Early Cinematic Origins and the Infancy of Film

The birth of film began to be popular during the times of industrial revolution,
particularly around the late 1880’s and the early 1890’s. It was firstly recorded by Thomas Alva
Edison, where he started to shot vaudeville and circus acts, by which means the actors play in a
stage act only, until he made a first, commercial film production in New York called Edison
Company. This invention of film was magical at that time because at first he invented electric
light bulb and phonograph (as one of his inventions), as a result the project of light helped him to
record motion pictures for vaudeville and circus acts. However the picture was categorized as a
silent film because there was no sound at that time, until Lumière Brothers discovered another
kind of motion picture.

From Lumière Brothers portable camera, they started to observe real life objects where
they can project a real movement which relates to reality, such as The Arrival of Train (1895).
The reaction of people were astounded when watching this film, as the train came right towards
the audience. From this moment Lumière Brothers created stories which is set in a real life
setting, which are L’arroseur Arrosé (1895) and A Game of Cards (1896). In addition, George
Mèlies, a magician, created first special effects on his films, and created many fairytale films.
One of them is called A Trip to the Moon.

In 1903, Edwin S. Porter created two films, where he combined several shots in one
scene through editing, in order to see the detailed action in one shot. He made Life of An
American and The Great Train Robbery, as well as David Griffith, who invented film language
in order to give signs in every shot, which are long-shot to describe a situation, medium shot for
expressing relation and connection (conversation) and close up shot for detailed expression.
All of these developments form many good films that can be entertained and learned by
many audiences in the world, from just a telling picture, until it became a storytelling picture.

These stories developed are not just inspired by real life experiences, but from literature as well.
Therefore, when creating a story for film the element of realism and formalism could not be
separated because humans also might adapt some stories from daily life, no matter how
imaginative they are.