FILM HISTORY, PART ONE
1600s-1893: Precursors
Starting in the 1600s, people began to become fully aware of the limitations of human vision. Phenomena like the "persistence of vision" (which describes how your eye will hold an image for a moment after you stop looking at it) and the relative slowness of your eye's interpretation of images ("the hand is quicker than the eye") were first described and began to be put to use. Illusionists and flipbook animations began to appear in earnest. People also began inventing devices (toys, really) to play with others' eyes and perceptions.
One of those toys was called a "magic lantern." Magic lanterns were basically an early slide projector. They used candles or oil lamps to project an image through a lens of a painting or drawing on a glass panel. These images could be projected onto walls or into smoke or mist. Though sometimes used for seances or other illusions, these toys were really just amusements with no real practical value. They were, though, the inspiration for all modern projectors. |
|
Another one of these toys was called the "zoetrope." These devices were a way to create a kind of continual flip-book viewer. The realization that the persistence of vision could create the illusion of movement (if the images were shown rapidly with a slight break between them) meant that drawings and paintings could now "come to life" in a very limited way. Again, these were impractical amusements, but if anyone in the 1600s, 1700s, or early 1800s had thought to combine a zoetrope with a magic lantern, film would have come around much earlier than it did. |
In 1872, the former governor of California, Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, hired a photographer named Eadweard Muybridge for a portfolio depicting his mansion and other possessions, including his racehorse Occident. Stanford also wanted a proper picture of the horse at full speed and was frustrated that the existing depictions and descriptions seemed incorrect. The human eye could not fully break down the action at the quick gaits of the trot and gallop. Up until this time, most artists painted horses at a trot with one foot always on the ground; and at a full gallop with the front legs extended forward and the hind legs extended to the rear, and all feet off the ground. Muybridge eventually managed to shoot a small and very fuzzy picture of Occident running in 1873. They agreed it lacked quality, but Stanford was excited to finally have a reliable depiction of a running horse. Muybridge promised to study better solutions.
In June 1878, Muybridge created sequential series of photographs with a battery of 12 cameras along a race track. The shutters were automatically triggered when the wheel of a cart or the breast or legs of a horse tripped wires connected to an electromagnetic circuit. For a session on 15 June 1878, the press was invited to witness the process. An accident with a snapping strap was captured on the negatives and shown to the attendees, convincing even the most skeptical witnesses. The news of this success was reported worldwide.
Muybridge quickly realized that he could run the series of images "flip-book style" or "zoetrope style" and the photographs would appear to move:
In June 1878, Muybridge created sequential series of photographs with a battery of 12 cameras along a race track. The shutters were automatically triggered when the wheel of a cart or the breast or legs of a horse tripped wires connected to an electromagnetic circuit. For a session on 15 June 1878, the press was invited to witness the process. An accident with a snapping strap was captured on the negatives and shown to the attendees, convincing even the most skeptical witnesses. The news of this success was reported worldwide.
Muybridge quickly realized that he could run the series of images "flip-book style" or "zoetrope style" and the photographs would appear to move:
He decided that a system for viewing series photography in motion would be a useful tool for zoologists to study the movement of animals in detail. In 1879, he created a device called the "zoopraxiscope" (animal motion viewer). It really was a combination of a magic lantern and a zoetrope. The images were imprinted as silhouettes (to improve contrast) onto a glass disc which would spin in front of the magic-lantern-like case, and project a moving image onto a wall. This was, arguably, the first motion picture system.
1894-1902: Actual Film and Actualities
Excellent for what it was, Muybridge's system suffered from the need to have a separate camera for each image. The mule disc above, with it's 13 images, required 13 different cameras and created about 1 second of moving picture. That would mean that a 10 second film would require approximately 130 cameras. Obviously, a better solution had to be found.
In 1894, Thomas Edison's National Photograph Company developed a film stock that could run in a strip about 40 feet long. This film material was relatively flexible, and could hold multiple frames of photographs in sequence (amounting to about 20 seconds of motion picture). The film stock was exposed in a new kind of camera Edison called the "kinetograph" (literally, motion picture). The film could then be developed and viewed in a one-person, coin-operated viewing device called the "kinetoscope" (motion viewer).
In 1894, Thomas Edison's National Photograph Company developed a film stock that could run in a strip about 40 feet long. This film material was relatively flexible, and could hold multiple frames of photographs in sequence (amounting to about 20 seconds of motion picture). The film stock was exposed in a new kind of camera Edison called the "kinetograph" (literally, motion picture). The film could then be developed and viewed in a one-person, coin-operated viewing device called the "kinetoscope" (motion viewer).
Because this camera was capable of expose multiple images in real time, Edison is often credited with inventing movies. However, his camera was heavy, ran on electricity (required a generator), and, therefore, was too cumbersome to be portable. Edison could only film things that could be brought to the camera. He couldn't bring the camera to the things. Edison housed his camera inside a building called the "Black Maria" (technically, the world's first movie studio) and began bringing people in to "perform." Focused mainly on profit, Edison made films he thought people would be willing to insert a nickel to see. In 1894 Victorian America, that meant showing people things that the rather Puritanical society would normally not allow them to look at. Watch the three kinetoscope films below as an example:
|
|
|
Edison had figured out a formula, but we also learn some important things about our modern films from these. We still expect to be able to "peep" in on private moments and/or watch people without the fear of them catching us watching. This "voyeuristic" nature of film is attractive, and Edison quickly learned that the more "salacious" the film, the more money it made. That may still be true today. He also learned how powerful visual media like film can be in influencing society. After viewing "The Kiss," many people in America started to kiss that way. Having rarely seen anyone kiss in real life, many people didn't know how it was done. When they watched the film, they were being taught a social convention. It wasn't until a film of a kiss from France came to America that most Americans started kissing in a . . . different way. Edison was unable, however, to show films to an audience. One at a time with the kinetoscope is nice for private "peeping," but the real money is in large groups.
In France in 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere solved that problem. They had developed a machine they called the "cinematographe" (again, moving picture). Their machine was small, light, and portable. It ran on a hand crank instead of electricity. Best of all, it was both a camera and a projector. You could film something, develop the film, load it back into the same device, and project it for an audience. It was also a fairly simple design and built of wood and brass (fairly cheap to make).
In France in 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere solved that problem. They had developed a machine they called the "cinematographe" (again, moving picture). Their machine was small, light, and portable. It ran on a hand crank instead of electricity. Best of all, it was both a camera and a projector. You could film something, develop the film, load it back into the same device, and project it for an audience. It was also a fairly simple design and built of wood and brass (fairly cheap to make).
Because of the portable nature of the camera, the Lumieres could film people and things who weren't "performing" or even aware they were being filmed. These short films, known as "actualities" are amazingly valuable historical documents, but they were really only interesting to audiences based on the novelty of a moving image. They lacked that attractive, "entertainment value" of Edison's performances. We, today, can clearly see the early preference for performance and fiction over documentary truth. Watch the following examples, and you'll see the difference:
|
|
Soon, though, the Lumieres discovered that they could "direct" the films to both seem natural and be entertaining performances. The following two examples are obviously "faked" when you look closely, but they give the illusion of natural reality. This combination of realism and performance set the standard for most future film. Because of this, many consider the Lumiere brothers to be the true inventors of the movies.
|
|
These actualities were very popular until 1902. That's when an inventor/magician/artist named Georges Melies changed everything. More about him next time.
Now, head back to Canvas and follow the instructions there.