Unit 8: Understanding the Television and Film Industries - Task 4 - Timeline

The technology of the Film industry has been growing since the late 1800's. A huge amount has happened in that time and this timeline a summary of everything that has happened so far:

1889
The first ever motion picture camera is commissioned by Thomas Edison and built by William Dickson. It is named the Kinetograph.

1894
The first ever motion picture studio, the Black Maria, is built as well as the first Kinetoscope parlour where people can go to watch films.

1895
The Lumière brothers invent the Cinematograph, a combination between camera and projector. They held the first ever private film screening.

1905
In Pittsburgh, the first ever movie theatre is opened.

1910
Thomas Edison introduces the Kinetophone, an early attempt at a sound recording device.

1911
The first feature film, Enoch Arden, is made by D.W. Griffiths and screened for the first time.

1922
Power of Love, the first 3D film, is released.

1924
Walt Disney releases the his first animated film and the first of his 'Alice' comedies, Alice's Wonderland.

1927
The Jazz Singer is released which is the first feature length film with synchronised sound.

1935
The first all colour feature length film, Becky Sharp, is released.

1937
Walt Disney's first feature length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, is released. It is the first fully hand drawn feature length animation.

1941
In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles redefines the medium of film by subordinating all previous technological and cinematic accomplishments to his own cinematic vision, using newly developed film stocks and a wider, faster lens,

1953
Hollywood develops wide-screen processes such as CinemaScope.

1955

1960
The Academy awards Ampex with an Oscar for technical achievement.

1964
Red Desert makes great use of the recently perfected zoom lens, which increases the optical mobility of a shot.

1976
Rocky is the first film to incorporate the use of Steadicam.

1977
Star Wars is released and uses new, ground breaking special effects.

1990
Computer-based non-linear editing systems are introduced and begin to dominate post-production.

1995
Toy Story is released and is the first completely computer generated feature film.

2009
Avatar uses 3D heavily and causes it a rise in popularity. The film also uses many other ground breaking special effects no other film had used before.