1. Jaakko Seppälä
The Magical Attractions of Early Cinema & The International Expansion of Cinema
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2. Brighton and After
For decades early cinema was a neglected field of study
Early cinema was seen as an elementary stage of cinematic evolution
International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) held a symposium in Brighton in 1978
The event brought together film archivists and film historians around a common purpose
Early cinema began to be understood as a period that possessed a different conception of space, time and narrative form from the way in which these issues were approached in the later classical cinema

3. The Cinema of Attractions
For a long time the history of early cinema was theorised under the hegemony of narrative films
Early cinema (films made before 1906/1907) is now understood as the cinema of attractions
This cinema celebrates its ability to show something
In the first few years the film projector was the attraction
Then the demonstration of the possibilities of cinema continued in films
What ever the attraction is, it is of interest in itself

4. Actualities and Trick Films
Many early films are non-fiction films – actualities
These films use footage of real events
Topics of actualities: parades, sports, shipwrecks etc.
News events were covered on location where they happened but also recreated in studios
Line between fact and fiction was not sharply drawn
Trick films are cinematic magic tricks
These films are essentially devoid of plot
Special effects were used to show what was possible

5. Early Story Films First story films were comic skits
Before 1903 mainly single-shot films
In many of these films there is no sense of depth
Longer multi-shot films became common from 1903
Reasons: artistic innovation, product differentiation, enabled to sell more feet of film, more efficient to shoot films in studios than to make actualities on location
Simple narratives that follow action in linear fashion
New multi-shot film genre: the chase film
Common and popular genre internationally in

6. The Gay Shoe Clerk (1903)

7. Contextualising Early Films
Early films need to be studied in the context of the screen
The exhibitor, rather than the image-maker, generally held editorial control and was responsible for what is now called postproduction
The exhibitor bought single-shot films and created film programs
Lecturing, vocal acting, music, sound effects etc.
Early story films were often based on well known myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes
Audiences were familiar with these (prior knowledge)

8. Tinted film

9. Toned film

10. Blue Tone and Rose Tint

11. Stencil Colour

12. Nickelodeons
Itinerant movie-show people played an important role in the creation of audiences for films outside the largest cities
In the United States storefront nickelodeons in large cities began operating in 1904 and 1905
Soon nickelodeons opened in every larger town
Preconditions: film production on a large scale and film exchanges
In million Americans visited nickelodeons every week (mass entertainment)

13. A Nickelodeon

14. The International Expansion
Before the turn of the decade cinema was truly an international phenomenon
Films travelled freely across boarders
A typical film show consisted of films made in various countries
There were no national cinemas and it did not much matter where a film was made
Filmmakers influenced each other
This was an era of experimental filmmaking

15. Georges Méliès (France)
Stage Magician (Theatre Robert Houdin)
In 1896 Méliès bought a projector from R. W Paul and built his own film camera
Made films for his own company Star Film
The master of the trick film
Stop motion
Superimpositions
In many ways these films are excessively theatrical
Méliès was internationally successful until 1905

16. Georges Méliès ( )

17. Pathé Frères (France) Pathé Frères was formed in 1896
The company produced film equipments and films
Pathé camera was the most popular film camera in the world before the 1920s
The company produced all kinds of films but in the early 1900s it was best known for its story films (fréeries)
Pathé became the first vertically integrated film company in the world when it opened its own film theatre in 1906
The largest and most important film company in the world before the Great War

19. Film d’Art
Film d’Art was a small company founded in 1908 by Paul Latiffe
The company had good connections to the theatre world
Film d’Art produced prestigious art films films for upper class audiences
L’assassinat du duc de Guise (1908)
Legitimate actors, scripts written by famous dramatists and original scores by well known composers
Film as art
In 1911 the company was in debt and had to be sold

21. British Cinema
British cinema had an influential and innovative beginning
Silent British films made after 1905 have been neglected (and/or considered bad)
A large number of phantom ride films in early 1900s
Dolly shot films inspired by Lumière films
The Brighton School (Williamson & Smith)
Ingenuity in editing and shooting practices
Rescued by Rover (1905)

22. Pendlebury Colliery 1900

23. Italy Fiction film production began in 1905
In the early 1910s Italy was one of the major powers in world cinema
Early film production: actualities, historical films and slapstick comedies
Soon Italy was known for historical epics
The zenith of achievement: Cabiria (1914)
First feature films were made in the early 1910s
Diva films (Lyda Borelli & Francesca Bertini)
Strongman films (Maciste)

24. Lyda Borelli

25. Bartolomeo Pagano