Nickelodeon

In 1914, Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) goes from a lawyer to a writer and then to a film director, as his job. However, Leo has problems, such as being hopelessly smitten with his leading lady, who chooses to grab his attentions by getting herself engaged to his vulgar and ignorant leading man, Buck Greenaway (Burt Reynolds). Leo is forced to move from New Jersey to California to keep one step ahead of the Motion Picture Patents Company, who are out to destroy any non-authorized equipment violating the Edison Trust. Leo finally settles in with other filmmakers in Hollywoodland, California, and makes a series of dramatic, romantic, and comedic shorts as throwaways. While initially believing movies are just a brief flickering kind of entertainment, Leo is profoundly affected by the 1915 world premiere of D.W. Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'', which transforms the motion picture industry.