ABSTRACT
From 1829, when Louis-Jaques-Mandé Dauguerre joined with Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce to pursue photographic inventions, to 1877, when Thomas Edison recorded sound onto a cylinder, the film industry had its beginnings. It was not until 1895 that the first portable camera was developed, which Edison quickly used and demonstrated his first motion picture in public the next year. Then in 1900 a strike by vaudeville performers caused theater owners to present allfilm programs. These proved to be hugely popular. Soon movie theaters began springing up all over. Another breakthrough came in 1912 when motorized movie cameras replaced hand cranks. Despite many ups and downs, films continued to be made with various modifications until 1992, when the first public demonstration of digital cinema was shown. The coverage of digital cinema garnered more attention than the film itself. It was not until 1999 that digital cinema demonstrations to the general public began. Lucas Films and 20thCentury Fox debuted Star Wars: Episode 1-The Phantom Menace as the first major motion picture theatrically exhibited as digital cinema. As of 2002 there are more than forty digital cinema theaters in the world, and seven major motion picture studios have formed a company, Digital Cinema Initiatives (formerly NewCo Digital Cinema), to set new standards for digital cinema.
