Early Cinema

Early Cinema
The emergence of early cinema originated from technological innovations during the Industrial Revolution, however this was also shared by a strong demand from an audience who were seeking more engaging methods of entertainment. From the early forms of cinema within silent films era with only three elements of an accompanying sound track of live piano on screen narration and sound effects, to the later movement to a more sophisticated talking period that formed a more engaging experience and a significant cinematic movement.   This paper examines this movement from cinema’s formative years and the concept of the “cinema of attractions” and its relation to a perceived need to address the early cinema audience.

Early cinema was introduced during a time in history where a variety of popular entertainment methods were emerging. During this time development of experiences such as Edison’s the Kinetoscope, (also known as “the viewer of motion”) were prominent, which acted as a miniature “peep show” type of device for one viewer to watch short films of dancers and actors and the like (Gunning, 2008, p. 9) and other entertainment experiences including puppetry, magic lantern shows and nineteenth century toy theatre came onto the entertainment scene. With technological advances and the evident popularity and large crowd drawing ability of cinema productions, audiences were encouraged to interrupt their sense of reality, accepting the version being presented to them as long as the production was visually available (Väliaho, 2013, p. 163).   During this period of early cinema the period “cinema of attractions”, a phrase coined by Tom Gunner, played a large part with its embodiment of its illusionistic cinematic experience. The term implies that the audience willingly played an active role of participation and a fostered an ongoing desire to revisit the experience, which transcended any previous cinematic experience (Braudy & Cohen, 2004, p. 786)....