The History of Film A brief history of how film began

Camera obscura ( means dark room) The earliest mention of this type of device was by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5th century BC). He formally recorded the creation of an inverted image formed by light rays passing through a pinhole into a darkened room. He called this darkened room a "collecting place" or the "locked treasure room."

Camera obscura ( means dark room) The image quality was improved with the addition of a convex lens into the aperture in the 16th century and the later addition of a mirror to reflect the image down onto a viewing surface. Giovanni Battista Della Porta in his 1558 book Magiae Naturalis recommended the use of this device as an aid for drawing for artists.

Camera obscura ( means dark room) In 1646, Athanasius Kircher ( ) described a Camera Obscura which consisted of an outer shell with lenses in the centre of each wall, and an inner shell containing transparent paper for drawing; the artist needed to enter by a trapdoor. Trap door

Camera obscura ( means dark room) Press N to see a camera obscura being made. 3 minutes Henry Fox Talbot Photography was invented in 1839 A blacked out room with a small hole in the wall will bring the outside world into you.

Magic Lantern - c.1420 The Magic Lantern is the earliest form of slide projector. The first published image of the device appeared in the late 1600's. Images were painted on glass and projected on walls or cloth from behind the "screen". To see images appear from a lantern, onto a screen, was "magical" in those early days.

Press N to see the magic lantern play. The Magic lantern

Cinematography Cinematography is the illusion of movement by the rapid projection of still photographs on a screen. The human eye sees pulses of light at a certain rate At about 24 frames per second we should see continuous movement. Below this rate the images would appear to flicker.

Eadweard Muybridge San Francisco photographer, Eadweard Muybridge conducted motion-sequence still photographic experiments and is called the "Father of the Motion Picture" even though he did not make films in the manner we know them as today.

Eadweard Muybridge developed a fast camera shutter and used other state-of-the- art techniques of his day to make the first photographs that show sequences of movement. These are still images that are viewed through a Zoopraxiscope. 20sec

Zoopraxiscope In 1879, the Zoopraxiscope was developed by Eadweard Muybridge, which projected a series of images on a glass disc in successive phases of movement obtained through the use of multiple cameras. Press N to see the disc play

passing horse passing horse In Eadweard Muybridge's most famous motion studies, a row of cameras snapped a dozen or more photographs of a passing horse; the public was astonished to see proof that a trotting horse can simultaneously have all four hooves off the ground. passing horse

Persistence of Vision The principle of "persistence of vision" maintains that a visual imprint remains in the brain for a short period after the object is withdrawn from view. Still photography and optical toys were the first tools to fully exploit the potential for creating "motion" pictures following this principle. Press n to play. 20 sec

Making a zoetrope A zoetrope is a simple toy that you can make to see how your brain retains an imprint of an image for a short time. Press n to play. 1 minute.

Other moving images by Muybridge. For this experiment Muybridge devised a fast camera shutter and used a new, more sensitive photographic process, both of which dramatically reduced exposure time and produced crisp images of moving objects. Press N to play. 40 sec

Thomas Edison In 1893 Thomas Edison demonstrated the Kinetoscope, that allowed one person at a time to view moving pictures. It was coin operated and presented a show that lasted for about 20 seconds

Film History Facts Many of the first films went for went for a few minutes or less. They were black and white with no audio. George Eastman (of the Eastman Kodak Company) developed transparent celluloid photographic film, which replaced glass plates. It became commercially available in 1889.

Thomas Edison invents a camera that can record moving images. Press N to play. 2 minutes

End of part 1. Answer work sheet 1.

Lumiere Brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere designed the cinematographe, using a sewing machine mechanism. They presented the first moving photographic pictures to a paying audience at the Grand Café in Paris on 28 December, They manufactured photographic plates to make films that were cheaper than Edison’s.

Lumiere Brothers Watch this film to learn about these two brothers.

Film in Australia The first feature-length film made in Australia was The Story of the Kelly Gang in There was a boom in Australian film making in the 1910’s However the industry declined due to participation in World War 1 and the official banning of bushranger films in 1912.

The Film Industry Thomas Edison’s 35mm film was adopted as the industry standard in There were no major changes made to this format until the 1950’s The standard film rate was 16 frames per second.

Colour and Sound The first feature-length film to incorporate sound was ‘The Jazz Singer’ in the USA in Colour was first added to film through tinting and stencilling, however it was not widely used until 1932 when Technicolor three-colour camera’s were used