The novel effects in pictures, such as the unique dissolves and multiple
exposures, have an immeasurable bearing on their popularity. Titles run in
over the scene, as in "Footprints of Mozart," recently released, and "The
Cricket on the Hearth," in which the style of type used was in conformity
with the spirit and locale of the story, are of greater importance than would
appear to the casual observer, and they really supply the little touches that
make up the "finished" product.

-S. S. Hutchinson, president of the American Film Manufacturing
Company, in Moving Picture World, 11 July 1914, p. 183

Improvements in lighting and special lighting effects were among the first refinements that began to preoccupy producers (and critics) in the newly structured motion-picture industry of 1909. Although the art and science of photography were at hand to provide models of lighting skill when the motion picture began...