Great movies are an integral part of modern culture. Movies allow us to visit distant lands, travel back in time, learn new things, and so much more. The earliest movies, or reels, captivated the public with their depiction of everyday events and people, but it was not long before early science fiction and fantasy films and historical epics emerged from the minds of pioneer filmmakers.



The first motion pictures, or one reelers, were created by French magician Georges Melies in 1896. Although he made many films during his lifetime, he is best known for A Trip To The Moon, which is considered to be the first science fiction movie ever made. Using stop action photography and superimposition, Melies created special effects on film that had never been seen before.

The silent film era saw the creation of the first full length feature films, including Queen Elizabeth, starring the famous French film actress Sarah Bernhardt. The American producer and director D.W. Griffith made motion picture history with his Civil War film The Birth of A Nation, in 1915 and Intolerance, in 1916. Most movies of this era were westerns, slapstick comedies and romances set in exotic locales.

Beginning in 1926 with Warner Brothers Studio, sound films, or talkies took the industry by storm. The 1927 film, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson and featuring his famous line, you aint heard nothing yet, is considered to be the beginning of the end of the silent film era. At first, these early sound films were dominated by sound effects and little actual dialogue, but over time, dialogue became one of the most vital components of cinema, as directors and screenwriters developed new movie making and directing techniques.

The earliest color movies were made in 1906, but it was not until 1933, that the first Technicolor process was perfected and used in the movie Becky Sharp, in 1935. Beginning in the 1950s color films began to dominate the cinema, and black and white became increasingly used for dramatic effect, rather than as a primary film medium. The 1950s also saw the brief emergence of the 3 D film, which required the viewer to wear polarized glasses, and the birth of wide screen film processes such as Panavision and Todd AO.

Movies have come a long way from the silent short reels of the late 1800s, and have seen many inventions, like 3 D glasses, and innovations, such as wide screen films, digital imaging technology, Technicolor, and sound, come and go. So many different types of movies are made everyday that the opportunity for the creation of more memorable movie moments in nearly endless.