The Black Room That Made Pictures Move

Name: The Black Room That Made Pictures Move
Genre: Documentary

Inside the strange Black Maria studio, Edison’s organization builds a complete system for filming and exhibiting motion pictures.

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Transcript

Edison began commercial movie production at the Black Maria in 1893.
Edison began work on motion pictures for the eye, like the phonograph for the ear.
By then, his West Orange laboratory held machine shops, photographic rooms, and a large library.
Two years earlier, in 1891, Edison first demonstrated motion pictures.
Edison applied mass production and large-scale teamwork to invention.
The Black Maria rotated toward sunlight, keeping its stage bright for filming.
Inside, performers demonstrated motion for the camera and early viewers.
Edison developed a complete system for filming and showing motion pictures.
That complete system made motion pictures easier to produce, show, and sell.
By 1918, Edison had left the movie business.
I never quit until I get what I’m after.
Edison spent 10 years and millions of dollars developing an iron-ore mining process.

Even as Edison abandoned movies, a far more expensive gamble was consuming ten years and millions of dollars beneath mountains of iron ore.

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