by Evan Green

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 22, 2007

Film, or cinema, has been a form of art for over a century. With it comes freedom; the opportunity to express one or another's view on any subject matter, be it educational or purely entertaining. Yet in this new millennium, the ideals and preservation of such art forms have been replaced by wealthy organizations and those wishing to earn themselves a fast dollar.

A Frenchman, by the name of Louis Lumiere, is commonly credited with the creation of the motion picture camera in the late 1800's. He competed with Thomas Edison in his camera creations, however Lumiere's were more portable and hence actually got himself well known for. Lumiere shot commonly every-day footage, small scenes of people going about there daily lives. To some, an insight into how others lived; to others, a memory stored on a film cine.

The first twenty or so years of motion picture history was dominated by Germany and the United States of America. Though purely a hobbyists toy, with the production of silent films, these 'moving cameras' soon became tools for artists to make forms with through creative visions and instinctual judgments. By the 1930's, cinemas had been matched with their perfect partner - sound; and with sound brought great enjoyment to movie-goers around the world.

From this moment in time, film would create such ingenious subjects, such as Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction, even Horror; and being experimented with at a later time - documentary. The twentieth century brought great inventions and movie-making tools for cinemas. The addition of CGI in films such as Star Wars and the unforgettable blue-screen affect when Superman took to the skies proved to the world that anything is possible.

However, during the mid to late 1990's, film, television and theater took a new direction - the subject of 'Reality'. A group of people, parading around in front of a camera in 'real-life' situations, supposedly behaving as they would in 'reality'. The world loved it; the media loathed it; companies across the world begged for product placement - yet the other half of the world that enjoyed being shown someone else's story come to life or someones educational view on a subject matter, slowly found themselves squirming backwards out of the candy shop line in theater's.

Film is and has always been a source for people to vent the creative and artistic surges that pulse through their veins. Although cinema has been a form of entertainment for decades, the introduction of subjects such as 'Reality'

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