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History of Cinema. The Beginnings. Multiple Sources. Magic Lantern: Samuel Pepys wrote of visitor in 1666 Sequential photographs: Edward Muybridge, a San Francisco photographer (1877). Evolution of Photographs.
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History of Cinema The Beginnings
Multiple Sources • Magic Lantern: Samuel Pepys wrote of visitor in 1666 • Sequential photographs: Edward Muybridge, a San Francisco photographer (1877).
Evolution of Photographs • From Muybridge to Zoetrope: a revolving disc holding the transparencies and lit from behind. • Thomas Edison and William Dickson: machine to • accompany his photograph—a Kinetoscope, a peep • show at a penny a shot (1891). • http://youtu.be/2wnOpDWSbyw (1894) • 3. Norman Raff parlors in 1894.
Film Projection • William Dickson and the Latham family overcame obstacles, with others’ help: • Films had to be lengthier. • Intermittent movement: to photograph movies necessary to stop each frame for a fraction of a second to allow the light passing through the lens to impress its image on the film—must find a way to do that in a projecting machine. • Simple alternative of leaving slack in the film at the top and bottom of the film gate to take the stress off the tightly threaded ribbon of celluloid. • Thomas Armat: what the camera did to hold the film stationary while the images were being photographed could be repeated in the projector. • Edison not interested in a projecting kinetoscope, but Armat had one and called it a Vitascope with Edison’s approval.
Other origins • 2. Lumiere Brothers: • a) pioneered the moving snapshots that formed the basis of parlor amusement. • b) Sent their light, hand-cranked projectors into middle Europe, Russia, and even the Far East, showing audiences films, “holding a mirror up to nature” (1895). • http://youtu.be/VDnppCDhI9U (1895) • 3. Georges Melies: Magician turned filmmaker: Stage presentations concentrated on the fantastic. In glass-enclosed studio, turned out the cinematic equivalent of tableaux fantastiques, whose increasing length allowed more room for fade-outs, dissolves, and double exposures, as well as special effects. • http://youtu.be/BZV2EIU9JUk The Damnation of Faust (1898). • http://youtu.be/5Y6OoN1FR6Y Hugo (2011)
Move toward Realism • Edison, The Dream of Rarebit Fiend (1906) eschews painted scenery. • Directed by Edwin S. Porter, a sailor and electrician. • Most well-known for The Great Train Robbery (1903):took a few more steps in evolving a film grammar: • matte shot of a train passing, • a full-screen closeup of a bandit, • scenes with few titles, • camera pans with the escaping bandits. • Edited his films the way it seemed best to tell a story—saw films in terms of plot instead of character. http://youtu.be/Bc7wWOmEGGY Porter: Director-general of Famous Players, the forerunner of Paramount by 1912 but left to work for Simplex projector company in 1915. Note: pre-world war I, America and France had the most vital filmmaking, with few stars other than comedian Max Linder.