History of silent era

The silent film era extends from the late nineteenth century, with the earliest work by the
Lumière Brothers in France and Edison in America, into the early 1930s, when silent film gave
way to ―talkies.‖ However, most scholars situate the silent era in America during the 1910s and
1920s, when it matured as a tightly organized industry privileging the multi-reel feature film
after the waning of the nickelodeon, the move to Hollywood from earlier production
headquarters in New York and New Jersey, and the decline in competition from European
filmmakers caused by World War I.
D. W. Griffith's twelvereel feature The Birth of a Nation (1915) was a major commercial and
cinematic success showcasing many of the directions the industry was to take into the 1920s.
While the term ―silent‖ in silent cinema refers to the lack of synchronized sound, early cinema
was far from silent in other respects. From the nickelodeon era into the 1920s, films were
accompanied with live music, ranging from single pianos or reed organs to large orchestras,
depending on the nature and location of the venue—which also ranged from small store-front
theaters to thousand-seat picture palaces. Some studio releases came with specifically-composed
musical scores, and almost all with cue sheets that suggested musical themes for specific scenes.
Often, solo musicians more or less expert at reading the visual cues of the film improvised a
score on the spot, and exhibitors also drew on large published collections of sheet music
appropriate for stock scene types..
As the feature film became the central industry product, the use of lecturers declined and the use
of title cards for dialog became more realistic, gradually supplanting exposition cards. In 1925,
Warner Brothers created the Vitaphone process, a sound-on-disc system that began the end of
silent film, releasing The Jazz Singer in 1927; however, silent films would continue to be made
into the 1930s, and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) is sometimes described as the last
silent film.
Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the cinematic experience during the silent period because of
individualism in respect to the varieties both of aural accompaniment and projection speeds.
Though the standard projection speed was 16fps, exhibitors would often project films faster or
slower than taking speed to ensure the program began and ended on time. As a medium derived
from still photography, vaudeville, and theater, silent film adapted many of their presentational
methods; as the period progressed, however, the industry worked diligently to become more
respectable, seeking to dissociate its product from that peddled by vaudeville houses and
nickelodeons.
While older venues and distribution methods persisted, grand picture palaces of the silent era
dramatized the goals of the uplift movement—to create a safe, clean, family-friendly
environment for an orderly, middle-class audience in an economical fashion with vast seating
capacities, elegant lobbies, and impressive orchestras. Theaters exhibited varied entertainments
in a balanced program, which grew in length over the period. Exhibitors sought to begin and end
the programs at specified times, which sometimes meant, in addition to speeding up projection,
dropping items from the bill or even cutting reels from the feature, to accommodate continual
groups of audiences.
As the number of larger theaters increased, there was less need for rapid audience turnover and
the multireel feature film grew into the central attraction. The evolution of the film industry's
structure during the silent era was complex, and it is marked by new refinements in cinematic
production, distribution, and exhibition that brought about the feature film. Throughout the
period, the industry worked toward standardization; contracts, patents, and licenses bound the
industry into a tight network.
Within the existing system, multi-reel films were released one reel at a time, ensuring quick
audience turnover but retarding the development of complex narratives. Multi-reel features
would typically be shown as special attractions or outside of the established distribution and
exhibition system, and states rights distribution practices evolved to allow local exchanges to
contract with major distributors for territorial exhibition rights. Longer films were exhibited in
this fashion, because they could travel throughout a territory as a special attraction until the
audience pool was exhausted. Thus, early multireel films tended to emerge from independent
production houses or European film studios, which didn't experience the same limitations as
mainstream American outfits.
The devastation caused by the First World War had all but decimated the mainstream European
industry, and American companies, often building on already existing import agreements, began
to compete vigorously for prestige pictures. Independent American houses and European
companies realized that to compete they must be able to distribute their products as well, and they set up their own corporations; ultimately, a small number of these corporations would gain tight control over the industry. One important cause of the dramatic changes to the industry during the silent era was the method by which filmmaking was financed; by selling their stock on the public market, production and distribution companies not only acquired the influx of capital needed to compete but also made the industry more business-like. In conjunction with factory production methods, which ensured consistent quality and regular release schedules, these methods of financing transformed cinema into one of the nation's leading industries. Cinema, trending towards the feature film, was becoming both art and product. With standardization in production came a decrease in radical technological and artistic innovation, but an elevation in production values, set quality, costumes, acting, and lighting. Very early silent film tended to minimize the camera's presence, composing short films of single, static shots or simple linear cuts, typically showing actors full-frame as on a stage. With the multi-reel feature, scene dissection became much more common, and a grammar of film emerged. D. W. Griffith pioneered cross-cutting and editorial techniques designed to control pacing, and Mack Sennet used quick cuts to develop a distinguishing comedic style. With the rise of multireel feature films came a corresponding need for continuity, clarity, and character development; filmmakers introduced a more restrained acting style that emphasized facial expression over broad pantomime. The close-up became an important—though sometimes derided—stylistic device in the silent era, creating a new intimacy between audience and actor that opened the way for the star system. In the 1920s, few dramatic American innovations in cinematography occurred, but abroad, flourishing avant-garde movements produced a variety of experimental cinema in the wake of war; surrealism, expressionism, and impressionism offered alternatives to mainstream narrative film, and Soviet filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein developed rich montage techniques. The significance of the silent era in film history cannot be overstated. During the first decades of the twentieth century, a truly commercial popular art emerged bound closely to the image of a modern America. With the development of synchronized sound, the era drew to a close, but the modes of production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption inaugurated during the silent film era persisted, creating the film industry as we know it today.