Although we now have a greater understanding of the state of film narrative before D.W. Griffith began directing films in 1908, little is known about the Vitagraph Company of America during the rise of the nickelodeon era, 1905-1907. Much of the research on early American film companies has centered on Edison and Biograph and on the films of Edwin Porter and Griffith, rather than on Vitagraph.

(…) Vitagraph developed an alternative model for the manufacture of films that contrasted with Biograph’s. The company’s building of a new studio in 1905 enabled Vitagraph to become a leader in the method, quantity, kinds, and style of films made. By 1907 at Vitagraph, there was a shift to a new way of telling dramatic stories through the full use of the space in interior shooting and through the emergence of parallel editing. Shooting in the studio greatly improved control over the mise-en- scène.

From 1905 to 1907, with acreage and a studio in Brooklyn in which to make films, Vitagraph produced and advertised its own product almost entirely.
By 1907, the rise of the nickelodeon had produced a significant shift in the kinds of films that were made, away from actualities and toward narrative dramas. Vitagraph’s production pattern anticipated this change. Vitagraph in addition made and marketed trick films for a longer period of time than many other American companies, probably to compete more effectively with the French companies in the European market.

Already many months before Griffith began directing at Biograph, Vitagraph had established the elements of a newer film- making style, as well as the studio production, distribution, and publicity methods to anticipate the rapid changes in the industry and to compete more effectively with its product in the mar- ketplace.

Jon Gartenberg, Journal of Visual Communication, v. 10, n. 4, Fall 1984