Early Cinema

Lecture 2

Basic Terms• Frame (2 senses)

– Parameters of the image– One frame of a film strip

• Still image– A photograph; each frame is a still image– Production still vs. frame enlargement

• apparent motion and critical flicker fusion– 24 frames per second (current) vs. 16-20 frames per second (in

early cinema)• Sprockets• gauge

Early Cinema1895 Beginning of cinema– three precursors• Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904)—multiple cameras to

capture motion• Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904)—invented

chronophotography in the 1880s (recorded several phases of movement on one photographic surface)

• Thomas Edison (inventor of the first kinetoscope 1891)– Lumière brothers—responsible for the first public film

screening in Paris on December 28th 1895 using the cinematograph (which functioned as a camera, projector, and printer—all in one)

Eadweard Muybridge

Muybridge Link to UC Riverside Museum

• http://138.23.124.165/collections/permanent/object_genres/photographers/muybridge/

Étienne Jules Marey: graphic method

Étienne Jules Marey

ÉTIENNE JULES MAREY: CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHY

Muybridge’s projection device: the zoopraxiscope

The Kinetoscope

Kinetoscope parlor (circa 1894)

The Cinematographe (Lumière)

Cinematographe (cont.)

FORMAL INNOVATIONS 1:FROM THE SINGLE SHOTS TO MULTIPLE SHOTS,

FROM STILL CAMERA TO MOVING CAMERA

• Single shots– Actualities, direct address, “the fourth wall”• Ex: Lumière, Edison

• Moving camera– The “phantom” ride films• Ex: Lumière: “Leaving Jerusalem”;

– Multi-shot “phantom” ride• Ex: G.A. Smith: “The Kiss in the Tunnel”

SINGLE SHOT: LUMIÈRE 1896

SINGLE SHOT: LUMIÈRE 1896

MOVING CAMERA: PHANTOM RIDESLUMIÈRE, 1896