In this major A-Z work, 'early cinema' refers to the first 25 years of cinema's development, from the early 1890s to the middle 1910s. The Encyclopedia presents a wealth of information on early cinema history, with coverage of the techniques and equipment of film production, profiles of the pioneering directors and producers, analysis of individual films and the rapid growth of distinct film genres, and the emergence of something the world had never seen before - the movie star. In addition, the work also focuses on how the nature of film exhibition changed as the industry grew, and how the public's reception to films also changed. The pre-cinema period is closely examined to show those mass-cultural forms and practices - such as music hall and vaudeville - from within which cinema was to emerge. The Encyclopedia reveals that early cinema was inextricably bound up with other forms and practices of mass culture, that it emerged as a combination of existing and innovative elements, and that it was an unusually hybrid medium that only gradually coalesced into something more or less distinct.
Consultant editors: Stephen Bottomore, UK; Donald Crafton, University of Notre Dame, USA; Andre Gaudreault, University of Montreal, Canada; Tom Gunning, University of Chicago, USA; Charlie Musser, Yal