand-tinting his work as early as 1897 and the 1899 Cendrillion (Cinderella) and 1900 Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) provide early examples of hand-tinted films in which the color was a critical part of the scenography or mise en scène; such precise tinting used the workshop of Elisabeth Thuillier in Paris, with teams of female artists adding layers of color to each frame by hand rather than using a more common (and less expensive) process of stenciling.
Méliès began hand-tinting his work as early as 1897 and the 1899 Cendrillion (Cinderella) and 1900 Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) provide early examples of hand-tinted films in which the color was a critical part of the scenography or mise en scène; such precise tinting used the workshop of Elisabeth Thuillier in Paris, with teams of female artists adding layers of color to each frame by hand rather than using a more common (and less expensive) process of stenciling.
A newly restored version of Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, originally released in 1902, shows an exuberant use of color designed to add texture and interest to the image. Comments by an American distributor in a 1908 film-supply catalog further underscore France's continuing dominance in the field of hand-coloring films during the early silent era.
In 1978, a cache of more than 500 reels of nitrate film was discovered during the excavation of a vacant lot formerly the site of the Dawson Amateur Athletic Association, which had started showing films at their recreation centre in 1903.
So was the 1906 blockbuster Life of a Cowboy, by Edwin S.
A plain-stock copy, for example, of the 1907 release Ben Hur is offered for $120 ($ USD today), while a colored version of the same 1000-foot, 15-minute film costs $270 ($) including the extra $150 coloring charge, which amounted to 15 cents more per foot.
However, the first designated full-blown scores had in fact been composed in 1908, by Camille Saint-Saëns for The Assassination of the Duke of Guise, and by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov for Stenka Razin. When organists or pianists used sheet music, they still might add improvisational flourishes to heighten the drama on screen.
A newly restored version of Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, originally released in 1902, shows an exuberant use of color designed to add texture and interest to the image. Comments by an American distributor in a 1908 film-supply catalog further underscore France's continuing dominance in the field of hand-coloring films during the early silent era.
His explanation also provides insight into the general state of film-coloring services in the United States by 1908: By the beginning of the 1910s, with the onset of feature-length films, tinting was used as another mood setter, just as commonplace as music.
In December 1908, Edison led the formation of the Motion Picture Patents Company in an attempt to control the industry and shut out smaller producers.
Additionally, experiments in color film started as early as in 1909, although it took a much longer time for color to be adopted by the industry and an effective process to be developed.
were found guilty of antitrust violation in October 1915, and were dissolved. The Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York, in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser.
The height of the silent era (from the early 1910s in film to the late 1920s) was a particularly fruitful period, full of artistic innovation.
His explanation also provides insight into the general state of film-coloring services in the United States by 1908: By the beginning of the 1910s, with the onset of feature-length films, tinting was used as another mood setter, just as commonplace as music.
The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, including the first film serial ever, The Million Dollar Mystery, released in 1914.
Peter Bogdanovich's 1976 film Nickelodeon deals with the turmoil of silent filmmaking in Hollywood during the early 1910s, leading up to the release of D. W.
Porter Company and filming moved to the West Coast around 1912. == Top-grossing silent films in the United States == The following are American films from the silent film era that had earned the highest gross income as of 1932.
Greta Garbo, who made her debut in 1926, would become known for her naturalistic acting. According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film.
As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen. Silent films became less vaudevillian in the mid-1910s, as the differences between stage and screen became apparent.
The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, including the first film serial ever, The Million Dollar Mystery, released in 1914.
His 1915 epic, The Birth of a Nation, used a number of colors, including amber, blue, lavender, and a striking red tint for scenes such as the "burning of Atlanta" and the ride of the Ku Klux Klan at the climax of the picture.
were found guilty of antitrust violation in October 1915, and were dissolved. The Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York, in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser.
The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from director Marshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis.
The company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, including the first film serial ever, The Million Dollar Mystery, released in 1914.
During the silent era that existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organist—or even, in large cities, a small orchestra—would often play music to accompany the films.
The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the advent of the Vitaphone system.
The height of the silent era (from the early 1910s in film to the late 1920s) was a particularly fruitful period, full of artistic innovation.
Three-point lighting, the close-up, long shot, panning, and continuity editing all became prevalent long before silent films were replaced by "talking pictures" or "talkies" in the late 1920s.
Some scholars claim that the artistic quality of cinema decreased for several years, during the early 1930s, until film directors, actors, and production staff adapted fully to the new "talkies" around the mid 1930s. The visual quality of silent movies—especially those produced in the 1920s—was often high, but there remains a widely held misconception that these films were primitive, or are barely watchable by modern standards.
By the early 1920s, 80 per cent of movies could be seen in some sort of color, usually in the form of film tinting or toning or even hand coloring, but also with fairly natural two-color processes such as Kinemacolor and Technicolor.
The amounts given are gross rentals (the distributor's share of the box-office) as opposed to exhibition gross. == During the sound era == === Transition === Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, only from the early 1920s were the basic technologies such as vacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality loudspeakers available.
The film gives homage to many of the characters from the 1920s including Officer Keystone played by David Blair, and Enzio Marchello who portrays a Charlie Chaplin character.
Discovered and preserved versions may be editions made for the home rental market of the 1920s and 1930s that are discovered in estate sales, etc.
Greta Garbo, who made her debut in 1926, would become known for her naturalistic acting. According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film.
Greta Garbo, who made her debut in 1926, would become known for her naturalistic acting. According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film.
This is mainly attributed to the influx of emigrants from the Weimar Republic, "including film directors, producers, cameramen, lighting and stage technicians, as well as actors and actresses". === Projection speed === Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds (or "frame rates") anywhere from 12 to 40 fps, depending on the year and studio.
Early sound films, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were variously referred to as the "talkies", "sound films", or "talking pictures".
By the mid-1920s many American silent films had adopted a more naturalistic acting style, though not all actors and directors accepted naturalistic, low-key acting straight away; as late as 1927, films featuring expressionistic acting styles, such as Metropolis, were still being released.
The studio then released The Jazz Singer in 1927, which marked the first commercially successful sound film, but silent films were still the majority of features released in both 1927 and 1928, along with so-called goat-glanded films: silents with a subsection of sound film inserted.
The studio then released The Jazz Singer in 1927, which marked the first commercially successful sound film, but silent films were still the majority of features released in both 1927 and 1928, along with so-called goat-glanded films: silents with a subsection of sound film inserted.
Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929. For a listing of notable silent era films, see List of years in film for the years between the beginning of film and 1928.
American inventor George Eastman, who had first manufactured photographic dry plates in 1878, made headway on a stable type of celluloid film in 1888. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" (1894 in film – 1929 in film).
Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929. For a listing of notable silent era films, see List of years in film for the years between the beginning of film and 1928.
The titles were stored at the local library until 1929 when the flammable nitrate was used as landfill in a condemned swimming pool.
Some scholars claim that the artistic quality of cinema decreased for several years, during the early 1930s, until film directors, actors, and production staff adapted fully to the new "talkies" around the mid 1930s. The visual quality of silent movies—especially those produced in the 1920s—was often high, but there remains a widely held misconception that these films were primitive, or are barely watchable by modern standards.
The popularity of the benshi was one reason why silent films persisted well into the 1930s in Japan. === Score restorations from 1980 to the present === Few film scores survive intact from the silent period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions when they attempt to precisely reconstruct those that remain.
This is mainly attributed to the influx of emigrants from the Weimar Republic, "including film directors, producers, cameramen, lighting and stage technicians, as well as actors and actresses". === Projection speed === Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds (or "frame rates") anywhere from 12 to 40 fps, depending on the year and studio.
Murnau, 1930 Earth, Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930 The Silent Enemy, H.P.
Carver, 1930 Borderline, Kenneth Macpherson, 1930 City Lights, Charlie Chaplin, 1931 Tabu, F.
Discovered and preserved versions may be editions made for the home rental market of the 1920s and 1930s that are discovered in estate sales, etc.
Carver, 1930 Borderline, Kenneth Macpherson, 1930 City Lights, Charlie Chaplin, 1931 Tabu, F.
Porter Company and filming moved to the West Coast around 1912. == Top-grossing silent films in the United States == The following are American films from the silent film era that had earned the highest gross income as of 1932.
Examples of such incidents include the 1965 MGM vault fire and the 1937 Fox vault fire, both of which incited catastrophic losses of films.
One reel requires 11 minutes and 7 seconds to be projected at 24 fps, while a 16 fps projection of the same reel would take 16 minutes and 40 seconds, or per second. In the 1950s, many telecine conversions of silent films at grossly incorrect frame rates for broadcast television may have alienated viewers.
Scores used in current reissues or screenings of silent films may be complete reconstructions of compositions, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or improvised on the spot in the manner of the silent-era theater musician. Interest in the scoring of silent films fell somewhat out of fashion during the 1960s and 1970s.
Examples of such incidents include the 1965 MGM vault fire and the 1937 Fox vault fire, both of which incited catastrophic losses of films.
Scores used in current reissues or screenings of silent films may be complete reconstructions of compositions, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or improvised on the spot in the manner of the silent-era theater musician. Interest in the scoring of silent films fell somewhat out of fashion during the 1960s and 1970s.
The espionage film The Thief (1952) has music and sound effects, but no dialogue, as do Thierry Zéno's 1974 Vase de Noces and Patrick Bokanowski's 1982 The Angel. In 2005, the H. P.
Peter Bogdanovich's 1976 film Nickelodeon deals with the turmoil of silent filmmaking in Hollywood during the early 1910s, leading up to the release of D. W.
In 1978, a cache of more than 500 reels of nitrate film was discovered during the excavation of a vacant lot formerly the site of the Dawson Amateur Athletic Association, which had started showing films at their recreation centre in 1903.
The popularity of the benshi was one reason why silent films persisted well into the 1930s in Japan. === Score restorations from 1980 to the present === Few film scores survive intact from the silent period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions when they attempt to precisely reconstruct those that remain.
Since around 1980, there has been a revival of interest in presenting silent films with quality musical scores (either reworkings of period scores or cue sheets, or the composition of appropriate original scores).
An early effort of this kind was Kevin Brownlow's 1980 restoration of Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927), featuring a score by Carl Davis.
The espionage film The Thief (1952) has music and sound effects, but no dialogue, as do Thierry Zéno's 1974 Vase de Noces and Patrick Bokanowski's 1982 The Angel. In 2005, the H. P.
A slightly re-edited and sped-up version of Brownlow's restoration was later distributed in the United States by Francis Ford Coppola, with a live orchestral score composed by his father Carmine Coppola. In 1984, an edited restoration of Metropolis (1927) was released with a new rock music score by producer-composer Giorgio Moroder.
Griffith's epic The Birth of a Nation (1915). In 1999, the Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki produced Juha in black-and-white, which captures the style of a silent film, using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue.
The legendary theater organist Gaylord Carter continued to perform and record his original silent film scores until shortly before his death in 2000; some of those scores are available on DVD reissues.
Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of restored films, such as the case of the 2002 restoration of Metropolis. === Tinting === With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped in dyestuffs and dyed various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day.
The espionage film The Thief (1952) has music and sound effects, but no dialogue, as do Thierry Zéno's 1974 Vase de Noces and Patrick Bokanowski's 1982 The Angel. In 2005, the H. P.
Eugene Chadbourne has been among those who have played live music for the film. Blancanieves is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent fantasy drama film written and directed by Pablo Berger. The American feature-length silent film Silent Life started in 2006, features performances by Isabella Rossellini and Galina Jovovich, mother of Milla Jovovich, will premiere in 2013.
Eugene Chadbourne has been among those who have played live music for the film. Blancanieves is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent fantasy drama film written and directed by Pablo Berger. The American feature-length silent film Silent Life started in 2006, features performances by Isabella Rossellini and Galina Jovovich, mother of Milla Jovovich, will premiere in 2013.
After the emergency surgery, Valentino loses his grip of reality and begins to see the recollection of his life in Hollywood from a perspective of a coma – as a silent film shown at a movie palace, the magical portal between life and eternity, between reality and illusion. The Picnic is a 2012 short film made in the style of two-reel silent melodramas and comedies.
Eugene Chadbourne has been among those who have played live music for the film. Blancanieves is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent fantasy drama film written and directed by Pablo Berger. The American feature-length silent film Silent Life started in 2006, features performances by Isabella Rossellini and Galina Jovovich, mother of Milla Jovovich, will premiere in 2013.
art collective Five Ton Crane. Right There is a 2013 short film that is an homage to silent film comedies. The 2015 British animated film Shaun the Sheep Movie based on Shaun the Sheep was released to positive reviews and was a box office success.
According to a September 2013 report published by the United States Library of Congress, some 70 percent of American silent feature films fall into this category.
art collective Five Ton Crane. Right There is a 2013 short film that is an homage to silent film comedies. The 2015 British animated film Shaun the Sheep Movie based on Shaun the Sheep was released to positive reviews and was a box office success.
It was part of the exhibit, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, a 2018-2019 exhibit curated by the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
In 2018 film director Christopher Annino shot the now internationally award-winning feature silent film of its kind Silent Times.
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