Film History The Beginnings

Persistence of Vision The ability of the brain to retain an image a split second longer than we actually see it. Seeing a number of individual images in rapid succession, our brain connects them to make a fluid sequence of movement.

Zoetrope Circular drum with slits Creates illusion of movement 1834 *

Experimentation In many countries at the same time… France, Germany, England, and the U.S. all claim to have invented the movies

Photography Precursor to film

Photography Emerges 1826 - first photos camera obscura 1839 - clear, sharp images on silver copperplate required 15 minutes exposure time 1841 - only 3 minutes needed for exposure Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Beginning of Film Initially, films were a series of photographs shown one after another. The speed was too slow for continuous motion Eadweard Muybridge 1872 - Set up 12 cameras along a track, tied strings to the shutters which were tripped as a horse ran down the track. Created movement with photography.

Eadweard Muybridge **

George Eastman Developed celluloid film (1884) made motion pictures possible flexible allowed light to pass through was durable (didn’t break in projector)

First American Motion Picture (1889) Thomas Edison and William Dickson filmed a sneeze

Edison’s Kinetoscope 1889 in parlors featured: dancing, juggling ‘wonders of the world’ re-enactments Open Closed

Kinetoscope: for individual audiences Edison didn’t see future in mass projection But contributed: sprocket holes on film, first movie studio

Lumière Brothers 1895 Worked on Edison’s Kinetoscope Designed own machine within a year Able to project for mass audiences

December 28, 1895 First theater opens to the paying public Basement of a Paris café Lumières’ shows: Workers leaving the Lumière Factory Arrival at Lyon A Baby’s Meal

Georges Méliès One of the first to see Lumières in Paris Saw opportunity Set up Europe’s first film studio in 1897 - with artificially-arranged scenes Show video*

Le Voyage Dans la Lune (13m) 1902 – Voyage (or Trip) to the Moon Pioneer of illusion and fantasy: trick photography dissolves wipes stop-motion, slow-motion and fadeouts

Pixar Zoetrope