BIOGRAPH COMPANY

one of the major American motion-picture studios in the early days of filmmaking. Its most significant contribution to the film comes from the work of D.W. Griffith, the first great director, who developed the art of the cinema during his five years at Biograph. The American Mutoscope and Biograph Company released its first film, Empire State Express, in 1896. It quickly became a major producer of short pictures. From 1908 to 1914 a great many of the Biograph films were directed by Griffith and executed by the cameraman G.W. (Billy) Bitzer. Griffith refined the use of the close-up, experimented with camera angles and film editing, and trained a group of actors that included Mary Pickford, one of the most popular film actresses of all time; Florence Lawrence, the first actual movie star; Mack Sennett, who later achieved fame as the director of the Keystone comedies; and the well-known leading men Lionel Barrymore and Owen Moore. Griffith made his last film for Biograph in 1914, and within five years the company had closed.