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The origins of cinema
FROM THE OPTICAL TOYS TO THE SEVENTH ART
Sequenctial art
Sequential art pre-dates comics by milenia, we can find it in prehistoric art, in all art history and in comics.
It is a very useful tool to tell a story, and a rudimentary way to show the passage of time.
The search of movement in images
This search has been a desire during millions of years, only fullfil with the invention of cinema.
Several previous inventions were needed to reach the moment in which the cinema could be developed.
Retinal persistance
The optical toys
Chronophotography
kinetoscope
Beta effect
The illusion of movement in motion pictures is now believed to produced by the beta effect.
1. This effect occurs when two images whose elements are in slightly different positions from each other are presented one after the other in quick succession.
2. The brain then automatically perceives movement.
The optical toys
Many of these toys, dating especially from 18 th and 19th. Century, where firstly made as scientific amusements for adults and subsequently as toys for children and grown-ups.
Lets look at some examples…
The magic lantern
Lit by a variety of sources from candles and kerosene lamps, magic lanterns shine light out through a lens and project it onto a screen.
They had beautifully hand-painted glass slides inside them,
Zoetrope
It was a very popular toy in the first part of the XIX century.
It is a cylinder-shaped toy with a sequence of pictures on its inner surface which, when viewed through the vertical slits spaced regularly around it while the toy is rotated, produce an illusion of animation.
Praxinoscope
It was an animation device, the successor of the zoetrope.
It uses a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder.
The praxinoscope replaced zoetrope’s narrow viewing slits with an inner circle of mirrors.
Mutoscope
It was an early form of a motion-picture device in which a series of photographs of an action sequence are viewed in quick succession, giving the impression of movement.
Time-lapse photography
Eadweard Muybridge's early photographic experiments laid the foundation for modern cinema, with his study, The Horse In Motion (1882).
It was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device.
It was not a movie projector, but introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projections.
It used a strip of perforated film bearing sequential images over a light source with a high-speed shutter.
cinetoscopio
Edison’s Kinetoscope
LUMIÈRE’S CINEMATOGRAPH
It is a motion picture film camera, which also serves as a film projector. It was invented in the 1890s.
They made their first film, Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon in 1895.
The first commercial, public screening of cinematographic films happened in Paris on 28 December 1895 and was organized by the Lumière brothers.
Pioneers. Georges Melié
Georges Jean Méliès was born in Paris in 1861.
He worked full time as a theatrical showman whose performances revolved around magic and illusionist techniques.
Méliès’ principle contribution to cinema was the combination of traditional theatrical elements to motion pictures.
If you want to learn more watch Hugo by Martin Scorsese.
Pioneers. Emile Cohl
He is considered the fathersof the Animated Cartoon because of his film Fantasmagoríe.
Assigment
First we are going to design a strip of pictures for the praxinoscope in order to rehearse creating the ilusion of movemet.
The whole class together…
We will design an “Exquisite corpse” using a technique similar to the mutoscope.
To do so:
We will draw a simple image in the center of the paper.
Then we will outline it with black ink and trace it in another blank paper.
5 blank paper will be given to each of us and an initial image and an ending image.
Our duty is to draw the intermidiate steps that allow to transform one image into the other .
Exquisite corpse
