Historical Overview of the development of the Film Industry.

In the beginning, Film was viewed as being no more than an unsophisticated form of entertainment for the lower classes. However over a Period of ten years the industry blossomed into a sophisticated art form. Along side the movie houses, there were glamorous theaters that were now showing movies this invited a higher class and a higher cost. these new customers brought sophistication to the early move theaters.

The changing the movie viewing experience  from a lower class to a higher class pastime was looked upon as a great advancement as the higher class became spokesmen, "Art of the People" was used to describe this new and innovating form of social media.

On the 31st of October 1910, "there were 9480 picture theaters in the United States" (pg52) thus showing the high demand of this medium. In 1912 the theaters had grown to 12,969 the compassion of these two dates shows that the industry was growing and it was growing fast.

The creation of the Star System was only to follow this boom of  film viewing. The creation of the Star System formed a new way of categorizing the films that were being seen and was a tool for the audience to make judgement on the films.

The Feature Film, "This Particular innovation was resisted by many Producers to the point where they found themselves unable to compete with the suppliers of the more demanded longer films." (pg57)
The audiences were enhancing their visual and audio scope and were beginning to tell the difference between a good film and a bad film and were craving the long films with more sophisticated story lines. By 1914, the public and the industry had accepted the feature film as the normal.

In Four Years film had evolved from the back ally movie houses to being demanded by audiences who were sophisticated and educated on with a thirst for longer movies with complex story lines and high end Movie theaters.

In the years 1914-1917 film was used as a propaganda device for the war to persuade peoples opinions on the War. In the following years controversial topics And taboo topics such as divorce  birth control and even "educational" sex dramas were on the screen for viewing. The film industry face a "gradual shift in content toward  more mature themes"(p69)



Jowett, G 1976, ‘The development of an industry, 1909-1918’, in Film-The democratic art, Focal Press, Boston, London, pp. 51-73.