The movie industry, barely born before the turn of the century, began producing silent

films in the early 1900s. Filmmakers, learning how to fake prizefights, news events, and foreign
settings, increased the length and variety of their films. Some of the early filmmakers, however,
actually provided cottage of certain news events, among which were the inauguration of
President William McKinley and the action at the front in the Boer War.

Travelogues, many of which were filmed in remote parts of the world, became very
popular, as did short science films, made with the aid of the microscope.

One of the important technical film pioneers was French magician Georges Méliès,
credited with creating methods leading toward the development of special-effects movies. He
used innovative techniques, examples of which include double exposure, mattes, slow and fast
motion, animation, and miniature models. Through these techniques, he was able to create
popular film fantasies, one of which was called A Trip to the Moon and influenced many
subsequent filmmakers.

At the same time, filmmakers in England were developing fiction films shot outdoors,
some of which involved chase scenes. In 1903, Edwin S. Porter, a camera operator and director,
made The Great Train Robbery, a movie showing different actions simultaneously. For some
chase scenes, Porter mounted a camera in a car of a train. Along with bringing excitement and
suspense to the movies, Porter firmly established the genre of the chase film, seen and loved
even today.

Thus began the era of the silent film, changing the world forever.