Early Silent Films and Stars..

If you look at film today, most people can't imagine the idea of a film without a "star" being featured in it, but this wasn't always the case. Back at the start of film with silent films, there was no names attached to the actors at all whom you saw on the screen at all. From the reading I've done on the subject, it would seem the reasons for this are many, though some do stand out. firstly, at the time of film's infancy, the companies producing the films were trying to make their marks in the world, so they had to reason at that point to share the so called limelight with their actors. another main factor was money, they didn't want to give actors a reason to ask for  a raise and cut into their own profits. Even further more so than those was that acting in film at the time was considered a "lower class" of acting, and was scoffed at by the already famous play actors and others alike, so people were embarrassed to be associated with the new phenomenon  known as film.

The film "The Great Train Robbery" is often considered a breakthrough film. It used several innovative techniques for its time, including crosscutting of scenes and close ups to great effect, and set a higher standard for films to live up to than had previously been done.

The Edison Trust was a collected group of almost all the major film production companies to control the film market in America and protect their collective patents. The idea behind this was to cut the inflow of foreign films that were being imported and played in theaters, as well as discourage the trust's members entry into feature film production. Opposed to this group was the Independant Film marks group, who were in a constant battle over lawsuits with the trust over trying to get a more free market on film production and whom ultimately won in the end. The city of Hollywood was formed thanks to this, as Independant film makers moved their studios to the town to get away from being harassed by the henchman of the Trust.

 The Lumiere Brothers, Edison Studios, and Melies all produced films at roughly the same point in time, but each had a very distinct style compared to one another. If we take the Lumiere Brothers for instance, their style of film was based outside on actual events. their camera system allowed them to be portable and shoot film on any outside event, unlike their main counterpart Edison. edison Studios on the other hand still filed actions of life like Lumiere did, but his films were done on fixed sets. his camera system was in no real way portable, so all scenes had to be setup and shot within a box essentially, which rather limited the scope of which he could film.

Melies on the other hand, took quite a different approach to film than the other 2. In a way it more closely resembles Edison's films in the way that it is filmed on a set area, and not in the open, but instead of filming life, Melies made films on fantasy and magic, "A trip to the Moon" is one example of his style of work, which is very different overall from any of the works from the other two mentioned filmmakers of the time.