Film history and indeed history itself, is considered the encapsulation and study of the events of the past, as film historians we must begin to realize that there is not necessarily film ‘history’ but ‘histories’, but what do we mean by this? When discussing and researching the past we must know that we cannot take every film, book and essay as finite as there are many ways in which an individual can be subjective, whether aware of this or not. For instance, we may ourselves become subjective due to our ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, sex, political agenda etc. For example, films being produced in Germany throughout World War 2 would have been quite different to those being produced in Britain or the USA at this time, as both had different goals politically and different cultures with which to adhere to. This is where we get ‘histories’ from, as film historians we must always consider the biases and the context of a films production when studying it, one individuals’ subjectivity can provide a vastly different view of ‘history’ than another.

When studying film history, we must not only view early films but all forms of similar entertainment and media that came before and influenced, if not prefaced cinema as we know it today. The desire to create a moving image and narrative can be sourced back to well before the beginnings of early film, for instance with the use of shadows and puppetry (sometimes combined) tracing back to 3rd Century China and then pop up internationally. Before the invention of cinema, a variety of optical toys such as the phenakistoscope and the zoetrope tried to replicate movement of an image onto a medium. The magic lantern which was invented in 1650 could project slide images, but not movement, however with the invention of photography in 1839, motion pictures began to get ever closer. In 1877 the photographer Muybridge was employed for an experiment, which consisted of using multiple cameras to take successive shots of a horse in motion running down a track. This was then projected using a magic lantern and created a ‘moving picture’. The kinetoscope from Edison and Dickson and the cinematograph from the Lumiére brothers helped begin the premise of cinema and continued to become a much more readily available and international phenomena, spreading across the globe. We then begin to see the idea of visual entertainment go from being only available to one person at a time, to a more social group activity, where people would go and sit in a dark room together to enjoy either magic lantern shows or short silent films, this is where we begin to see the origins of cinema.

As for studying film history, it can be categorized into a few aspects:

Industrially – looking at the production of a film, how it was created and by whom? The distribution (perhaps the most important) how and where was it sold? And exhibition, where was it shown, how did they market it?

Socially – The social impact of culture on films and vice versa, trends, stardom, the change of film being considered for the lower class to then shifting to an entertainment form for everyone.

Economically – What did it do for the economy? Did it bring in revenue? Why did certain films cost more/less? Looking at the beginnings of Copyrighting films, not necessarily for the art but for the profit.

Technologically – Looking at colour, editing, lighting etc. And how they achieved those things in times where technology was less advanced? Looking at camera, sound and lighting equipment.

Aesthetically – Considering the cinematography, introduction and continuation of narrative, themes, colour and its meaning, frames, focus etc.