FILM HISTORY The Beginnings Photography The first photograph

FILM HISTORY The Beginnings

Photography The first photograph Taken in 1826 By Joseph Niepce

Eadweard Muybridge • Photographer hired in 1877 to prove a bet – A galloping horse has all four hooves off the ground during stride – Set up 24 cameras along a race track – Experimented with motion sequences and set them up in viewing machines commonly called “Zoetropes. ”

https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v= FYKZif 9 ooxs

Photography to Film • Multiple cameras producing multiple still photos to • One camera producing multiple photos – Glass plate to paper to flexible light sensitive material – Ability to produce multiple photos in the thousands

The Eye • Persistence of Vision/Phi Phenomena – Motion is an optical illusion – The retina retains an image for a fraction of a second – Early silent film was standardized at 16 frames per second

George Eastman • 1889 Perfected a process of nitro cellulose base on rolls that were transparent, thin, strong and standard in quality and began to manufacture them

THOMAS EDISON • Laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey • Invited Muybridge to his lab to demonstrate the Zoetrope device • Interested in a visual accompaniment to his phonograph

Black Maria Studio (1893)Kinetographic Theater

Early Edison Films • https: //www. youtu be. com/watch? v=r Qk 5 Rft. Sd. F 8

W. K. L. Dickson • invented the motion picture camera Kinetograph (motion writer) and Kinetoscope (motion viewer). • Produced short bits of motion for single viewers and charged a nickel • Fred Ott’s Sneeze and the Rice-Irwin Kiss

Edison’s Kinetoscope

The Black Maria • Edison’s studio in West Orange • All black and rotated to stay with the sun

Technical Inventions – American Perforation • Allowed film to run smoothly in cameras and projection (Dickson) – Latham Loop, patented by Thomas Armet (worked for Edison) • Intermittent Movement: Allowed film to stop momentarily at the gate

Lumiere vs. Dickson

Latham Loop and Intermittent Movement

Lumiere • Simple shots – Train leaving station – Workers leaving the factory – Steady camera observing action – Realism

The Lumiere Brothers • France 1895: Short Documentaries

George Melies

Melies

Scorsese’s Hugo (2011)

A Trip to the Moon • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=_Frd. Vd. Kl x. Uk

Early Filmmakers The Great Train Robbery 1903

• First Narrative Film • Worked for Edison • 1903 • One Reel ten minutes long • First film with a storyline • First film shot out of sequence/editing • First Western • First Smash Hit Porter

Major Companies • • • Edison Biograph Vitagraph Essanay Lubin • • Selig Kalem Melies Pathe

Motion Picture Patents Company • Nine major film companies • Monopoly on Film • Exclusive contract with Eastman Kodak • The General Film Company for distribution

Birth of Cinema Short • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=R 0 jm 6 j 3 s _u. E