early cinema
Pre-sound motion pictures
Early cinema refers to the first era of filmmaking, roughly from the 1890s through the 1920s—the silent film period before synchronized sound became standard.
The term encompasses both the technological primitiveness and artistic experimentation of pioneers like the Lumière brothers and Georges Méliès.
Early cinema relied heavily on intertitles and exaggerated physical performance.
- kinetoscopeEarly motion picture viewer
- zoetropeSlotted cylinder animator
- intertitlesText frames in silent films
- film reelCylinder holding movie footage
- silent filmSoundless motion picture
magic lantern · flickering images · nickelodeons · movie palace · picture show · tinting · black and white · Thomas Edison · silent era · Charlie Chaplin · Buster Keaton · stop-motion animation · motion pictures · vaudeville · Griffith · newsreel · slapstick comedy · nitrate
- cinemafilm, films, film studios, movies, movie
- obsolete media8-track, Betamax, cassette tapes, floppy disks, gramophones
- film archivesfilm archives, film preservation, film libraries, video archives, film reels
- Film eras1980s films
early cinemadigital cinema
Computerized movie distribution system
IMAX films · 3D cinema · streaming content · IMAX · talkies