The Silent Era: 1895-1929
The Silent Era can be said to be the most innovative and developing period in film history. During this time, the foundations of film in terms of technology, length, and socio-cultural context were set. Between 1907 and 1913, a lot of production companies moved from New York City to Los Angeles due to the warm weather that allowed for year-round outdoor production; this gave birth to the Hollywood film industry.
The costs of the movies, the industrial modes of production (initiated by Thomas Ince) and the bourgeois storytelling conventions (pioneered by Edwin S. Porter and D.W. Griffith) turned Hollywood into a profit-driven enterprise and its movies into commercial commodities. The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen". Until 1914, the major national film industries were located in Italy, France and the United States. The war devastated the French and Italian film industries, giving the Americans an upper hand on the global market. It is important to clarify that the idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly just as old as film itself, however because of technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made possible in the late 1920s with the Vitaphone system. The first "talkie" was The Jazz Singer (1927) Even though the silent era might not have produce the most interesting movies to some, we have to realize and appreciate that without those movies, the film industry would not be where it is at the present. |
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1930's |
1946-1976
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1975 and Beyond!
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