Importance of Early Cinema

For a contemporary audience, the early years of filmmaking may appear to be extremely underwhelming. After all, they are a very stark comparison to today’s movies. The films of our time possess multimillion dollar budgets and have the ability to seamlessly blend sound effects, music, special effects, lighting, costume design, sophisticated editing, experienced film acting, and expert direction, all of which are drawn from decades of precedent informing the art of storytelling through the medium of film. All of these components blend to create a complete experience for the viewer. However, the streaky, short black and white films of the late eighteen hundreds and early twentieth century are a marvel in their own right and impressive examples of human creativity that should be appreciated, even in today’s culture. 

With that being said, it might make more sense to view the earliest examples of film, such as the film made in Edison’s films created in the Black Maria studio, or the Lumierire brothers, as examples of technological experimentation rather than artistic creations. Edison used the media to capture the oddities and outliers of the human experience in the late 1800s, filming a kissing couple, a strongman, and various animal fights. The lumière brothers took the technology outside of the studio environment to capture examples of daily life. It wasn’t until slightly longer films, like “The Great Train Robbery,” and the “A Trip to the Moon,” that film began to incorporate more artistic decisions that resembled modern movies. “A Trip to the Moon,” employed more complex set design and some of the first examples of special effects, while “The Great Train Robbery,” entertained viewers through action-packed stunts and multiple filming locations. There are many things that set them apart from modern movies, one of the most noticeable being how little camera movement there is. “A Trip to the Moon ” is shot Tableau style, with the camera remaining in a fixed position in the studio, while the set is built and rebuilt around it. And while the camera certainly changes location in “The Great Train Robbery,” camera angles don’t tend to change within scenes, rather a wide-angle shot is maintained as the action occurs. This can impact narrative strength and emotional impact of a scene, as the absence of clearly visual facial expressions decreases the audience’s ability to empathize with the characters. However, both of these films, although nowhere near the length of movies today, were revolutionary for their time.

Throughout the film industry’s migration to California and the development of the film studios, the complexity and sophistication of movies continued to increase. This leads into another reason to appreciate early filmmaking, not only were they examples of creative storytelling, despite comparatively impressiveness technological resources, but they also served as an important representations of American cultural and examples of morality as the country moved through massive economic, social, political and military changes, at breakneck speed, in the early half of the 20th century. They are moving, speaking representations of history.