Today please complete your film documentaries on pioneer directors (due Wednesday, see posts below for instructions) and print out and prepare your script for Geva. If you've forgotten your file at home, please submit directly to Jean Ryon at: youngwriters@gevatheatre.org.
Birt Acres & R.W. Paul
Birt Acres & R.W. Paul
Birt
Acres was born in the USA in 1854, orphaned at the age of fourteen during the American
civil war and was taken in by his aunt. Around 1872 Acres was sent to Paris
to complete his education at the Sorbonne. Acres returned to the United States four years
later to lead the life of a Frontiersman and it during a period
of eight or nine years became quite wealthy. Around 1885
he moved to England where he married a Tazmanian girl. He set up a studio
for the 'production of portraits by painting and photography',
in the seaside resort of Devon. In 1894 Acres was introduced to electrical
engineer, Robert W. Paul. At
this time Paul was in the process of manufacturing copies
of Edison’s Kinetoscope and was anxious to construct a camera
with which to produce films to show on his machines.
The pair worked together and Acres used the camera to make
the first successful film in Britain - Incident at Clovelly
Cottage in 1895. It was at this point where the two entered into
partnership with a ten year business agreement. This agreement
lasted only six weeks before splitting. During their brief
partnership, the two shot films. It is widely believed that Paul was angry because Acres had
patented his own Kinetic camera in his own name - almost identical to the one
they had developed together. The resulting projector became known as the
Kinetic Lantern, Kineopticon and the Cinematoscope.
As for Paul, he invented the Theatrograph projector and shot the first "news" films. Paul also made various “Actuality” films, made a short comedy - “The
Soldier’s Courtship” and is responsible for the first Scrooge film. In 1898 Paul began construction on Britain’s
first film studios in Muswell Hill, North London and during
that summer produced over eighty short dramatic films. Paul’s production company peaked during 1900
and 1905 but he gradually became disenchanted with the business. He returned to his previous occupation,
concentrating on electrical engineering.
Meanwhile, Acres gave the first public performance of his
projector at the Royal Photographic Society in 1896 - five weeks before
the screening of Lumière’s Cinématographe and Paul’s Theatograph. Acres formed his own company
- the Northern Photographic Works which specialised in coating,
perforating and processing film. In 1898 he unveiled
the Birtac - the first 'sub-standard gauge'
cine camera and projector, instead of normal 35mm film the
camera used narrower width film - typically 17.5 mm. Unfortunately for Acres, within weeks, a rival
17.5 mm camera/projector was announced - the Biokam by the
Warwick Trading Company. The Biokam benefitted from its cheapness
- half the price of the Birtac, and heavy backing. Regardless
of this, Birt Acres invented the
first amateur cine camera and remained in the film business until
his death in 1918.
R.W. Paul: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897)
Upside Down (1899) (watch camera tricks)
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) (the first Scrooge film).
The Magic Sword (1901)
The Delhi Durbar (1903)
Birt Acres: Rough Sea at Dover (1895)
Crude Set Drama (1896)
Arrest of a Pickpocket (date unknown, 1896+)
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