Émile Reynaud
In 1876 Reynaud decided to make an optical toy to amuse a young child. Improving on the Phenakistiscope and Zoetrope, Reynaud devised the Praxinoscope, patented on 21 December 1877, a cylinder with a band of coloured images set inside. There was a central drum of mirrors, which were equidistant between the axis and the picture strip, so that as the toy revolved the reflection of each picture seen in the mirror-drum appeared stationary, without the necessity for complex stop-start mechanisms. The images blended to give a clear, bright, undistorted moving picture without flicker.
The following year he added a Patent Supplement for an improvement - the Praxinoscope Théâtre. The mirror-drum and cylinder were set in a wooden box in which there was a glass-covered viewing aperture, reflecting a card printed with a background. The moving subjects - a juggler, clowns, a steeple-chase - were printed on a black band, and thus appeared superimposed on a suitable scene. A further development was the Projection Praxinoscope which used a series of transparent pictures on glass; an oil lamp illuminated the images and the mirror reflections passed through a lens onto a screen. The same lamp projected a static background, and once again the moving pictures were seen in an appropriate setting.
In December 1888 Reynaud patented his Théâtre Optique, a large-scale Praxinoscope intended for public projection. By using spools to feed and take-up the extended picture band, sequences were no longer limited to short cyclic movements. The images were painted on gelatine squares and fastened between leather bands, with holes in metal strips between the pictures engaging in pins on the revolving wheel, so that each picture was aligned with a facet of the mirror drum. This was the first commercial use of the perforations that were to be so important for successful cinematography.
The 'Pantomimes Lumineuses', the first animated transparent bands of images, were shown publicly on a screen not long after the previous event. The apparatus was set up behind a translucent screen and Reynaud apparently gave most of the presentations himself, deftly manipulating the picture bands to-and-fro to extend the sequences, creating a twelve or fifteen minute performance from the 500 frames of Pauvre Pierrot. Two other early subjects were Clown et ses chiens (300 frames) and Un Bon boc (700). Special music was compiled to it. [1]
Muybridge
In 1867 he set out to record the scenery of the far West with his mobile darkroom, christened 'The Flying Studio'. He produced notable stereoscopic views, and later, panoramas including an important series showing San Francisco. His reputation as a photographer of the first rank spread, and he was approached by the President of the Central Pacific Railroad, Leland Stanford, to attempt to photograph a horse trotting at speed, to settle a long-standing controversy among racing men as to whether a trotting horse had all four hooves off the ground at any point. In the Spring of 1872 Muybridge photographed the horse Occident, but without any great success, as the current wet collodion process normally required many seconds for a good result. In April 1873 he managed to produce some better negatives in which a recognisable silhouette of the horse showed all four feet above the ground at the same time.
Using a new shutter design he had developed, which operated in as little as 1/1000th of a second, he obtained more detailed pictures in July 1877. He then devised a new scheme, which Stanford sponsored at his farm at Palo Alto. A fifty-foot-long shed was constructed, containing twelve cameras side by side, facing a white background marked off with vertical, numbered lines. Each camera was fitted with Muybridge's high-speed shutter, released by an electromagnetic catch. Thin threads stretched across the track were broken by the horse as it moved along, closing spring electrical contacts which released each shutter in turn. Thus in about half a second, twelve photographs were obtained showing all the phases of the movement. Later, twenty four cameras were used; and lateral cameras giving oblique views. Although the pictures were still little more than silhouettes, they were very sharp, and sequences published in scientific and photographic journals throughout the world excited considerable attention. By replacing the threads with an electrical commutator device, releasing the shutters at precise intervals, Muybridge was able to take series of actions by other animals and humans.
His Zoopraxiscope projector was basically a projecting phenakistiscope, with a contra-rotating shutter. The silhouette images, derived from his sequence photographs, were painted around the edge of a large glass disc. (Later, translucent coloured paintings were used.) During 1884 and 1885, using the superior gelatine dry plate process and new camera apparatus, he produced over 100,000 sequence photographs. [2]
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was responsible for making moving pictures a practical and commercial business. His Kinetoscope, launched in 1894, became the first moving picture apparatus offered for sale. He started work as a railway telegraphist and set up his first laboratory in a railroad wagon. A device for automating telegraphic sending provided the first of the prodigious number of patents. Edison was from the start involved with electricity and its widening field of applications. He developed the light bulb, the storage battery and a large-scale distribution system. His work on recording began with the carbon microphone and soon it led to Edison's Phonograph, the first successful sound recording device.
The Kinetoscope, a peephole viewing machine which showed a film loop lit by electricity and activated by an electric motor, made its debut on 21 May 1891, demonstrated by Edison himself to a meeting of the National Federation of Women's Clubs hosted by his wife. But frames still appeared side by side on a narrow strip with a single row of perforations. By 1892 Dickson and his team had produced a camera, the Kinetograph, which used 35 mm film strips with two rows of perforations and vertical alignment of frames, and a Kinetoscope to match. The new system, the revolving structure, made of tarred paper and with a moveable shutter to control the entry of light, was soon known informally as the Black Maria - the world's first film studio.
After the Kinetoscope was introduced and after nearly a year of delays, commercial exploitation of the Kinetoscope began in 1894. A group of new demonstration subjects had been rapidly filmed and at first Edison sold Kinetoscopes and films to all who wished to buy them, but the business was soon channelled through three groups which took responsiblity for different territories. Kinetoscope parlours spread quickly throughout the United States and Europe in 1894-5, until the public appearance of the Lumière Cinématographe at the beginning of 1896 offered a superior image quality and the attraction of group viewing. Faced with this competition, Edison arranged to license Thomas Armat's projector, which he renamed the Edison Vitascope, and held his first public screening - with as much publicity flair as ever - on 23 April 1896 at Koster and Bial's Music Hall on Broadway. [3]
First Steps of Cinematography
Melies
Georges Méliès, the most prolific technical innovator of the early years, was a pioneer in recognising the possibilities of the medium for narrative and spectacle. He created the basic vocabulary of special effects and built the first studio of glass-house form, the prototype of European studios of the silent era. Méliès's films are the earliest to survive as a total, coherent artistic creation with its own validity and personality. They had visual, a sense of fantasy, fun and nonsense. Méliès devised twenty-five major stage illusions, many of which were later to inspire his films.
Seeing in the Cinématographe on the 28th of December in 1985, a new attraction for his theatre, he attempted to buy it. When the Lumières refused him, he went to London to acquire one of Robert Paul's earliest projectors. This, with the aid of an engineer, Lucien Reulos, he converted into his first film camera. In May 1896 Méliès was able to shoot his first film Une Partie de Cartes. By September, with Reulos and Lucien Korsten, he patented a new camera, which was subsequently advertised as the Kinétographe Robert-Houdin. By the end of 1896 Méliès had shot eighty films, each twenty metres in length, and had already explored the effects that could be obtained by accelerated motion and substitution. He claimed that this effect, which was to be so basic to his work, was discovered one day when his camera jammed briefly while filming in la place de l'Opera: when the film was printed and screened, Méliès was thrilled to find that a motor bus had changed into a hearse.
Early in 1897 Méliès constructed a studio a Montreuil-sous-Bois, in which he was able to elaborate his productions and trick work. His productions also became more lavish in their use of costumes and fantastic or rococo decors, all painted by Méliès himself. Méliès was also a pioneer in assembling a number of 'films' or shots to tell a continuous story.
Apart from the trick films based on his stage illusions, his 500 films included dramatised actualities. Méliès's films won a world-wide market - and attracted world-wide plagiarism. [4]
Griffith and the Discovery of Film Art
Griffith was known as a writer and director. He enjoyed expressing himself by writing scenarios, by acting and directing. He also taught acting and directed plays. During the period1908-1918 he had produced approximately 450 short films. However, in 1915 he directed a three-hour project “The Birth of a Nation” and in 1916 “Intolerance”. In “The Birth of a Nation” Griffith focused on the history of the USA and the civil war. Even though the film had audience and was successful, it was criticized concerning its racial issues.
The film “Intolerance” focused on four eras, which were paralleled and shown at the same time: the fall of the Babylon, the suffering of the Christ, the fight of the Huguenots and the modern era (at the time, from 1914 till 1915). Film editing is outstanding concerning the era: professional and outstanding. The frames were pained one by one. For instance, the night scenes were noticeable by dark blue tones. The decorations were grand and beautiful, especially in the Babylonian scenes. Filming scenes were enormous and the ambience was getting tense, actions were fast paced.
I liked the film very much in spite of its length. The film focused on issues we could easily discuss nowadays. Intolerance can be understood in many ways, but this film showed precise examples of how human beings can act unfair without thinking about the consequences or discussing disadvantages. Most of our minor problems are caused by our own flightiness. [5]
The Golden Age of German Silent Film
The war influenced the well being of silent films drastically. The USA film industry was strictly dominant after the war, France and Danish film companies had lost their importance. The USA film industry had certain advantage ground and experience what European film industry did not have. By the end of 1900s, a hundred of ten France films were ordered to the USA and only 50 of them to other foreign countries. Demonstrably has the USA film industry more audience.
German expressionism started to spread after the war in the 1920s. It is said that wars usually accelerate the process of development. It plays an escalating role in the film world. German silent films were the only ones presented on German movie stages. War was the major subject in film plots and in 1930s movies were used to influence the mass. However, German film achieves a high level from the beginning of the 1920s. Various expressionistic flows, possible boding of the coming war and a high artistic level characterize German silent film.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” was produced by Pommer, who originated from the USA. The film itself was written by Janowitz and Mayer, directed by Wiene, and the film focuses on issues concerning hypnotizing, power and sociality. The precise storyline for the film was set up later: two mental hospital settlers were discussing a story about Dr. Caligari and his weird hypnotizing abilities. Mayer himself also spent some time in a mental hospital in order not to die in the battlefield during the war. The storyline was also inspired from social harassment and confrontation issues and was formed into an expressive piece of art.
“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” reminded me of a mixture of mystery and a whodunit of some kind. The ending seemed quite clear to the audience, however, the storyline was enthralling and quite comical at times because of the characters’ dramatic (or expressive) behaviour.
[6]
Used reference
- http://www.victorian-cinema.net/reynaud.htm
- http://www.victorian-cinema.net/muybridge.htm
- http://www.victorian-cinema.net/edison.htm
- http://www.victorian-cinema.net/melies.htm
- Watched film “Intolerance” (1916, directed by Griffith)
- Watched film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920, directed by Wiene)
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