00:02A film studio is a building designed for the production of motion pictures.
00:06or television programs whose sets, because invented for the occasion or existing but unsuitable
00:11For a film shoot, they are built in this vast, usually soundproofed, space and equipped
00:16of complex electrical devices and tools to illuminate the set(s).
00:19In 1891, the American inventor and industrialist Thomas Edison developed, after many years of
00:25trials, the first movie camera, the kinetograph, with the decisive help of its
00:29assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson.
00:32The films shot with this camera are presented to the public using a machine
00:35for individual viewing, the kinetoscope.
00:38The films shot by Dickson are, strictly speaking, the first films.
00:42To record these films, Dickson and Edison adopted flexible nitrate film.
00:46cellulose, celluloid, invented by John Carbot in 1887 and commercialized in 1888 by
00:52the industrialist George Eastman, Kodak, in the form of 70 mm wide rolls.
00:57He cuts his rolls in half lengthwise, thus creating the 35 mm format
01:02which we still know today, equipped with a double set of four perforations
01:06Edison rectangulars.
01:08In 1893, given the interest these films were generating, Edison was the first to choose
01:13the English word "film" to refer to his reels of exposed film.
01:16The industrialist decided to open kinetoscopes by the gold, a room where several machines offer
01:21These diverse programs cater to a broad audience who enter by paying a flat fee.
01:25of a quarter, a quarter of a dollar or 25 cents.
01:28To supply the kinetoscopes, Dickson, who was thus the first director of
01:32the history of cinema, he directed several dozen films and he had them made at
01:36West Orange, New Jersey, not far from New York, a small building intended to protect
01:40the shots of the rain and wind, and the curiosity of the neighborhood, the first
01:44studio of film history.
01:46This modest structure is made of lightweight materials, wood and tar paper.
01:50Its roof opens wide to let in the sun, essential for filming.
01:55The studio is mounted on a circular rail and can be oriented to benefit
01:58at best using natural light.
02:00It is powered by an electric line because the kinetograph is driven by a
02:04engine.
02:05This building, which Edison refers to as the "kinetographic theater," is called
02:09colloquially known as "Black Maria" by the staff, who thus appropriated the nickname for the vans.
02:13of the New York police, black and uncomfortable.
02:16Approximately 70 films were made inside the "Black Maria" from 1893 to 1895, 3.
02:23At the time, and up until the early 1900s, the length of films, whether they were
02:27directed by Dixon, Louis Lumière, Georges Méliès or Alice Guy, does not exceed one minute.
02:32The modern concept of a short film is therefore not applicable to these films because it is
02:36based on a definition of the great film, the feature film, which will only appear a few
02:40decades later.
02:41Only the luminous pantomimes of Emile Reynaud, the first animated films of cinema, painted
02:45directly onto a 70mm wide non-photosensitive film made of gelatin squares
02:51protected by a layer of gum arabic, bound together by strong, flexible cardboard, and
02:55projected on a large screen, exceed this duration, ranging from 90 seconds to 5 minutes.
03:00In 1896, the international success of Louis Lumière's films convinced Thomas Edison to design
03:05in haste a projection device and lighten the kinetograph in order to achieve
03:09outside of documentary-style views similar to those of the French director.
03:12The electric motor is abandoned; a hand crank, in imitation of the cinematograph, is used.
03:18now drives the mechanism.
03:19The Black Maria is deserted.
03:21In 1897, Georges Méliès embarked on making fiction films where fantasy
03:26and the fantastic converge.
03:28A stage performer above all, he adopted traditions borrowed from music hall for his filming.
03:33set construction and fabrication of props.
03:36He had a building constructed on his property at 1 rue François de Berghe, in Montreuil, near Paris,
03:40the first film studio in France, which was then called a "posing or shooting workshop"
03:44"Viewpoint," a studio measuring 17 meters by 66 meters, whose glass roof reaches a height of 6 meters
03:49from the ground.
03:50This design of the film studio, entirely made of glass, is spreading everywhere in
03:54the world.
03:55Thus, Edison replaced the Black Maria with a glass-fronted studio modeled after Méliès's.
04:00but on a much larger scale.
04:02However, outdoor studios remain the most numerous for a long time, because they have the advantage
04:06to be inexpensive.
04:08Thus, many films are shot on the rooftops of buildings, taking advantage of the full
04:12light.
04:13A painted canvas stretched as a backdrop, a rug to cover the cement, a table and a chair
04:17are sufficient to serve as settings for different stories that use the same props
04:21than the previous shoot.
04:23The set, however, has the disadvantage of shaking in the wind or when the actors
04:26they move, a defect that was little noticed at the time.
04:28In Philadelphia, Sigmund Lubin produced films on the rooftops of buildings; in Brooklyn,
04:34Biograph, where Laurie Dixon now works, is even installing an identical system
04:38to that of the Black Maria.
04:39A circular rail to orient the scenery towards the sun.
04:42In France, the Pathé Frère company began its meteoric rise, which would make it
04:47before the Great War, the most powerful production company in the world, which,
04:51In 1903, he even dared to challenge the Eastman Trust by creating his own manufacturing line.
04:55of film, yet shooting his films on a platform erected outdoors on
04:59barrels, knows how to revive the tradition of the theatre, one of the oldest, that
05:03of the commedia dell'arte and performance stages.
05:06In the 1900s, in the United States, cinema was the domain of a handful of men.
05:10decided.
05:11Besides Thomas Edison and his flourishing industry, the Edison Manufacturing Company, besides the four
05:16founders of the American Mythoscope and Biograph Company, the KMCD group, Copman, Marvin,
05:22Kassler and Laurie Dixon, a defector from Edison, and other characters, whom one might call
05:26adventurers, whose careers are so astonishing, become driving forces of the industry
05:30films.
05:31Georges Sadoul, the historian of world cinema, gives a very colourful description of it.
05:36Karl Lemley was a German emigrant.
05:38He had worked for 20 years in a modest clothing company in Oshkosh,
05:42Wisconsin.
05:43The cinema made the fortune of the dyer Fox, who became a clown after bankruptcy, and of the shopkeeper
05:48Marcus Love, owner of the Penny Arcade, and Zukor, a Hungarian former fur trader
05:52of rabbits established by Führer, and of the four Warner brothers, established bicycle repairers
05:57in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, after disembarking from their native Poland.
06:00In 1910, the first film shoot took place in Hollywood, a small town near Los Angeles, where the
06:06The predominantly sunny climate allows filming throughout the year.
06:09The presence of several waves of immigrants also offers the possibility of hiring
06:13numerous extras for films set all over the world.
06:15The varied landscapes of the surrounding area are also a definite asset.
06:20It was D.W. Griffith who first arrived in Hollywood, with In Old California, to...
06:24film the exteriors.
06:25The village's welcome was so warm that Griffith would later write in his memoirs that
06:29He had found the filming to be a delightful weekend.
06:31The trend catches on, and soon various American production companies establish themselves in Hollywood.
06:36from the biggest, the majors, to the smallest.
06:39The first "studios" were actually locations in the open countryside, where they set up
06:43the usual backdrop. Very quickly, vast tracts of land were purchased,
06:47and they build glass-enclosed studios equipped with bicycles to filter the sun's rays.
06:52Through common usage, the term "studio" has become synonymous with "major," which refers to
06:57even today, the most powerful American production companies.
07:00The major Hollywood studios are not confined to sunny California,
07:05They keep a foothold in New York, where business is made and unmade.
07:08Nothing replaces Hollywood when it comes to outdoor photography, but adapting lighting...
07:12Specific electrical equipment in studios of the 1920s facilitated their installation
07:16in other cities in the United States. For the same reasons, in France, Pathé does
07:20to build a studio in Joinville-le-Pont, another in Montreuil, and Gaumont prefers to remain
07:24in the capital, at the end of Chaumont.
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