MECS 102: Introduction to Media Studies Early Film: Lecture 2

The Lumière Brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere - invented a projection system - a very sophisticated, yet elegant, little camera, the Cinématographe which used 35mm film and could capture, print and project film. Their first film, using this system, was called Workers Leaving the Factory (1895). In December 1895, the brothers rented a basement room in Paris and projected about ten of their films for the first time to a paying audience – the earliest concept of a movie theatre, bioscope or cinema complex. Cinématographe could be taken outside - the early Lumière films therefore reveal a greater slant toward documentary. Cinématographe projections marked the end of the period of technological experimentation - the history of cinema as an art form begins