(inaudible) is quoted as saying, "the cinema, like the
detective story, makes it possible to
experience without danger all the
excitement, passion, and desirousness
which must be repressed in a humanitarian
ordering of life." Since its inception in
the late 19th century, cinema has become
one of the most popular and inspiring
forms of entertainment, art, education, and
propaganda. The birth of cinema is one of
many interconnecting events and
inventions around the world, born out of
an array of new technology revolving
around machinery, photography, optical
illusion and a human love to be
entertained and inspired.
One of the marvels of cinema is that no one country can claim its paternity. It is a worldwide endeavor, encompassing many different people from around the globe. It was in 1824 in England that Peter Mark Roget first came up with an explanation for how moving
images create the illusion of motion.
Although later proven to be incorrect,
this principle is known as the
persistence of vision. This simply
defined is when a series of pictures or
frames are played or presented at a rate fast
enough to trick the human mind into
thinking it is viewing a moving image.
The effect of the persistence of vision,
the writer David Parkinson notes, was
defined in 1824 by Peter Mark Roget as
the ability of the retina to retain an
image of an object from 120th to
one-fifth of a second after its removal
from the field of vision. However it has
since been shown that film
seems to move because the brain and not
the eye is accepting stimuli; that it is
incapable of perceiving as separate. The
brain has a perception threshold below
which images exposed to it will appear
as continuous and films speed 24 frames
per second is below that threshold.
That's making cinema a sort of a strange art form, for it is
primarily an illusion. It is a mystery as to
when it was first noticed that playing
images next to each other and viewing them in
quick succession created the illusion of
a moving image. Around AD 180 the Chinese
inventor [Tin Won] of which no known picture
exists is credited with inventing a device
to utilize this effect for entertainment.
This invention is called a zoetrope. A zoetrope is basically a cylinder with
various lists in it. A sequence of pictures
that are linked to each other are drawn
or pasted inside the cylinder and through
this list you can view inside the illusion
of motion when the cylinder is spun. This
principle laid the groundwork for the
later developments in using
photographic images to create motion
images or to give it is technical term,
cinematography. Motion images are one part
of the founding principles of cinema the
key to its development was a projection
of images and shapes. The origins of light
projected images date back to the
republics of China, India, and Java. It was
not until around the 17th century that light projected
imagery would start to become popular in
Europe and North America and it was a
magical lantern that captivated people's
attention. The magic lantern was used as
a form of entertainment starting as
early as the 15th century and its first
incarnation may even day back as far as the
time of King Solomon. Its precise origins
are a mystery and no original inventor
is known of. The magic lantern itself is
simply a lantern which its light source,
usually created by a wick or candle is
used to project a single slide or shape
onto a wall aor flat surface. The magic
lantern relates directly to the Monday
slide projector and only contributed in
part to the development of cinema, albeit 
an important one.
Various enhancements of this technology
included using a magic lantern to get
motion images from a zoetrope. That's
building the groundwork for cinematic
film projection. It was developments in
light projected entertainment technology
that were to be used in the newly
developing science of photography to
establish what we know as cinematography. The
history of photography is also one of
complex inventions and discoveries
around the world. The very first developments
in photography and optics originated
thousands of years ago.
Aristotle wrote and developed ideas of how
human vision works and studied rays of
light. Hee used pinhole camera, camera
obscura, so he could studied light rates.
Aristotle was one of the first people
known to study light using a camera
obscura,
although his invention is not been
accredited to one single person and its
original development remains a mystery.
The camera obscura is basically a box
with a small pinhole that allows a think layer of
light into the box. This ray of light can
be viewed as an image if the camera
obscura is adapted to pick up the
reflection using a mirror or shiny
surface.
Ibn Al-Haytham who lived 965 AD to 1040 AD, an Arab scholar who was born
in Iraq further developed the camera obscura
and noted that a single ray of light
that passed through the hole also carried the
image reflected from wherever the light was
coming from and in this sense that light
carries information the seemingly simple
discovery was a revolutionary one in the
development in the history of how
vision works, and it is a principle that
paved the way for the capturing of
photographic images for use in the
pinhole camera. Initially the camera
obscura was used as a sketching aid by
artists and it wasn't until around the
1820s and the development of
chemical photography the fix in the
image became a reality and photography
took its first steps into the
recognizable form that it is today. As far
back as the 13th century it was known that
some chemicals darkened or changed color
when exposed to light. Albertus Magnus in
the 13th century was one of the first
people to notice that silver nitrate
darkened when exposed to light. In the
17th century Robert Boyle reported
silver chloride turned black after
exposure to air, although this was in fact
sunlight. In 1727 Johann Henrich Schultz
discovered that certain liquids could be
prepared that would change color when
exposed to light. At the end of the 18th
century and the beginning of the 19th
century Thomas Wedgwood conducted
experiments where he captured silhouettes of
objects using paper covered with silver
nitrate, thus making him one of the first ever
pioneers of photography. It was not until
the work of two French inventors and
scientists the fixing a still image
using chemical means became a reality
they were Nicéphore Niépcebe and Louis Daguerre. Working
in conjunction, they developed a process
to produce fixed images and unfortunately, Nicéphore Niépce
died before the world was completed, but by
1839 Daguerre had perfected the process and it
was announced at the French Academy of
Sciences. This process was called
daguerreotype and produced some of the very
first photographic images. This image,
taken in 1838 or early 1839 was one of the
first photos taken using the daguerreotype
process. Its exposure time was about 10
minutes, meaning a man standing still
having his shoes cleaned was the only person
captured in the photo. The daguerreotype
images were produced directly onto a
mirror polished silver plate bearing a coating of
silver halide particles deposited by
iodine vapor. But the images that were
produced were very delicate and could be
destroyed by even the slightest handling.
In the year 1839 an English inventorcalled 
William Fox Talbot had been working on his own type of chemical
photographic process. This process, called
the calotype process, was to greatly
advance the practical application of
photography. The calotype process created the method of
negative positive photographic images
and this is a precursor to most
photography processes of the 19th, 20th
and 21st centuries, making William
Talbot a very important figure in history
of photography and cinema. The calotype
process also allowed for photos to be
developed on paper. This allowed photography to
be open to the masses and the same photo could
be produced again and again using the
negative image. In 1849 in France Joseph
Plateau was one of the first to suggest
using a device called the phenakistoscope
to project photos. This device, developed in 1839, was
similar to the zoetrope but more
advanced. Later in 1877 a device called
the praxinoscope was created by
Charles-Emile Reynaud. This was another
technological advancement from the
zoetrope and in 1889 he created the
theater Optique using the
praxinoscope not only to take images also
using adapted magic lantern he projected
these images onto the screen. But the
static photos used at the time of such
devices proved to be little better
than pictures. A way of recording
action simultaneously as it occurred was
needed. Two great innovators would work in
this field and develop the process of
series photography allowing the
capturing of multiple images in
chronological order. They were at Ettienne-Jules
Marey and Eadweard Muybridge. Eadweard Muybridge is most famous for a
sequence of photos of a horse race
proving the horse does lift all hooves
off the ground when it gallops. This work
was commissioned for a vet by the
Governor of California Leland Stanford
Muybridge proved the governor correct in
1879 by using film that had fast
exposure time and a lineup of 12 cameras
all taking single shots in quick
succession following the motion of the
horse. Muybridge then went on to develop a zoepractiscope
which cast onto a screen the
drawings made of his photographs. Although
this was not projection it was a big
step towards it.
In 1882 Ettienne-Jules Marey adapted a device
called the photographic revolver to take
a series of photos. At first,  a revolving plate
was used to record a dozen instantaneous
images in the course of one second. After
various experimentations and adaptations
Marey eventually turned to celluloid
film developed by the East Kodak company
to produce continuous strips of images.
Marey went on to produce numerous
photos sequences and although he did try,
he was not able to develop a projection
device for moving photographic images.
It was a French inventor by the name of
Louis Le Prince who is recognized to have
recorded the first ever motion captured
sequences in 1888.
The first short sequences of moving images ever
filmed with a Roundhay garden scene and
the Leeds bridge scene. These films scenes
are recognized as the first ever
motion-capture cinematography sequences.
However, it will forever remain a mystery
as to the success Le Prince may have
gone on to achieve and what happened to him
in 1890, for in 1890 after seeing his brother
he boarded a train in Dijon that was
heading to Paris where he would meet
with friends and then go on to America
where he was planning to patent his
single lens camera but he never made it
to Paris and his luggage including his
camera was never found. After extensive
searches by the French police, Scotland
Yard and Le Prince's family not a solid clue to his disappearance was ever
discovered. There remains to this day a
large amount of speculation about the
Prince's disappearance it is unlikely we
will ever know what happened to Le
Prince but  above all else he should be
remembered for contribution he made towards
cinema.
At about the same time Thomas Alva
Edison was also developing a
motion-capture cinematography. Edison was
to fund his head engineer William
Kennedy Larry Dixon in the development
of a photo sequence capture camera Dixon.
Developing and adapting elements from
all other motion capture devices and
knowledge developed a film camera called
the kinetograph in 1890. A year later
he developed the Kinetoscope, a large
device to view the motion captured
images. Edison also set up the first
ever movie studio in the early eighteen
nineties with various but limited
footage was shot including the right
wing kiss and the Fred Ott's
Sneeze. These short movies were limited
to technology at the time with most
being unedited length of celluloid no
longer than the strips of celluloid
themselves. The Kinetoscope was not a
projection device though and Edison
unwisely disregarded the possibilities of
projection and concentrated on theater shows
thinking they will be just another whim
in a naughty hungry age.
During same period two French brothers
were working on their own film capturing
and projection device. This device, the
cinematograph, was to bring about the
dawn of modern cinema and it was the
Lumière brothers who were the inventors.
it was in 1895 on the 28th of December
that one of the most famous film
screenings in film history took place. It
was held at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
Customers paid one frank for the
screening of ten short Lumiere films.
The screening lasted for about 25 minutes.
The films included amongst others
workers leaving the Lumiere factory and
Cordelia square in Leon. What the Lumière
brothers had achieved using the
combination and development of previous
technology was a workable way of
combining the Kinetoscope or
viewing device with the magical lantern
thus projecting a sequence of photos to
create the illusion of a moving image or as
it is also known, cinematography. It must
be mentioned the Lumière brothers had
done screenings before using their
projection device, but this is the date
that has gone down in history and is one
of the first screenings to charge an
entrance fee, one of the foundations of
modern cinema. The Lumieres also should
be celebrated for they stand high in the
rank of film innovators in history. Along
with the assistance of the inventor
Jules Carpentier, at the photographic
firm they invented the cinematograph, a
three in one device that could film,
print, and project images. It was hand
crankable, portable, and soon after his
invention it was being used around the
world.
Interestingly, the Lumière brothers
believed that the cinema of film
projection would be a short-lived form of
entertainment and audiences would soon
become bored of the naughty and not wish
to pay for motion images that they could see with
their own eyes for free. Louis Lumiere is
famously quoted as saying, the cinema is an
invention without a future.
Auiences had other ideas and loved the
new form of entertainment,
constantly creating a demand for cinema.
As technology of cinematography advanced,
so could the creative output using the
new medium. One of the forebearers to
take advantage and develop the creative
aspects of cinematography was George Melies.
He is considered by some to be the
father of the narrative film and who DW
Griffith is quoted as saying everything, I owe him everything. Melies
made over 500 films from 1896 to 1906.
He was one of the first people to
introduce cutting and chronological
editing as you see in the movies today.
It was also at this time the public
demand for the movies was increasingly
and unexpectedly growing. Aroun the same time,
the Melies was making his first short
films. Edwin S. Porter in 1903 working
for Edison made the life of an American
fireman which displayed new visual
storytelling techniques and incorporated
stock footage was Porter's own
photography. It acted as a major precursor
to Porters most famous film The Great
Train Robbery, also made in 1903. This had
a running time of 12 minutes and is
considered a milestone in narrative
filmmaking and one of the first films to
tell a story, albeit a simple one. The
first ever device developed to record
sound before the phonograph was called the phonautograph. This was invented in 1857 by
Eduardo Leon Scott in France. This device
transcribed sound waves onto a visual
medium, the first medium of which was a lamped 
blackened glass plates, but this device
had no means of playing the recordings
back. A fascinating insight into the
spirit of sound recording
was that it was not realized at the time
that the waveform transcribed by the
phonautograph was a recording of the sound wave.
It only needed a playback mechanism to
replicate the sound. In 1895 Thomas
Edison introduced the kinetophone
which marks the first time sound added
to cinematography. The kinetic phone was
not a projection device, and sound was added
using a device called a cylinder
phonograph that was added to the
Kinetoscope to produce the kinetophone.
It was in 1899 that a sound system called
cinemacrophonograph or phonorama was exhibited in
Paris. This device required headphones to
hear the sound which was similar to the
kinetophone it was not until Clemente
Maurice and Henry Lourey in France
developed the phonocinema theatre
that allowed the projection of sound in
theaters. This system was first
exhibited at the Paris Exposition in
nineteen hundred and is considered the
first public projection of both recorded
sound and motion image. Meanwhile,
silent film production was starting to gain pace
around the world, and what is considered
the first feature-length film was made
in 1906 by Charles Tate in Australia. It
was called the Ned Kelly Gang. At 70
minutes long,
it had an unprecedented running time and only made
on a budget of around $2,250. Although the
complete film has since been lost with
only around 12 minutes running time left
in existence. As film technology advanced
so did the creative in storytelling
possibilities. It was in the first part
of the 20th century that one of the first
famous film directors came to prominence.
His name was DW Griffith and he's
considered one of the fathers of modern
cinema. It was in 1908 that a young D W Griffin
made his first movie The Adventures of Dolly.  Still in the period of silent
film production, its  narrative structure and
editing would set the way for Griffith's
coming skill with filmmaking. He was to
develop filming techniques and codes that
brought in depth narrative storytelling
to cinema. He'd reached around 450 films
and was one of the most successful
directors of his time. One of his most
notable films, Birth of a
Nation, made in 1915 and based on Thomas
Dixon's American Civil War movies was
racist and showed a lack of integrity and
betray African Americans.
He would respond to criticism
about this film by making Intolerance,
shot in 1916. This movie
used some of the biggest film sets and crew sizes
ever at that time. The story portrayed 2,500 years of
history,
and showed how truth and justice are threatened  by
hypocrisy and injustice. Although
audience reaction was muted at best
Griffith's career faltered after 1916 and
in 1931 when a film he made called
The Struggle was a failure, he would
endure a seventeen-year exile from
Hollywood, never to return to his once
high status.
Griffith certainly was not the only person
developing film, codes, and narratives
and his work was in part continuing on
from others such as George Meleis and
Edwin S Porter. Whatever you may think
about Griffith, his work showed cinema
technology had entered a truly advanced
form of storytelling and narrative
construction. In russia at the beginning
of the 20th century, not long after DW
Griffith was setting forth his place in
cinematic history, the Russian director
Sergei Eisenstein was developing his own
distinct form of cinema. In the nineteen
twenties Russian montage as it is known came
to be a prominent filmmaking star in
Russia. The basic concept of montage relies
heavily upon editing and creating
meaning through the collaboration of
shots in a sequence and not from a
storyline. For example, three shots that
is shown here are taken from Eisenstein's
Battleship Potemkin. They are
played in sequence to signify the
meaning of Soviet Russia rising up
against the oppression of Czar. The
term montage literally means putting
together and for an over simplified example
if you place a shot of an ear then the
shot of a dog next to each other, the
meaning would be eavesdrop. This is
montage in a nutshell.
In 1925 Eisenstein made one of his most
famous films, Battleship Potemkin, a
revolutionary portrait of mutiny aboard
a Russian battleship not long before the
Russian Revolution. Although praised by
critics, Russian audiences were
indifferent to it and much preferred
entertaining and emotionally engaging
Hollywood star continuity films.
Importantly, montage
offered another approach to filmmaking
other than a continuity based style and
also showed how far the technology of
cinema had come in little more than 25
years. The progress of sound recording
and playback cinema had been steadily
advancing although applying synchronized
pre-recorded sound to film have
encountered many problems such as
recording fidelity, synchronizing sound
to film, and projecting sound at a
satisfactory level. These problems were
to be overcome by the advance of
technology and innovation. In 1919 an
American inventor called
Lee De Forest developed one of the first
sound of film technologies for
commercial application. In Forest's System
which he called phonofilm, sound was
photographically recorded onto one side
of a strip of film to create what was
called a composite with simply two
elements have been completed together. If
this sound was synchronized exactly to the
field the playback would be perfect.
Another system developed and used in the
first part of the 20th century was
called the vitaphone. The vitaphone was a
disc-based system produced by General
Electric and purchase by Warner Brothers.
The vitaphone did not print the sound of
film, but under 16 inch phonograph records.
These records were then played using vitaphone
systems at theaters with a film
they were produced for was played.
There were many problems with the vitaphone system including synchronization
with the film, being projected, and the
phonograph records which could not be
edited
and limited the creative output for films using the vitaphone system. Taking into
account numerous technological
improvements it would be sound on film
that would eventually become the
universal standard for synchronized
sound in cinema. It was in 1927 that one
of the first movies ever produced
contained synchronized dialogue sequences was
released to the movie-going public. This
film was a jazz singer and it used the vitaphone system. There have been other films
that had you synchronize sound and music
such as Don Juan released in 1926, music
played by the New York Philharmonic
but Jazz sSinger I was the first to have
dialogue which accounted for about 25%
of the soundtrack in the movie. The movie
heralded the coming of the so-called
talkies and signaled the start of the
endless silent film where talkies were
ultimately more popular and
technologically advanced. The movie
itself is based on stageplay by Samson
Raphaelsen. It has a culturally complex
storyline with a young Jewish mean trying
to make as a jazz singer against wishes
of his father. It was a signifier of the
times that
so-called blackface makeup was used by Al Jolson
who plays the lead role. This was naively
racist at best and was used to take on
the appearance of an archetype of
African-Americans. Although there is the
assimilation of African-Americans and Jews
experiencing similar identities as
outsiders and this is something that is
put it in the film.
at this point cinema has come a long wa,y
bringing together motion image and sound
with many brilliant innovations,
inventions, passion, and commitment,
creating one of the most unique and
inspiring art forms and entertainment that has
ever been produced in the history of the
world,
establishing itself as a powerful
element in modern societies.
