10 Movie Innovations That Happened Earlier Than You Think

Kevin Costner got digitally de-aged before it was cool.

By Jack Pooley /

Universal

Hollywood is often referred to as the dream factory, and so it follows that filmmakers are always keen to innovate and push the envelope as far as humanly possible.

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Technology moves so fast that every year we're seeing new visual and technical landmarks on-screen, and though the big-hitter movies mostly tend to get credit for their ground-breaking inventiveness, every so often a film won't quite receive the praise it deserves for helping the industry grow and improve.

These 10 innovations all changed the film industry in tectonic and unforgettable ways, yet the originator in each instance is largely mis-attributed to a higher-profile or more successful movie.

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In actuality, each of these stylistic landmarks was born far earlier than you're probably aware - be it years or even decades.

Sure, we all know the film that popularised these techniques, but the directors and craftsfolk creative enough to come up with them in the first place also deserve their own tidy place in the history books.

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And so, we pay tribute to some of cinema's unsung innovators...