First Motion Picture example essay topic

Being able to capture motion has occupied the human psyche sine primitive times. This is evident through the Lascaux cave paintings which depict buffalo with multiple legs in a attempt to represent the animal running. Other simple innovations also led to the motion picture, these 'optical toys' demonstrated the eye's persistence of vision. These 'toys' grew more advanced, but lifelike motion could not be achieved until the photographic process was nearly perfected.

In the 1870's Eadweard Muy bridge was successful in capturing the complete motion of a horse galloping. This was the first step in bringing pictures to life. The next invention came from a Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, who devised a thin, flexible, plastic base he called celluloid, on which could be put photosensitive material. George Eastman was the first to market this celluloid film, and in 1890 Thomas Edison and William Dickson successfully tested the Kinescope. The first motion picture captured and copyrighted on this Kinescope was titled "The Sneeze", which is simply a man sneezing. Edison continued to make short films in his studio, nicknamed the Black Maria.

His shorts usually were comprised of people performing vaudeville acts as a form of sideshow attraction. These films would be viewed in Kinescope parlors, from large wooden boxes with a eyepiece on top. On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, the Lumieres brothers improve on Edison Kinescope, and create the Cinematograph, a smaller more portable camera, that can film and view motion pictures. With this new Cinematograph, the Lumieres brothers were able to film and then project the product for an audience. They filmed what was around them, daily life for upper-middle clas Europeans, their first was a whole group of people leaving a factory at the end of a work day. Simple, but for its time it was amazing, seeing live people walking around and moving just as they normally would, but on a big screen!

These types of films became the Lumieres trademark, slice of life documentary work that would be shown in front of audiences. One of the Lumieres films: Arrival of a Train in the Cio at Station, was a train coming straight for the camera on an angle, that terrified the viewers. Edison continued to make films, under his own, controlled conditions. Although both Edison and the Lumieres, saw the motion picture as nothing more than a sideshow act and both filmed very documentary-esque work, each had their own criteria for filming. Edison preferred a indoor studio, where he could bring in vaudeville acts to perform in front of the camera. The Lumieres brought the camera out into the world and filmed from many different locations.

At this point in motion pictures, the future for the medium looked very dull, soon people would get bored with the vaudeville acts and the world of reality and return to literature for stimulation again. However, a magician named George Me lies, discovered the concept of trick photography (quite by accident), and brought narrative to motion pictures. At first he would put together large, Broadway musical numbers, and combine that vibrancy with what seemed like magic powers. In 1902 he created what was to be called his masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon, it was ten scenes played out on about 30 sets. With the innovation of the narrative brought into motion pictures, the doors were opened for men like W.S. Porter to make films like The Great Train Robbery, which utilized one of the first camera movements. A simple pan to follow the action but it allowed for artists to experiment further and create more complex story lines.

Another example of a innovation that is still being used today is the cross-cutting editing between the bandits and the posse. As these films got more and more advanced, it began to kindle the flame for the massive motion picture industry we have today. Without these innovations and simple concepts we might still be drawing buffalo with eight legs.