Ealry Film Essay, Research Paper
Being able to capture motion has occupied the human
psyche sine primitive times. This is evident through the
Lascaux cave paintings which depict buffalo with multiple
legs in a attempt to represent the animal running. Other
simple innovations also led to the motion picture, these
‘optical toys’ demonstrated the eye’s persistence of vision.
These ‘toys’ grew more advanced, but lifelike motion could
not be achieved until the photographic process was nearly
perfected.
In the 1870’s Eadweard Muybridge was successful in
capturing the complete motion of a horse galloping. This was
the first step in bringing pictures to life. The next
invention came from a Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, who devised a
thin, flexible, plastic base he called celluloid, on which
could be put photosensitive material. George Eastman was the
first to market this celluloid film, and in 1890 Thomas
Edison and William Dicksom successfully tested the
Kinescope.
The first motion picture captured and copyrighted on
this Kinescope was titled “The Sneeze”, which is simply a
man sneezing. Edison continued to make short films in his
studio, nicknamed the Black Maria. His shorts usually were
comprised of people performing vaudeville acts as a form of
sideshow attraction. These films would be viewed in
Kinescope parlors, from large wooden boxes with a eyepiece
on top.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, the
Lumieres brothers improve on Edisons Kinescope, and create
the Cinematograph, a smaller more portable camera, that can
film and view motion pictures. With this new Cinematograph,
the Lumieres brothers were able to film and then project the
product for an audience. They filmed what was around them,
daily life for upper-middle class Europeans, their first was
a whole group of people leaving a factory at the end of a
work day. Simple, but for its time it was amazing, seeing
live people walking around and moving just as they normally
would, but on a big screen! These types of
Lumieres trademark, slice of life documentary work that
would be shown in front of audiences. One of the Lumieres
films: Arrival of a Train in the Cioat Station, was a train
coming straight for the camera on an angle, that terrified
the viewers.
Edison continued to make films, under his own,
controlled conditions. Although both Edison and the
Lumieres, saw the motion picture as nothing more than a
sideshow act and both filmed very documentary-esque work,
each had their own criteria for filming. Edison preferred a
indoor studio, where he could bring in vaudeville acts to
perform in front of the camera. The Lumieres brought the
camera out into the world and filmed from many different
locations.
At this point in motion pictures, the future for the
medium looked very dull, soon people would get bored with
the vaudeville acts and the world of reality and return to
literature for stimulation again. However, a magician named
George Melies, discovered the concept of trick photography
(quite by accident) , and brought narrative to motion
pictures. At first he would put together large, Broadway
musical numbers, and combine that vibrancy with what seemed
like magic powers. In 1902 he created what was to be called
his masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon, it was ten scenes
played out on about 30 sets.
With the innovation of the narrative brought into
motion pictures, the doors were opened for men like W.S.
Porter to make films like The Great Train Robbery, which
utilized one of the first camera movements. A simple pan to
follow the action but it allowed for artists to experiment
further and create more complex story lines. Another example
of a innovation that is still being used today is the
cross-cutting editing between the bandits and the posse.
As these films got more and more advanced, it began to
kindle the flame for the massive motion picture industry we
have today. Without these innovations and simple concepts we
might still be drawing buffalo with eight legs.