The first film created by the Lumiere brothers was titled “Employees Leaving the Lumiere Factory” in 1985 – a documentary piece.

The “Phantom Ride” was one of the first types of tracking shots, where a camera was placed on the front of a train as it drives over the tracks – a shot now often done with all types of vehicles.

The reason that the 1903 short silent comedy film “The Sick Kitten” was so ground-breaking for film, was due to George Albert Smith’s use of a close-up shot to show more detail of the kitten eating. Much like “The Sick Kitten”, Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 short silent film “Life of an American Fireman” innovated film with the first proper uses of editing and film technique – combining multiple shots together with various cuts to show what happens next – one of the first instances of continuous editing.

The first film star in Hollywood was called Florence Lawrence – featuring in a large array of silent films within the late 1900s to the late 1930s.