When it comes to film history, there are a ton of terms and events you need to know if you want to be able to talk about it with any knowledge or authority.
That's why I wanted to create this glossary. In it, you'll find the major events and terms that you really should know in order to have a basis of understanding of movies and where they came from.
This will provide you with a much-needed history of the art form and hopefully give you ideas of what you can contribute to its future.
Let's dive in.
The Film History Glossary
Singing in the Rain MGMA-C
Auteur Theory: A theory that influenced the New Hollywood generation of directors.
Birth of Cinema (1895): The first public, communal showing of short films to a paying audience, credited to the Lumière brothers on December 28, 1895, in Paris.
Block Booking: An anti-competitive practice from the Studio System era where studios forced theaters to buy a "block" of B-movies and shorts to get the few "A-pictures" they wanted. It was ended by the Paramount Decree.
CGI (Rise of) (1990s): The period when computer-generated imagery became a revolutionary tool for creating photorealistic effects (e.g., Jurassic Park), reshaping the modern blockbuster.
Cinématographe: The all-in-one camera, processor, and projector used by the Lumière brothers for the first public film screening.
CinemaScope (1953): A famous widescreen format, part of the Widescreen Revolution, which used an anamorphic lens to create a very wide image to compete with television.
D-K
Digital Revolution (late 1990s - 2000s): The industry-wide shift from shooting and projecting on physical celluloid film to using digital cameras and projectors, which lowered costs and democratized filmmaking.
Hays Code (Enforced 1934): Officially the Motion Picture Production Code, a strict set of moral guidelines that Hollywood self-imposed from 1934 until the 1960s to avoid government censorship. It forbade profanity, nudity, and "lustful kissing," among other things.
Home Video Revolution (VHS) (late 1970s - 1980s): The shift in film consumption caused by the VCR and VHS format, which allowed audiences to own, rent, and re-watch films at home for the first time.
Independent Film Boom (1990s): A decade that saw a surge in personal, low-budget films (like Pulp Fiction) achieving mainstream critical and commercial success, giving rise to new distribution companies like Miramax.
The Jazz Singer (1927): The first feature film to include synchronized dialogue, using the Vitaphone system. Its release signaled the end of the silent era and the beginning of the "Talkies."
Kinetoscope (c. 1891): An invention by Thomas Edison that was a single-person "peep show" cabinet for viewing films.
L-S
Lumière brothers: The individuals credited with the public, communal Birth of Cinema in 1895, when they screened short films for a paying audience in Paris.
New Hollywood (late 1960s-1970s): An era after the Studio System and Hays Code, when "film school" directors (like Coppola and Scorsese) took control, creating more personal, adult, and cynical films.
Paramount Decree (1948): The landmark U.S. Supreme Court case (United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.) that ended the Studio System. It ruled that Vertical Integration was a monopoly and forced studios to sell their theater chains.
Star System: A practice of the Studio System where actors, directors, and writers were locked into long-term, exclusive contracts, with their careers and public images tightly controlled by the studio.
Steadicam (Introduced 1975): A camera stabilization mount invented by Garrett Brown that isolates the operator's movement, allowing for smooth, fluid, handheld shots without the need for tracks or dollies.
Streaming Era (late 2000s - Present): The current period, which began with Netflix's streaming service (2007) and its original content (2013), where platforms produce and distribute their own films, challenging the traditional theatrical release model.
Studio System (c. 1920s-1940s): The "Golden Age" of Hollywood, an industrial model where major studios (like MGM and Warner Bros.) controlled the industry through Vertical Integration, Block Booking, and the Star System.
Sync Sound: The technological revolution of adding synchronized dialogue to film, which began with the "Talkies."
T-Z
"Talkies" (1927): A term for the era of film ushered in by The Jazz Singer, marking the end of silent films and the start of films with synchronized dialogue (Sync Sound).
Three-Strip Technicolor (1932): The process that marked the beginning of true, full-color filmmaking. It used a camera that exposed three separate strips of black-and-white film through different color filters, which were then combined to create a famously vibrant, saturated image.
Vertical Integration: The industrial model of the Studio System, where studios owned all three tiers of the business: production (studios), distribution (networks), and exhibition (theater chains). It was ruled a monopoly by the Paramount Decree.
VHS (VCR): The videocassette recorder format that enabled the Home Video Revolution by allowing audiences to own, rent, and re-watch films at home.
Vitaphone: The Warner Bros. sound system used for The Jazz Singer. It recorded audio on a separate phonograph disc that was synchronized with the film.
Widescreen Revolution (1950s): A period when Hollywood, threatened by television, began creating technological spectacles to lure audiences. This included new formats like CinemaScope, 3D, and stereo sound, which permanently changed the "shape" of movies.
Let me know what to add in the comments.
