Film History The Beginnings

Inventors Early film is a result of inventors, not artists.

Persistence of Vision The ability of the brain to retain an image a split second longer than the eye actually sees it. If we see 16 individual images in rapid succession the 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 1816 - first photographic images. 1839 - clear, sharp images on silver copperplate. Required 15 minutes exposure time. 1841 - Only 3 minutes needed for exposure.

Beginning of Film Originally, 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 the horse ran down the track. Created movement with photography.

Eadweard Muybridge **

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

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

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

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

Lumière Brothers 1895 Worked on Edison’s Kinetoscope Designed their own machine within a year Solved projection for mass audiences

Cinematographe Machine shot the pictures, printed, and projected them. The camera was portable. A hand crank provided the power.

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 Melies 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 1902 - Voyage/Trip to the Moon Pioneer of illusion and fantasy: trick photography dissolves wipes stop-motion, slow-motion and fadeouts

Pixar Zoetrope