68
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Where and when does the "idea" light bulb appear for the first time?
Where does this metaphor come from?
The term "bright" to mean "clever" seems to have originated/evolved in the 18th century..
By the mid 1700s, the term was being said to ...
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49
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What's the first movie to use a prop to destroy/control an entire world?
Some of the examples in your question are technically not "props", so I will answer what I think you're really trying to ask, rather than following the exact wording of the question.
In KoKo'...
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43
votes
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What was the first TV show or movie where the viewer could hear a character's thoughts?
Wikipedia calls it Stream of Consciousness and it's a literary device dating back to the 19th century. More recently it's been referred to as Inner Monologue
The oldest movie might be Alfred Hitchcock'...
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39
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What's the first movie with a plot twist?
I don't know if it was the earliest, but certainly one of the earliest plot twists (and the earliest notable one that I know of) was the ending of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920). The film uses ...
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33
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What is the first movie to show this hard work message at the very end?
The answer you're looking for is Taken 2, released in 2012.
I didn't know about this message but I found the following article illuminating:
Fox kicks off campaign to educate consumers on economic ...
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32
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Which movie/tv started showing scenes after credit?
The very-first end-credit scene was apparently from The Silencers movie which was released in the year 1966 based on this article
The first modern post-credits scene seems to be the tag at the end of ...
- 7,302
30
votes
When were digital effects first used in film or TV?
From Wikipedia:
First digital animation in a feature film
The first feature film to use digital image processing was the 1973 movie Westworld, a science-fiction film written and directed by novelist ...
30
votes
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What was the first movie to feature both black and white as well as color scenes?
If you include early hand colored scenes, then it might be 1916 Joan the Woman.
Black and white silent feature with colored scenes (burning at the stake)
This was the first film to use the ...
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25
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What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
In Gone With The Wind (1939) the Union army is hated and feared by the main characters. The Union army besieges and burns Atlanta. They pillage the plantation Tara. In the context of the movie, from ...
- 611
24
votes
What is the first animated cartoon?
Pauvre Pierrot were painted images displayed through Praxinoscope.
While Fantasmagorie, uses the modern techniques known today, that later were used by Disney.
23
votes
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Is The Ethel Waters Show lost media?
I approached this from the opposite direction.
Rather than trying to find if one specific broadcast survived, I instead looked for the earliest method of recording a live broadcast.
Other than some ...
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23
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Which movie was the first to use the technique where the camera zooms in on a TV screen and then transitions to the scene shown on the screen?
It's really just a modern take on Orson Wells' Citizen Kane (1941) 'through the skylight' shot - though the transition is smoother due to advanced editing/CGI techniques. In the original they try to ...
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21
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What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
The trouble with this is it's a matter of perspective.
Watch any sci-fi movie from the 50s & see the US Army behaving like it's a skeet shoot every time an alien turns up, no matter how friendly ...
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20
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What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
Little Big Man (1970) follows a native American (Dustin Hoffman) who keeps getting tangled up with (from Wikipedia) "the villainous practices of the United States Cavalry", such as killing ...
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17
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Where and when does the "idea" light bulb appear for the first time?
Felix the Cat was the first to use the light bulb as a metaphor for a bright idea.
In the early twentieth century, Felix the Cat was the world’s favorite animated animal. (...) The anthropomorphic ...
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15
votes
What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army,...
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14
votes
What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
A wikipedia search for antiwar films yielded the 1948 film Fort Apache, with a villainous commanding U.S. Army officer played by Henry Fonda leading his troops in a bungled, suicidal attack, and with ...
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13
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What's the earliest example in comedy of someone reading out the prognosis as the patient quickly suffers them all one by one?
Let's try The Sword In The Stone (1963) to begin with. Anything earlier?
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11
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What is the earliest instance of a film where none of the protagonists survive?
Most likely All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). All of the main characters die during battle.
If you want a movie where everyone dies, it might be Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). That ...
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11
votes
What was the first film to depict the American military as villains?
Short Circuit (1986) film has the US military as the villains, though it's a kids movie and I don't believe there are any deaths. You are definitely rooting against the military here.
Bringing in more ...
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10
votes
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What was the first book that was split into two (or more) films?
The earliest I have come across is The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938) or Der Tiger von Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb or Das indische Grabmal (1938) both based on a book Das Indische Grabmal (1918) by the ...
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10
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What's the earliest surviving TV sitcom? Key word is "surviving"
Possibly the earliest surviving TV sitcom is The Life of Riley starring Jackie Gleason which aired on NBC from October 4, 1949 to March 28, 1950 (Wikipedia). The entire series was filmed and all 26 ...
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9
votes
When were digital effects first used in film or TV?
In Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), digital effects were used to animate the stained glass hallucination scene.
In "Howard the Duck" (1986), the first digital "wire-removal" was used.
[edit:] I'd like ...
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9
votes
Was Arrival the first movie with this plot twist?
I guess what makes Arrival different from other media where this has been done is that the main character refers to future events as if they were the past. It's not just a flash forward. She's ...
- 5,242
9
votes
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What is the first animated cartoon?
After thoroughly reading the Wikis I posted above, as well as a few offshoot Wikis, I've come to the conclusion that Pauvre Pierrot and other creations of Charles-Émile Reynaud were produced by ...
- 60.5k
8
votes
Why do criminals whistle after doing something?
TVTropes defines this as the Not-So-Innocent Whistle
In media of all types, especially comics and cartoons, the "innocent" whistle is a main staple, often played for humor. Alice, feeling ...
- 5,028
8
votes
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The first movie or TV show that said "nerds" were cool
I'd have to go with Square Pegs (1982-1983), which featured Sarah Jessica Parker, Jamie Gertz and Traci Nelson (daughter of Rick Nelson of Ozzie and Harriet fame). Several guest stars included Bill ...
- 60.5k
8
votes
First animated movie to put "bloopers" in end credits?
According to Pixar Wiki, A Bug's Life (1998) was indeed the first Pixar movie to have outtakes.
I've not found any non-Pixar films with bloopers before this, and the outtakes and bloopers in A Bug's ...
- 6,261
8
votes
Which is the first movie to show movie right after production logo without cuts?
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) starts with the mountain that is shown in the Paramount Logo.
The other Indiana Jones films use the same technique.
In Temple of Doom (1984) the logo dissolves into ...
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8
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Was Arrival the first movie with this plot twist?
No.
There is a scene in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) where Robert, the character played by Michael Sarrazin, is seen being thrust into a jail cell by a police officer, even though he has ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible