The first and very important major full-length film was a American classic movie called Birth of a Nation. It was a film directed by the American innovative film pioneer, D.W. Griffith in 1915. This film was a black and white, silent film that introduced many innovative cinematic techniques for the time. Chronologically, newer movie making techniques came about as the years progressed. The major ones include the addition of animation, then sound, then color, and then significant advances in video quality or higher definition pictures. It has even made the jump all the way to 3D movies with 3D glasses and then soon to be 3D movies without the need for glasses.
The functions of the movie industry have been changing since the creation of movies. It started off in the very beginning as documenting what goes on during an ordinary day or daily life. This essentially was the reproduction of reality and did not really tell a story. As the movie industry progressed so did the functions of the film making process. Movies were now being made to tell a story, although it started off with short and simple stories, it later developed into complex stories. Along with the story telling came what age group the movies were being geared towards. At first it was generally the adult population. It wasn't until Walt Disney came out with Disney's first animated hit, Steamboat Willie in 1928 that movies became an all ages type of activity. In this animated hit, the famous Micky Mouse was introduced. Four years later Flowers and Trees was created, which was the first color cartoon.
