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A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originally referred to the main, full-length film in a cinema program that included a short film and often a
newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
. Matinee programs, especially in the US and Canada, in general, also included
cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
, at least one weekly serial and, typically, a second feature-length film on weekends. The first narrative feature film was the 60-minute ''
The Story of the Kelly Gang ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'' is a 1906 Australian bushranger film that traces the exploits of 19th-century bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang. It was directed by Charles Tait and shot in and around the city of Melbourne. The origin ...
'' (1906, Australia). Other early feature films include '' Les Misérables'' (1909, U.S.), ''
L'Inferno ''L'Inferno'' is a 1911 Italian silent film, loosely adapted from '' Inferno'', the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. ''L'Inferno'' took over three years to make, and was the first full-length Italian feature film. Plot Da ...
'', ''
Defence of Sevastopol ''Defence of Sevastopol'' (russian: Оборона Севастополя, or Воскресший Севастополь) is a 1911 historical war film about the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and one of the most important films in ...
'' (1911), '' Oliver Twist'' (American version), '' Oliver Twist'' (British version), '' Richard III'', '' From the Manger to the Cross'', '' Cleopatra'' (1912), '' Quo Vadis?'' (1913), '' Cabiria'' (1914) and '' The Birth of a Nation'' (1915).


Description

The notion of how long a feature film should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute and the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
, a feature film runs for more than 40 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild asserts that a feature's running time is 60 minutes or longer. The
Centre National de la Cinématographie Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
in France defines it as a 35 mm film longer than , which is exactly 58 minutes and 29 seconds for
sound films A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befor ...
.


History

The term ''feature film'' came into use to refer to the main film presented in a cinema and the one which was promoted or advertised. The term was used to distinguish the longer film from the short films (referred to as shorts) typically presented before the main film, such as
newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
s, serials, animated cartoons, live-action comedies and documentaries. There was no sudden increase in the running times of films to the present-day definitions of feature-length; the "featured" film on a film program in the early 1910s gradually expanded from two to three to four reels. Early features had been produced in the United States and France, but were released in individual (short film) scenes. This left exhibitors the option of playing them alone, to view an incomplete combination of some films, or to run them all together as a short film series. Early features were mostly documentary-style films of noteworthy events. Some of the earliest feature-length productions were films of boxing matches, such as '' The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight'' (1897), ''Reproduction of the Corbett-Jeffries Fight'' and ''The Jeffries-Sharkey Fight'' (1899). Some consider the 100-minute ''The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Fight'' to be the first documentary feature film, but it is more accurately characterized as a sports program as it included the full unedited boxing match. In 1900, the documentary film ''
Army Life An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
'' was produced by
Robert Paul Robert Paul (born June 2, 1937) is a Canadian former pair skater. He teamed up with Barbara Wagner in 1952. They became the 1960 Olympic champions, four-time World champions, and five-time Canadian national champions. After retiring from compe ...
. It was a programme of 33 short films, with a total running time of around 75 minutes, following the training of British soldiers. ''
Inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth ''Inauguration of the Commonwealth'' (also titled ''Inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth'') was a 1901 Australian documentary film commissioned by the Governments of New South Wales and Victoria to record the inaugural day of the Federatio ...
'' (1901) ran for 35 minutes, "six times longer than any previous Australian film", and has been called "possibly the first feature-length documentary made in Australia". American company S. Lubin released a Passion Play titled ''Lubin's Passion Play'' in January 1903 in 31 parts, totaling about 60 minutes. The French company
Pathé Frères Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipme ...
released a different Passion Play in May 1903, '' The Life and Passion of Jesus Christ'', in 32 parts, totaling 44 minutes. Defined by length, the first dramatic feature film was the Australian 60-minute film ''
The Story of the Kelly Gang ''The Story of the Kelly Gang'' is a 1906 Australian bushranger film that traces the exploits of 19th-century bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang. It was directed by Charles Tait and shot in and around the city of Melbourne. The origin ...
'' (1906).Similarly, the first European feature was the 90-minute film '' L'Enfant prodigue'' (France, 1907), although that was an unmodified record of a stage play; Europe's first feature adapted directly for the screen, '' Les Misérables'', came from France in 1909. The first Russian feature was ''
Defence of Sevastopol ''Defence of Sevastopol'' (russian: Оборона Севастополя, or Воскресший Севастополь) is a 1911 historical war film about the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War and one of the most important films in ...
'' in 1911. Early Italian features included ''
L'Inferno ''L'Inferno'' is a 1911 Italian silent film, loosely adapted from '' Inferno'', the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. ''L'Inferno'' took over three years to make, and was the first full-length Italian feature film. Plot Da ...
'' (1911), '' Quo Vadis?'', ''
The Last Days of Pompeii ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' is a novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting ''The Last Day of Pompeii'' by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan. It culminates in ...
'' (1913) and '' Cabiria'' (1914). The first UK features were the documentary ''
With Our King and Queen Through India ''With Our King and Queen Through India'' (1912) is a British documentary. The film is silent and made in the Kinemacolor additive color process. The film records the 12 December 1911 celebrations in India which marked the coronation of Geor ...
'' (1912), filmed in
Kinemacolor Kinemacolor was the first successful colour motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1914. It was invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. He was influenced by the work of William Norman Lascelles Davidson and, more directly, E ...
and '' Oliver Twist'' (also 1912). The first American features were '' Oliver Twist'', '' From the Manger to the Cross'', '' Cleopatra'' and '' Richard III'' (all 1912). Actor
Frederick Warde Frederick Barkham Warde (23 February 1851 – 7 February 1935) was an English Shakespearean actor who relocated to the United States in the late 19th century. Career He was born in 1851 in Wardington, Oxfordshire, the son of Thomas Ward and ...
starred in some of these adaptations. The first Asian feature was Japan's ''The Life Story of Tasuke Shiobara'' (1912),Patrick Robertson, ''Film Facts'', New York: Billboard Books, 2001, pp. 10–14. . the first Indian feature was ''
Raja Harishchandra ''Raja Harishchandra'' () is a 1913 Indian silent film directed and produced by Dadasaheb Phalke. It is often considered the first full-length Indian feature film. ''Raja Harishchandra'' features Dattatraya Damodar Dabke, Anna Salunke, Bhal ...
'' (1913), China's first feature film was Zhang Shichuan's ''Nan Fu Nan Qi'' (1913), the first South American feature was
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
's ''O Crime dos Banhados'' (1913), and the first
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n feature was
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
's ''Die Voortrekkers'' (1916).. By 1915, over 600 feature films were produced annually in the United States.American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures nline database It is often incorrectly cited that '' The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) was the first American feature film. The most prolific year of U.S. feature production was 1921, with 682 releases; the lowest number of releases was in 1963, with 213. Between 1922 and 1970, the U.S. and Japan alternated as leaders in the quantity of feature film production. Since 1971, the country with the highest feature output has been India, which produces a thousand films in more than twelve Indian languages each year.


Technological developments

In 1927,
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
released the first feature-length film with sound, ''
The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...
'', whose audio track was recorded with a proprietary technology called Vitaphone. The film's success persuaded other studios to go to the considerable expense of adding microphones to their sets, and scramble to start producing their own "
talkies A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...
". One of the next major advancements made in movie production was
color film Color photography is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white or gray- monochrome photography records only a single channel of luminance (brightness) and uses media capable only of ...
. Even before color was a possibility in movies, early film makers were interested in how color could enhance their stories. Early techniques included
hand tinting Hand-colouring (or hand-coloring) refers to any method of manually adding colour to a Monochrome photography, monochrome photograph, generally either to heighten the realism of the image or for artistic purposes. Hand-colouring is also known as ...
: painting each frame by hand. Cheaper and more widely used was toning: dying the film in a single color, used in many films in the 1920s. The film processing lab
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
developed the Three-Tone coloring technique that became the standard for color film. It was a complex, time consuming, and expensive process that many movie studios were not eager to try. One of the early adopters of the three-strip process was Disney. Some of the most notable films
Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
processed with three-strip were '' The Wizard of Oz'' and ''
Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind may also refer to: Music * ''Gone with the Wind'' ...
''. Digital Video (or DV) has quickly changed how most films are made. First used to create special effects and animated movies, digital cameras became more common on film sets in the late 1990s. In 2002, George Lucas' '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' became the first major studio film shot primarily on digital video. The ability to instantly play back footage and quickly transfer footage to computers for editing helped to speed up post-production time. Digital film making was given a big boost in 2005 when the Digital Cinema Initiative created a guide for manufacturers to create a universal standard, to make the technologies more compatible with each other and more user friendly. Shooting movies on digital also led to new technologies for distributing films. '' Titan A.E.'', released in 2000, was the first feature film to be released for viewing over the internet. Digital distribution changed the ways people received and watched media. It also gave viewers access to huge amounts of online content on demand.


See also

*
Narrative film Narrative film, fictional film or fiction film is a motion picture that tells a fictional or fictionalized story, event or narrative. Commercial narrative films with running times of over an hour are often referred to as feature films, or feature ...
* Short film * Featurette *
List of motion picture terminology The film industry is built upon many technologies and techniques, drawing upon photography, stagecraft, music, and many other disciplines. Following is an index of specific terminology applicable thereto. 0-9 180 degree rule - 30 degree rule A ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feature Film Audiovisual introductions in 1897 Film production Film and video terminology Australian inventions az:Bədii film hu:Játékfilm sv:Spelfilm