The Birth of Film & Film Inventors

Period 1:

BLOG POST/COMMENT:

In the COMMENT section below, please answer the following questions (answer in the same post please):

• Generally, how do you watch films? Do you stream films online? Do you watch primarily Youtube videos and not full-length films? Do you pay to see films at first run cinemas like Tinseltown or Regal or Lowes? Do you watch films in second run theaters like Cinemark in Brighton (Brighton Movies 10)? Do you go to small independent theaters like The Cinema or The Little Theater or the Dryden Theater? Do you watch DVD's, BlueRay, or VHS tapes? Do you use a network service like ROKU or HULU or Amazon Prime? Do you watch films on demand or from a cable or satellite dish network? Do you just have to imagine a film from what others tell you about it?
• How important is watching/viewing films in your life or the life of your family? Is it a rare treat, or a daily activity, or somewhere in between? Do you generally watch films alone, with a friend, with a relative, or with a group of people? 
• What was the last film you saw (include where you saw it) and why did you see it? [The name, perhaps the year of the film, or when you last saw the film (yesterday, last weekend, 3 months ago, etc.?) and why you saw it: homework project, for school, to avoid schoolwork, as a social activity with friends, as a promise to your sibling, as a babysitter while waiting for a parent to come home, as a time killer, as an interested student of film or art, as a date, etc.]

Short Film: Please watch and take notes on key or important points made:

Crash course Film Studies #1: Films are Magic

LAB ACTIVITY: In the lab answer the questions on the handout using this website and the article (part 1 & 2) by Tim Dirks. The next page (part 2) is found on the bottom of the screen. Follow the arrows to the right to advance the page. Complete Part One and Two by answering the questions. Turn in your answers by the end of our lab time on Friday, Feb. 2 for participation credit.

Period 2: Early Film Inventions: Let's play around with a few visual toys and learn about the early, early days of film. These are just some of the important events, inventions, and inventors that helped create the film industry. You should be familiar with them. Take notes on the following terms/ideas.

Persistence of Vision: the optical illusion that allows the human mind to blend various images together into a single image. Provides the "move" part of a "movie". 

Magic Lantern: Invented in the 17th century by Athanasius Kircher. The magic lantern projected pictures on a screen. It functioned like an overhead projector. Originally it used a candle as the light source.

Thaumatrope: Invented by Dr. John Ayrton Paris in 1824; utilized the theory of “persistence of vision”: Persistence of vision is the optical illusion where multiple images blend into a single image in the human mind. Without it, we would not be entertained by film as it wouldn't appear to "move"--hence, no "movies".

Fantascope, Phenakistiscope (“spindle viewer”), Fanatoscope: invented by Belgian inventor Joseph Plateau. Daedalum (Horner 1834)/Zoetrope (Lincoln 1867)

Daguerreotype: Invented in 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Monde Daguerre. The process of capturing images on silvered, copper metal plates - the beginning of photography.

Celluloid: Invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt. Strips of thin film which could be developed with pictures.

Praxinoscope: Invented in 1877 by Charles Emile Reynaud. A film projector. This clip shows examples of Reynaud's animations. 

Light Bulb: Edison invented the long-lasting light bulb and secured the patent in 1879. Actually the light bulb predates this date. Edison patented the incandescent light bulb filament (specifically). 

The Photographic Gun: Often hailed as the "inventor of cinema" Etienne-Jules Marey invented his chronophotography or series photography, similar to Muybridge's attempts, which allowed for the taking of several photographs on the same "plate" in 1882.

Edweard Muybridge (1830-1904): Our first pioneer of the art of film is the photographer Edweard Muybridge. Muybridge was a photographer who became famous when former California Governor Leland Stanford contacted him to help settle a bet over whether all four hooves of a running horse left the ground. Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. Between 1878 and 1884, Muybridge perfected his method, proving that horses do have all four hooves off the ground at some point during their running stride. Muybridge worked at the University of Pennsylvania between 1883 and 1886, producing thousands of photographs of humans and animals in motion. He published several books featuring his motion photographs and toured Europe and North America, presenting his photographic methods using a projection device he'd developed, the Zoopraxiscope.

Some other interesting bits about Muybridge: During a break from his photographic research, his wife, Flora, had an affair with Major Harry Larkyns, a drama critic. Believing that Larkyns had fathered the couple's recently born son, Muybridge tracked him down, shot, and killed him. At his trial for murder in 1875, several witnesses testified that Muybridge's personality had changed after he received a head injury in which he lost his ability to taste and smell. The jury didn't buy the insanity defense, but acquitted Muybridge on the grounds of "justifiable homicide." Muybridge died in 1904. His contributions to art and photography spurred the works of other film inventors, many of which we will study today.

Please watch the following two films, the first a documentary: Photographs of Motion

and the second, a series of Muybridge's photographs, sped up to show motion (persistence of vision!)

So what's the oldest film ever made? Interesting story:
The oldest surviving film in existence at this point is Louis Le Prince's Roundhay Garden Scene (1888). This sequence was recorded on an 1885 Eastman Kodak paper base photographic film through Le Prince's single-lens combi-camera-projector. It moved at 12 frames per second.

Le Prince's life was also interesting and there's a mystery (and some say conspiracy) attached to his death. Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration in the United States of his films because he mysteriously vanished from a train on 16 September 1890 --His body and luggage (including his film camera) were never found. Le Prince's disappearance allowed Thomas Edison to take credit for the invention of motion pictures in America, but now Le Prince has been heralded as 'The Father of Cinematography.'

Now: Watch these early films from the late 1890's and early 1900's. As you watch, take notes in your journal/notebook about the director(s) and the titles and content of the film. Summarize in a few words or a sentence or two what each film is about. At the end of the collection, answer the following:

• What do you notice about the films? 
• What subject matter do they deal with? 
• What do you notice about the shots and camera work in these films?

Edison Kinetoscope films: (1894-1896)
Titles in this clip include: The Kiss, Serpentine Dances, Sandow the Strong Man, Comic Boxing, Cock  Fighting, The Barber Shop, Feeding the Chickens, Seminary Girls & Boxing Cats (the first cat film meme!)

Many of Edison's early films were shot by W.K.L. Dickson. Thomas Edison invented the idea of the Kinetoscope but it was Dickson who designed it between 1889-1892. His film studio was called the Black Maria. The first kinetoscope exhibition occurred in New York, NY in 1894.

Other Kinetoscope films:

• Carmencita (1894)
• Statue of Liberty (1898)
• The inauguration of President McKinley (1901)
• Scenes in New York City (1903) (sound added)
• Skyscrapers of New York (1906) (Mutoscope)
• Moscow Clad in Snow (1906)

At the same time, in France, the Lumiere Bros. were also working on the invention of film, particularly, a camera that could also project a film for the benefit of an audience. Learn more about The Lumiere Bros. (Documentary, 10 minutes).

• Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
• Lion, London Zoological Gardens (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
• The Sprinkler Sprinkled (Lumiere Bros) (1895)
• Le Squelette Joyeux (the happy skeleton) (1895) 
• Various actualities (documentaries)

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter handout on Film Studies and watch the second Crash Course Film #2.  If you missed any of these films, please watch them. Check the links for more information on key topics. Notes for Parts 1 & 2 from Tim Dirk's website are due at the end of our lab time on Friday.