Film and Media Atlas

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Media Forms

Film

film (rhymes with kiln)
Also Known As Cinema
Moving Image

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Film Reel

The art and industry of the moving picture, born from chronophotography and peepshow machines in the early 1890s and made a public spectacle by projected screenings in 1895. In little over a century film grew from a fairground novelty into a worldwide narrative art, a mass industry, and the parent form of television, animation and streaming video.

Facts
Origin Year
1895 1
1895 marks the Lumiere brothers' first paid public projection in Paris, the conventional birth of cinema as a public medium; Edison's Kinetoscope showed films to individual viewers from 1893 and Louis Le Prince shot moving pictures in 1888.
Origin
Commercial cinema began with the Lumiere brothers' first paid public screening of their Cinematographe films, in Paris on 28 December 1895. 1
Place of Origin
Paris, France 1
Primary Format
Moving images, generally synchronized with sound since the 1930s, projected or played for an audience 1
Typical Distribution
Movie theaters, physical media, digital download or subscription streaming, and television broadcast syndication 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Organizations
Source Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Official Site
Agnes Varda, Figures
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Alfred Hitchcock, Figures
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Alice Guy-Blache, Figures
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
British Film Institute, Organizations
Source British Film Institute Official Site
Charlie Chaplin, Figures
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Eadweard Muybridge, Figures

Muybridge precedes cinema; his motion studies stand between photography and film.

Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Festival de Cannes, Organizations
Source Festival de Cannes Official Site
International Federation of Film Archives, Organizations
Source International Federation of Film Archives Official Site
Warner Bros., Organizations
Source Encyclopedia Britannica

Media Entries

2001: A Space Odyssey, Landmark Works
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
A Trip to the Moon, Landmark Works
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Auteur Theory, Concepts
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Battleship Potemkin, Landmark Works
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Bicycle Thieves, Landmark Works
Casablanca, Landmark Works
Celluloid Roll Film, Technologies
Source Wikipedia
CinemaScope, Technologies
Source Wikipedia
Cinematographe, Technologies
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Citizen Kane, Landmark Works
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Continuity Editing, Concepts
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Digital Cinema, Technologies
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
DVD, Technologies
Gone with the Wind, Landmark Works
Source Wikipedia
Hays Code Adoption, Milestones
IMAX, Technologies
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Jump Cut, Concepts
Kinetoscope, Technologies
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
LaserDisc, Technologies
M, Landmark Works
MacGuffin, Concepts
Method Acting, Concepts
Metropolis, Landmark Works
Source Wikipedia
Mise-en-Scene, Concepts
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Modern Times, Landmark Works
Montage, Concepts
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
Motion Picture Association, Organizations
Nanook of the North, Landmark Works
Pather Panchali, Landmark Works
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Persistence of Vision, Concepts
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Psycho, Landmark Works
Source Wikipedia
Rashomon, Landmark Works
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Seven Samurai, Landmark Works
Sound on Film, Technologies
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Special Effects, Concepts
Star Wars, Landmark Works
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Steadicam, Technologies
Sundance Institute, Organizations
Technicolor, Technologies
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
The Birth of a Nation, Landmark Works
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Landmark Works
Source Wikipedia
The Great Train Robbery, Landmark Works
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
The Jazz Singer, Landmark Works
Source A History of Narrative FilmDavid A. Cook
The Star System, Concepts
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
The Walt Disney Company, Organizations
Venice Film Festival, Organizations
Vertigo, Landmark Works
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationHistory of film, Early projection section
Quote, History of film, Early projection section
The first ever commercial screening took place on December 28, 1895, it consisted of ten films and lasted roughly 20 minutes.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationOverview, matching this entity's own origin-note
Quote, Overview, matching this entity's own origin-note
Commercial cinema began with the Lumiere brothers' first paid public screening of their Cinematographe films, in Paris on 28 December 1895.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationFilm, lead section
Quote, Film, lead section
A film, movie, or motion picture is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since the 1930s, synchronized with sound.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationFilm distribution, lead section
Quote, Film distribution, lead section
The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater, physical media (DVD, Blu-ray), digital download/transactional video on demand (VOD) (sale or rental), subscription VOD (e.g. Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix) or television programs through broadcast syndication.
View the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: Metropolis, InfoboxView the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, InfoboxView the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: Gone with the Wind, InfoboxView the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: Psycho, InfoboxView the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: CinemaScope, Origins sectionView the Source
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMedia Entries: Celluloid Roll Film, History sectionView the Source
A History of Narrative Film
David A. Cook, W. W. Norton, 2016
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
Festival de Cannes Official Site
Festival de CannesAssociated With: Festival de CannesView the Source
British Film Institute Official Site
British Film InstituteAssociated With: British Film InstituteView the Source
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Official Site
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAssociated With: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesView the Source
International Federation of Film Archives Official Site
International Federation of Film ArchivesAssociated With: International Federation of Film ArchivesView the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
Which work counts as the first film?

The answer depends on a definition no historian owns. Louis Le Prince shot moving photographic sequences at Leeds in 1888, Edison's laboratory showed Kinetoscope films to individual viewers from 1893, the Skladanowsky brothers projected to a paying Berlin audience in November 1895, and the Lumiere screening of 28 December 1895 is the industry's conventional birthday. Each candidate satisfies a different definition of film: recorded motion, exhibited motion, projected motion, or a paying public audience, and the field has not settled which definition governs.

What would resolve this Nothing empirical; this is a definitional question. What would settle it is a discipline-wide convention on which criterion defines the medium, or the recovery of lost apparatus and footage, Le Prince's above all, that would strengthen one lineage's claim.
Film History, Archival ResearchDavid A. Cook, A History of Narrative Film
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