Of the many people working to develop motion pictures in the late 1800s, the most successful were the partnerships between Thomas Edison and William Dickson in America and the Brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière in France.

Their experiments, spurred on by motion capture work by photographer Eaedward Muybridge and Etienne Marey, provided the basis for motion picture photography and presentation, and their techniques can still be seen in the capture and projection of motion pictures today.

In the UK, photographer Birt Acres teamed up with electrical engineer Robert Paul and together they developed their own motion picture camera to create films for use with copies of Edison's Kinetoscope. Acres and Paul's brief partnership led to the production of the first successful British film - 'Incident at Clovelly Cottage' in March 1895.

As the technology advanced, filmmakers emerged, with Cecil Hepworth and Edwin Porter leading the way. Hepworth producing such early cinema classics as 'How it feels to be run over' and 'Rescued by Rover' with Porter directing 'The Great Train Robbery' among many others.

In France, Georges Méliès emerged from a theatrical background and started making films combining film technique with the spectacular effects achievable from the theatre. Méliès' work led to some of the first 'special effects' in cinema in films such as 'A Trip to the Moon'.