Introduction
to the Complete History of Cinematography
A 19th Century Camera Obscura 'Room' from a book entitled
'Wonders of Optics' by F. Marion, 1868. (C. Bright Bytes Studio)
This subject has a rich
history attached to it. In order to understand the full discovery and development of
moving pictures, we must study the various elements of not only this medium, but all
others which are related to cinematography and especially photography. This timeline will
provide more than a substantial glimpse into the discoveries of these elements which
include; optics, pinhole images, camera obscura, persistence of vision, showmen, magic
lanterns, light, lenses, light-sensitive substances, phantasmagoria, motion study
analysis, photography, and stop-action series photography in the overall growth of
photography and ultimately, the movement of pictures.
This chronology is presented in fifteen chapters, and represents an exhaustive and
historical overview on the subject of cinematography. It encompasses among others, the
works of Layard, Sophocles, Herodotus, Empodocles, Mo Ti, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus,
Euclid, Archimedes, Shao Ong, Vitruvius, Lucretius, Pablius Statius, Pliny, Seneca, Heron,
Ptolemy, Ting Huan, Galen, Boethius, Geber, Chao-Lung, Kuang-Hsien, Alhazen, Avicena, Shen
Kua, Averroes, Grosseteste, Bacon, Magnus, Witelo, Peckham, Saint-Cloud, Villeneuve,
Gershon, Fontana, Alberti, Gainsborough, Vinci, Maurolycus, Caesariano, Durer, Reinhold,
Gemma-Frisius, Cardano, Porta, Barbaro, Fabricius, Diggs, Risner, Danti, Benedetti,
Casciorolo, Kepler, Scheiner, Sala, Snell, D'Aguilon, Drebbel, Gassendro, Schwenter,
Leurechon, Bate, Kircher, Descartes, Horrocks, Herigone, Martini, De Chales, Zahn,
Niceron, Huygens, Schott, Walgensten, Vermeer, Reeves, Hooke, Boyle, D'Orleans, Balduin,
Kohlans, Cellio, Homberg, Molyneux, Sturm, John Harris, Van Gravensande, Van
Musschenbroek, Schulze, Bion, Cheselden, Guyot, Smith, Cuff, Caneletto, Costa, Nollet,
Parrat, Dollond, De la Roche , Ledermuller, Martin, Van Loo , Brander, Sheraton,
Schropfer, Priestley, Seraphin, Lambert, Boulton, Scheele, Joseph Harris, Storer, Charles,
Wedgewood, Balsamo, Chretien, Guinard, Harrup, Robertson, Hare, Davy, Philipsthal,
Wollaston, Niepce, Brewster, Chevalier, Talbot, Herschel, Dageurre, Gurney, Birckbeck,
Roget, Ritchie, Fitton, Paris, Drummond, Barker, Farraday, Wheatstone, Plateau, Stampfer,
Marey, Janssen, Anschutz, Muybridge, Horner, Donisthorpe, Lumiere's, Goodwin, Eastman,
Dickson, Casler, Friese-Greene, Carbutt, LePrince, Edison and others. |
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Marion
reported in his book, of the work of GIOVANNI BATTISTA DELLA PORTA. In reference to the
images that Porta observed through the camera obscura effect, Marion stated; "this
was the first attempt at the formation of a camera obscura, an instrument that has
bestowed such incalculable benefits on humanity". These were engaging words
indeed, although the research involved was limited. However, like others before and since,
Marion failed to delve deeper into the true history of the camera obscura, a discovery
which would lead to photography, and ultimately, cinematography. We hereby take the
liberty to present such a history . . . |
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| INTRODUCTION |
This is a retrospective
history of the dawn of film, and a pre-history of cinema itself. The body of this text
deals with the origin of motion pictures and the ancestors of cinema beginning from
approximately nine hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and
culminating in the final decade of the nineteenth century. Film historians differ in their
opinion of what is the birth year of film. There are some who put it as early as the 80's
and others who claim it to be as late as 1897. Regardless, motion pictures were born when
the technical aspects of the primitive camera, and projector were combined with celluloid.
For instance, Donisthorpe and Le Prince both pre-date what is considered the premiere
films of Lumiere. Yet they receive little if any attention due to the lack of
commercialism.
Our purpose here is not to induce controversy around the parentage of commercial cinema,
or the year it finally came of age. It is to provide factual data on the grounds of well
documented material. We will allow the reader to decide on the importance of genealogy. |
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| A Brief History of Pre
Cinema |
Cinematography is defined
simply as the illusion of movement by projecting in rapid fashion, many still pictures.
Also known as motion pictures, movies or moving pictures, cinematography is a product of
nineteenth century ingenuity and experimentation.
Motion pictures came to be as the result of numerous other inventions. A large segment of
the discoverers came from the new field of photography. Many more came from those who
worked with magic lanterns. Some were interested in projecting images, and then others
studied how images could be recorded on different materials such as leather and paper. But
these were not the only men interested in watching real-life motion unfold before their
eyes.
People like Oliver Wendall Holmes desired to enhance prosthetics for post civil war
amputees. Others like the scientist E. Jules Marey studied the motion of animals and
particularly birds, in flight. British born American photographer Eadweard Muybridge also
studied animals in motion but humans as well. By the end of the century, all of these
discoveries, experiments and inventions came together to form the art we now call as
movies, videos or cinema. Since man was first created, he has had an insatiable thirst to
re-create his own movements. His first attempts were simple drawings of animals, showing
them in their natural stride. Primitive, but effective enough for his needs and desires.
And it is in fact this driving desire to not only create and re-create, but to continually
improve on his previous works that allows for man to produce a superior, more enhanced
version of the original. |
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Even
before men desired to capture images on paper, and make them move, humans have been
fascinated by such simple pleasures as eastern shadow plays, pinhole images and lanthorns.
Whether it was observing images of light cast upon the ground through the intertwined
leaves on trees, the ascending paper cut-outs from a flame or hand operated puppets in
China and Greece, man has wanted to witness the reproduction of movement made by his own
hands. Even Plato's cave images strike a tremendous similarity to today's movie. |
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| Pinhole Images |
| Pinhole images have been
seen since the time of Aristotle. What he saw were images and shapes flickering through
the tiny holes made between several leaves crossing, and wickerworks. Pinhole photography
on the other hand is the capturing of those images and shapes using no lens. A tiny hole
replaces the lens. Light passes through the hole and an image is formed in the back wall
of the camera. The image is of course upside down because light travels in straight lines
and therefore crosses at the aperture (hole). If an outdoor scene is seen, the sky is at
the bottom and ground at the top. |
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| The basic optical principles
of the pinhole are commented on in Chinese texts from the fifth century BC. Chinese
writers had discovered by experiments that light travels in straight lines. The
philosopher Mo Ti was the first to record the formation of an inverted image with a
pinhole or screen. Mo Ti was aware that objects reflect light in all directions, and that
rays from the top of an object, when passing through a hole, will produce the lower part
of an image. There is no further reference to the camera obscura in Chinese texts until
the ninth century AD, when Tuan Chheng Shih refers to an image in a pagoda. Shen Kua later
corrected his explanation of the image. Yu Chao-Lung in the tenth century used model
pagodas to make pinhole images on a screen. |
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| In Greece, Aristotle (fourth
century B.C.) comments on pinhole image formation in his work Problems. In Book XV, 6, he
asks: "Why is it that when the sun passes through quadri-laterals, as for instance
in wickerwork, it does not produce a figure rectangular in shape but circular?"
In Book XV, 11, he asks his readers: "Why is it that an eclipse of the sun, if one
looks at it through a sieve or through leaves, such as a plane-tree or other broadleaved
tree, or if one joins the fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other, the rays are
crescent-shaped where they reach the earth? Is it for the same reason as that when light
shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears circular in the form of a cone?"
Aristotle found no satisfactory explanation to his observation; the problem remained
unresolved until the 16th century. |
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| The Arabian physicist and
mathematician Ibn Al-Haitam, also known as Alhazen, experimented with images seen through
the pinhole in the tenth century AD. He arranged three candles in a row and put a screen
with a small hole between the candles and the wall. He noted that images were formed only
by means of small holes and that the candle to the right made an image to the left on the
wall. From his observations he deduced the linearity of light. In the following centuries
the pinhole technique was used by optical scientists in various experiments to study
sunlight projected from a small aperture. |
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| Pinhole cameras are small or
large, improvised or designed with great care. Cameras have been made of sea shells, many
have been made of oatmeal boxes, coke cans or any size of box. Cameras have been cast in
plaster like a face mask, constructed from beautiful hardwoods, built of metal with
bellows and a range of multiple pinholes. Even cars have been used as pinhole cameras and
rooms in large buildings. In fact the camera obscura effect (pinhole images seen within a
camera) was first seen inside large rooms. The showman Villanova performed scenes outside
a room which had a small hole in one wall. Patrons sat inside and watched
"cinema". The accompanying sounds heard outside matched the scenes viewed
inside! |
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| Pinhole images are softer
and less sharp than pictures made using a lens. The images have nearly infinite depth of
field and wide angle images remain absolutely rectilinear. On the other hand, pinhole
images suffer from greater chromatic aberration than pictures made with a simple lens, and
they tolerate little enlargement. Exposures are long, ranging from half a second to
several hours. Images are exposed on film or paper - negative or positive; black and
white, or color. |
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| The Camera Obscura
Effect |
| We will look at the effect
of the original 'camera' in it's most obscure form being able to provide a picture, but
not capable of retaining it. For three centuries alone, a fundamental piece of equipment,
the camera obscura, had been known to man (not to mention pinhole images which pre-date
the camera obscura and were the actual effect). A great new toy of sophistication and
delight, but it had little to offer in the way of long-lasting enjoyment. It eventually
found it's place in history but not before being used as a simple drawing aid. |
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| In the Renaissance and later
centuries the pinhole was mainly used for scientific purposes in astronomy. But as time
went by the pinhole image (now known as a camera obscura) was used more and more as a
drawing aid for artists and painters. Even Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) described the
pinhole image in his Codex Atlanticus. The pinhole image had come of age, and was placed
in a box, or room. Giovanni Battista della Porta (1538-1615), a scientist from Naples, was
long regarded as the inventor of the camera obscura because of his description of the
camera obscura in the first edition of his Magia Naturalis (1558). His description has
received much publicity, as did his camera obscura shows, but he was not the true
'inventor'. |
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| What appears to be the
earliest ever illustration of the camera obscura is found in a book by Johannes De Fontana
in 1420. The drawing shows a nun holding a vertically-shaped camera with an image on the
inside. The image has been identified as a magic lantern by some but can only be
attributed to the camera as the image is clearly on the inside. Magic lanterns projected
their images. |
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| Gemma Frisius, an
astronomer, had used the pinhole in his darkened room to study the solar eclipse of 1544.
He described it along with a description in his 'De Radio Astronomica et Geometrica'
(1545).The very term camera obscura ("dark room") was coined by Johannes Kepler
(1571-1630). At his time, the term had come to mean a room, tent or box with a lens
aperture used by artists to draw a landscape. The lens made the image brighter and focused
at a certain distance. Thus this type of camera differed from the pinhole camera obscura
used by Frisius in 1544. In the 1620s Johannes Kepler invented a portable camera obscura.
Camera obscuras as drawing aids were soon found in many shapes and sizes. They were used
by both artists and painters. |
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| During the 19th century
several large scale camera obscuras were built as places of education and entertainment.
The meniscus lens, superior to the bi-convex lens, improved the quality of the the
projected images. Several buildings or towers with camera obscuras remain today: The
Camera Obscura at Royal Mile, Edinburgh; the Great Union Camera at Douglas, Isle of Man;
the Clifton Observatory at Bristol, England; the camera obscura at Portmeirion, North
Wales; the camera obscura at Santa Monica, California, and others. A few large scale
camera obscuras have been built in the 20th century. The Giant Camera at Cliff House, San
Francisco is scheduled for demolition at the time of this writing. A group is fighting to
keep it from being destroyed. |
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| As most students of film
know, the origin of moving pictures goes back well beyond Mary Pickford and Charles
Chaplin. Contributions over two millennia by many people, comprise the whole story of
putting the full and complete picture together of how we now view re-created motion in the
form of motion pictures, or movies. As going to the theatre today is like looking through
a window on the world, with all it's created beauty and magnificence, so too will we now
look back through the window of time to study the people and properties of cinematography. |
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| Camera
Obscura from Athanasius Kircher's Ars Magna Lucis Et Umbra (The Great Art of
Light and Shadow) 1646. Originally, camera obscuras were the size of rooms and thus
take their name from the latin 'dark room'. (Ars Magna, 1st ed. vol.10, plate 28 of
vol.10, sec. 2, 1646) |
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| The Magic Lantern |
| The magic lantern, a
projector with a future that would inevitably become one of the most famous and
entertaining inventions in history, in many ways surpassing that of the automobile and
airplane combined. In it's primitive state, the magic lantern was the forerunner of our
current day slide projector and overhead. It however, was without motion. Void of fluidity
yet electrifying and exhilarating in it's presentation. This little tin box with a chimney
was only one of many vital components that make up the art of seeing pictures
"move". And they all have their special place in the story, and history of
cinematography. |
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The little tin box with a chimney, the Magic Lantern. In 1640, Athanasius
Kircher will present a slide show recognized to be the first use of the candle-lit
lantern. |
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| The Magic Lantern is an
ancient projector originally illuminated by candles and oil lamps. Considered to be black
magic, sorcery and witchcraft when originally developed during medieval times, its
inventors were at times considered sorcerers to achieve the effects created by projecting
images on a screen. This thinking was perpetuated in the 18th and 19th centuries with the
coming of the phantasmagorie. |
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It is commonly thought that the origins of the magic lantern go
back to the early 17th century, almost two hundred years before the first photographs were
made. Athanasius Kircher is the name synonymous with the magic lantern. However it must be
mentioned that approximately one hundred and forty years before Kircher's lantern in 1644,
Leonardo gave us an amazing drawing of a magic lantern. It clearly showed a condensing
lens, candle and chimney. None of Leonardo's writings indicate any hint of him actually
projecting images, however this illustration from the master strongly suggests a figure of
some type between the candle and lens. |
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| The magic-lantern is the
precursor of the first motion picture projector. It was first seen and used around
1644-1645, and soon became a showman's instrument. At the close of the 17th century,
travelling showmen (lanternists) would put on shows at any venue they could use including
castles. The term "magic" lantern is derived from the fact that these shows
featured devils, ghosts and goblins to name a few. The name Athanasius Kircher is most
often heard when mentioning the lantern. |
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| By the end of the nineteenth
century, magic-lanterns were found everywhere; schools, homes, theatres, churches and most
other public places. They became as integral a part of society as movie theatres are
today. There were toy lanterns for children, large wooden and brass lanterns, with single,
double and triple lenses. Lantern slides were hand-painted in full colour and projected
onto a screen as large as movie screens today. Sound effects and musical accompaniment was
provided by a soloist as part of the show and the audience. |
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| The Phantasmagorie |
| In English this theatrical
phenomenon was known as the Phantasmagoria. There were as many professionals at it as
there were itinerant travelling showmen with their lanterns. One of the original and most
elaborate of them all was E'tienne Gaspard Robert. He later changed his name to Robertson.
His demonstrations of the lantern were slick theatrical productions designed and performed
to scare people to death. Aparitions, ghosts and the like would appear from nowhere and
literally frighten patrons from their seats. This macabre entertainment created quite a
stir in the closing years of the 18th century. |
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| The
Phantasmagoria shows were often held in old run-down monasteries and chapels to add to the
effect. The dark and sombre surroundings were ideal for special effects much like those
created through Dolby surround sound and darkened theatres of today. Showmen used waxed
sheets to catch images from "moving" lanterns on wheels and smoky rooms allowed
images to float and "hang" in the air. |
Joseph Boggs Beale (1841-1926)
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| Robertson's varied
performances would often use multiple lanterns. Fades, pans, dolly shots and rear
projection were some of the tools of the artists which today are taken for granted as
modern Hollywood creations. In America, Joseph Boggs Beale was considered the foremost
magic lantern artist. |
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| Elaborate nineteenth century
magic-lantern shows with a variety of themes were produced at the Royal Polytechnic
Institute in London. The Polytechnic was built specifically for magic lantern shows and
was part of a museum. As Terry Borten of the American Magic Lantern Theatre states; |
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"From 1838 to 1876, the
Polytechnic produced extraordinary shows that dazzled two generations. The shows used
giant lanterns with slides that were sometimes two feet long. Over 900
"Polytechnic" slides were exquisitely painted by the specialist firm of Childe
and Hill, and Childe's dissolving views and elaborate special effects were an important
part of the shows' popularity. The program was changed regularly during the year and
included battlefront reports of the current wars, and fairy tales such as Aladdin's Lamp.
The highlight of the year was The Christmas Special, featuring (of course) Dickens'
classics like "Gabriel Grubb."
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| Persistence Of Vision |
| Man's ancient desire to make
likenesses of himself and his environment found new satisfaction when he became able to
reproduce movement through the fluid medium of film. As we can trace the history of
photography back over centuries until the first photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph
Niepce, so can we look back to the ancestors of cinematography. |
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| The first modern steps
toward motion pictures were those taken in the direction of the study of persistence of
vision. The investigation of this subject appears to have been conducted on a serious note
by Peter Mark Roget in 1824. Roget presented a scientific paper detailing his studies and
called it `Persistence of Vision with Regard to Moving Objects'. He provided an early
definition of the phenomenon of the backwards wheel in forward motion, touching upon
persistence of vision. The phenomenon itself was not only known in the 19th century. When
one digs deep into the history of this subject we find that Aristotle himself spoke of
after-images. Our retina at the back of the eye retains an image for approximately 1/14 of
a second longer than the eye actually sees it. This explains why you don't see blackness
when we blink. When we see a film, TV or even someone walking down the street, what we see
are actually individual moments in time. In the case of a movie, we are seeing still
frames at 24 frames each second. The pictures "blend" one into another, or
appear to "move" because 24 units in a second is more, or faster than 14 units
in a second. The eye can't keep up and we therefore see things as "fluid" or
moving. |
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| In 1832 Joseph A.F. Plateau
and Simon Ritter von Stampfer in Vienna, Austria, independently of one another, discovered
an identical method for creating the illusion. They used flat disks which were perforated
with a number of evenly spaced slots. Around the rim of the disk were an equal number of
hand-drawn figures. Each figure showed successive phases of movement. Holding the device
with the figures facing a mirror, the viewer spun the disk and looked through the slots.
The figures reflected in the mirror appeared to move. Plateau's device, the
phenakistoscope, and Stampfer's, the stroboscope, led to the invention of more elaborate
devices using the same principle, such as the zoetrope. Such optical "toys"
became popular in 19th-century homes. |
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| Photography |
| One of the most important
constituents in the discovery of motion pictures was the photograph. Like almost all other
discoveries throughout time, photography was the result of accumulated technical knowledge
covering a period of no less than three hundred years. In fact, just like the pinhole
image effect preceded the camera obscura's construction, so did the knowledge of
light-sensitive substances precede the actual harnessing of the fixed image through the
photograph. The effect of light on silver compounds had been known for almost one hundred
years itself, dating back to 1727 when it was discovered that silver halides turned black
when exposed to the sun. But the photograph by itself would have to wait patiently until
the coming of celluloid before re-created motion could be achieved. |
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| This text will examine that
entire history, from the pin hole image to the screen. Our purpose is to provide the most
thorough, exhaustive and sweeping view of every component which makes up the medium of
film and to give life and sustenance to it in the process. Chronologically presented, THE
COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF CINEMATOGRAPHY encompasses an historical and factual
re-creation of it's own, combining all of the properties of cinematography and the persons
responsible for their discovery or invention, and linking those pieces together into an
ever unfolding story. The actual vision that many of these personalities had during their
involvement in this fascinating process of creativity, production and improvement is
astounding. |
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| Earliest Extant Photograph "View from the Window at
Gras". Joseph Nicephore Niépce is credited with producing the world's first
permanently captured "image", which he called a Heliograph (or Sun Drawing).
Niépce's photograph was made in 1826 and was taken from a window looking out across the
roof tops of the Niépce home. He used a pewter plate that was sensitized with bitumen of
Judea. The photograph was made in a camera obscura and took an eight hour exposure. The
extant photograph is 8" x 6.5" and resides at the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. It was discovered by chance, in the
1950's in London |
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| when found along
with letters written by Niepce. The photograph is part of the Gernsheim Collection and is
known as “View From The Window At Gras”. In 1813, Niépce obtained an image but
it was not fixed, and eventually faded. (Courtesy the Gernsheim Collection, Ransom
Centre, University of Texas, Austin), (Thanks to Robert Carter, Photographic Historical
Society of Canada). |
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| Two such men, each playing
their own vital part in the unravelling of history as it pertains to the motion of
pictures, were Eadweard Muybridge and Thomas Alva Edison. |
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| Well documented throughout
the history of photography are the photographs taken by Muybridge of cats, dogs and the
famous trotting horse. Muybridge concentrated his life's work on the study of the motion
of humans and animals. His work in stop-action series photography is only one example, by
one man, of the continual and improving way this medium matured. |
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| Thanks to a simple wager
regarding the movement of a horse's legs during a trot, Muybridge began to pave the way
for cinematography to become an eventual reality of this world. It was almost as if he
knew the extent to which his work, and it's direction would go in the next century. He
actually spoke of the coming of film during his last years. As quoted from the preface of
his book "Animals In Motion" published in 1898, Muybridge writes . . . . |
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The combination of a Kinetoscope and
Phonograph has not been satisfactorily accomplished. There can however be but little doubt
that in the future . . . . an entire opera with the gestures, facial expressions, and
songs of the performers with all the accompanying music, will be recorded and reproduced
by an apparatus for the instruction or entertainment of an audience. And if the
photographs have been made stereoscopically, and each series be independently and
synchronously projected on a screen, a perfectly realistic imitation of the original
performance will be seen, in the apparent "round", by the use of properly
constructed binocular glasses." --
Eadweard Muybridge
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Muybridge's
Zoopraxiscope of 1879 (left) and a disk (right) (Zoopraxiscope & Disk
courtesy Charl Lucassen) |
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| Motion Study Analysis |
| By 1877 the increased speed
of photographic emulsions and improved camera shutters made it possible to photograph
rapid motions. Pioneers such as Muybridge and Marey were interested in motion rather than
in photography. Their combined studies and experimentation's in stop-action series
photography and motion study analysis have led to wonderful inventions within modern
times. To study the gait of a running horse, Eadweard Muybridge, an English born
book-seller turned photographer, set up on a racetrack in California a row of 12 cameras
that had electric shutter controls. As a horse ran by the cameras, it tripped strings that
activated the shutters and exposed the plates. Muybridge repeated the experiment using 24
cameras. In this way the first instantaneous photographs of un-posed, continuous motion
were made. Muybridge's work led to many experiments in motion photography aimed at
achieving the same results with a single camera. |
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| This was first accomplished
in 1882 by a Frenchman, Étienne-Jules Marey, who was also studying the movement of living
things. Marey perfected the "photographic gun," shaped like a rifle but with a
lens in the muzzle and photographic dry plates in the chamber. With only one pull of its
trigger, 12 exposures were made in rapid succession. Marey later improved the gun by using
emulsified paper film instead of dry plates and was able to take about 100 pictures a
second. His paper film, however, could not be projected. The next important step in taking
pictures was the development of a light-sensitive emulsion on Celluloid film. This was
achieved by Hannibal Goodwin, an American amateur photographer from Newark, N. J., in
1887. A short time later George Eastman, also an American, marketed a similar transparent,
flexible film to be used with the Kodak camera he invented. Celluloid film, though highly
flammable, could be manufactured in continuous fashion, rapidly exposed by intermittent
motion, quickly passed through a projecting device, and easily wound. |
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| Another giant step taken
towards motion pictures was the one taken by Baron Franz von Uchatius, an Austrian
military officer, who combined the revolving disk principle with the magic lantern to
project a series of phased drawings on a wall or screen. Uchatius perfected his projection
apparatus between 1845 and 1853. His pictures could be viewed by a number of people at one
time. During the years that these men were discovering how to make pictures move and how
to project them, others were pioneering in the development of photography. By the middle
of the 19th century, still photographs began to replace drawings on optical disks.
However, due to the long exposure time required by the wet-plate process then in use, each
phase of a motion had to be posed and photographed separately. By 1870, inventors in the
United States and England had developed devices in which posed photographs of motion,
mounted on a revolving disk, passed between a light source and a lens for projection for
an audience. These mechanisms created an illusion of motion, but it was not yet possible
for the photographer to capture on film the objects in motion. |
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| Frenchman Louis-Augustin Le
Prince who lived primarily in Leeds England, in 1888 patented a machine to film and
project images using Celluloid film. Le Prince never showed his cinematograph pictures to
anyone other that his co-workers and those in employment at the Whitley factory where he
had his shop. This fact has lessened his impact on the history. Without an official
announcement and documented coverage of a 'first showing', Le Prince was left out of
predominance for the most part. However, no other strip of working film has been
discovered that predates the Leeds bridge traffic scene of 1888. The extant film shot by
Le Prince but never shown publicly or announced to the world, was presented seven years
before the Lumiere's cafe presentation to workers in the Whitley factory where Le Prince
performed his work. Le Prince used non-perforated sensitised paper for these frames which
remain twenty in all. |
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| Commercialization Of
Film |
| The first people generally
credited with using Celluloid film for motion pictures were the American inventor Thomas
A. Edison and his assistant William K.L. Dickson. By 1890 they had developed the
Kinetograph, a motion-picture camera using Eastman film. To view the film, the Edison
laboratory developed the Kinetoscope, a peep-show type of machine in a cabinet. The
machine ran a continuous 50-foot loop of 35-mm. film driven by sprockets. A revolving
shutter allowed a brief glimpse of each image. On April 14, 1894, the first Kinetoscope
parlour opened at 1155 Broadway in New York City. It was an arcade containing banks of
Kinetoscope machines, which featured motion pictures of vaudeville acts, wild West and
circus shows, and other entertainment. They were filmed at the "Black Maria,"
the world's first motion-picture studio, built by Edison at West Orange, N.J., in 1892-93.
By the end of 1894, other Kinetoscope parlours had opened in the United States and Europe. |
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| Perhaps better known for his
contribution to the quality of life than the entertaining aspect of it, Edison wrote on
the moral demeanour of the finished product to his contemporaries while being honoured at
a birthday gala in 1924. He too saw the vast potential, not just from an entertainment
aspect, but from a reputable and ethical one. Edison had an uncanny intuition and
incredible foresight of what the future held. He spoke these words to motion picture
industry executives almost thirty years after the first reels had been turned . . . . . |
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"I believe, as I have always
believed, that you control the most powerful instrument in the world for good or evil.
Remember that you are servants of the public and never let a desire for money or power
prevent you from giving to the public the best work of which you are capable. It is not
the quantity of riches that count; it is the quality that produces happiness, where that
is possible. I wish you a prosperous, useful, and honourable future."
--Thomas A. Edison
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The
success of Edison's machines inspired other experimenters to improve on his devices and to
try to find a means of projecting films for large audiences. In 1895 a number of new
motion-picture cameras and projection devices--some within the same machine--were
demonstrated in the United States and Europe. The most successful was the
Cinématographe--a combination camera, printer, and projector--invented by Louis and
Auguste Lumière in France.
They gave their first private film show in March 1895, and in December they began public
showings at the Grand Café in Paris. These were almost immediately popular, and in 1896
the Lumières converted a room at the café into the world's first cinema theatre. The
Cinématographe spread rapidly through Europe, and in 1896 it was imported by the United
States.
Edison's 35mm Kinetoscope of 1902 (left) (Courtesy Michael Rogge
Collection) |
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|
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| To meet the competition of
films projected on a screen, Edison arranged to manufacture the vitascope, a projector
developed by Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins in the United States. The
Armat-Jenkins projector was the first American one to use the principle of intermittent
motion, allowing each frame to remain stationary on the screen for a brief time. Like the
Europeans, Edison also developed a portable motion-picture camera that could take films
anywhere. On April 23, 1896, Edison's first public performance using the vitascope opened
at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City with films of prizefighters, dancing
girls, a scene from a play, and ocean waves. With the development of the vitascope, all of
the basic tools of cinematography were finally available. |
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| So
it is with man in his more civilized and educated state when he draws on his innate and
natural urge to expand and go beyond what his senses say is unexplainable. Society's
magnetic attachment to watching films today is no different than the drawing power that
pinhole images had on Aristotle. Nor is today's attraction to television, videos or
computer games any stronger than Venetians of the 13th century viewing Villeneuve's moving
shows. Great film directors of today pursue the finishing touches of their artwork at the
same speed and obsession as the pioneer's of previous centuries pursued theirs. |
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Lumière Brothers 1895 Cinematographe (Right) (Courtesy Smithsonian
National Museum of American History) |
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| Only technology changes, and
technology is the culminating factor in the final presentation of any product, especially
in the medium of movement re-creation. In fact, technology is the final presentation
because it becomes the improved version of itself. The subject matter of any scenario
remains stationary among all versions until technological advances bring it to a new
plateau, a new height of enjoyment through it's own technological phases of expansion. |
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| Film has been defined as a
photographic projection of continuous still images. In contrast to chronophotography, it
has been called a technical device for achieving the illusion of motion by photographic
means. Regardless of whatever description one gives to the definition of motion pictures,
it remains without doubt, a monumental discovery within history. |
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I invite you now, to view
the chronology of events leading from the pinhole image to the silver screen.
This is the genesis of the cinema. |
~
Paul Burns |
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"Our
invention can be exploited for a certain time as a scientific curiosity, but apart from
that, it has no commercial future whatsoever."
--Auguste Lumière
From http://www.precinemahistory.net/introduction.htm |
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