Early Cinema: History and Context

Agenda

• Optical toys and cinema precursors are on the agenda
• Early filmmaking and cinema culture are on the agenda
• Competing and growing film industries are on the agenda
• Screenings of early cinema are on the agenda

Questions for Early Cinema

• How can early cinema be characterized?
• Characterization considerations include cinematographic and storytelling choices
• Also, consider various subjects and genres when characterizing early cinema
• Furthermore, various commercial interests (companies, people) are considered
• What environment did early cinema emerge in, and how did it comment on and express the context from which it arose?

Victorian-Era Optical Toys and Precursors

• Stereoscopes were a common Victorian-era optical toy
• Zoetropes are optical toys and precursors to cinema
• Photography using glass plates, metal, and daguerrotypes was a precursor
• Eastman's contributions include rolls of sensitized paper, the Kodak camera, and celluloid film
• Muybridge studied motion using photography
• Emile Reynaud invented the Projecting Praxinoscope
• Louis Le Prince created films on paper roll instead of celluloid

19th Century Optical Toys

• The Phenakistoscope was invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau and Simon Stampfer
• The Phenakistoscope is a spinning disc of figures viewed in a mirror through the slots
• The Zoetrope was invented in 1833 and involves a series of drawings on a narrow strip of paper inside a revolving drum
• Optical toys give the viewer the impression of movement

Eadweard Muybridge and Motion Studies

• Eadweard Muybridge began photographing bodies in motion in 1878 with Leland Stanford
• Muybridge published "Animal Locomotion" in 1887, featuring photographic plates
• Muybridge used a setup of 12 cameras (with 13 lenses) to capture motion successively
• Étienne Jules Marey, a physiologist, was inspired to study and capture motion using film stock

Early Cinema Developments

• Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson developed the Kinetoscope
• The Kinetoscope is a kinetograph camera and kinetoscope viewing box which uses Eastman Kodak film stock
• Amy Muller's "Black Maria" dance film featured serpentine dances
• The Kinetoscope premiered in London in October 1894
• Louis and Auguste Lumière created the Cinematographe using 35 mm film
• 16 frames per second became the industry standard for two decades
• Max and Emil Skladanowsky showcased the Bioscop at vaudeville theaters in Germany

Grand Café Screening

• Key films screened at the Grand Café included "Myth of the Arrival of a Train", "Feeding the Baby", and "The Sprinkler Sprinkled"

Other Cinema Developments

• The Latham group developed a camera, projector, and theater using the Latham loop for longer films
• C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat invented the Phantoscope
• Thomas Armat, Norman Raff, and Frank Gammon created the Vitascope, later absorbed by Edison
• The Vitascope premiered on April 23, 1896, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City
• Herman Casler invented the Mutoscope, a peepshow flip-card device
• The American Mutoscope company was formed by W.K.L. Dickson and Herman Casler

Film Industry Competition in the Late 19th Century

• France: Lumière brothers, George Méliès ("Magician of the cinema" - Trip to the Moon, The Mermaid), Charles Pathé (expanded audio and film systems globally)
• Brighton (England): R.W. Paul and cheap film shows for music halls
• U.S.: American Mutoscope Company/American Mutoscope and Biography (AM&B), American Vitagraph, Porter, and Edison

Late 19th Century Exhibition and Popular Culture

• Popular culture saw transformations including circuses, amusement parks, and music halls
• Dioramas and panoramas provided depictions of history and other lands
• Other mediums included lantern slides, illustrated fiction, and children’s optical toys

Industrial Revolution and Urban Life

• The Industrial Revolution caused technological shifts, impacting communication and perception
• Examples include technologies such as the telephone, phonograph, and automobile
• Cinema became embedded in new concepts of modern urban life
• It also became a modern way of visualizing and engaging with society

Teahouses and Cinema in China

• Teahouses in China functioned as playhouses and entertainment spaces
• These locations also hosted shadowplays and puppet shows
• They later hosted the first cinema screenings in the country
• Yuan Muzhi's 1935 film "City Scenes" uses the peep show to envision city life in Shanghai in the 1930s
• The film introduces a montage sequence of on-location footage of Shanghai in the 1930s

City Scenes

• "City Scenes" film is associated with spectacle cinema and modern life in Shanghai
• Shanghai is cosmopolitan center that allows "collisions" in image, sound, and daily experience
• "Hey, come have a look!" is a phrase commonly used by peep-show vendors

Patterns and Techniques in Early Cinema

• Early cinema featured trick cinema, and “Phantom rides”
• "Phantom rides" included trains and other vehicles
• Also, early cinema employed techniques like looking through a telescope, microscope, or optical device
• Trick films involved reversal of motion, splicing of footage for appearances and disappearances, and stop-motion effects
• Finally, cinema included physical comedy

Early cinema collections

• Edison's Company and AM&B company at Library of Congress
• https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/?fa=original-format:film,+video
• https://www.loc.gov/collections/early-films-of-new-york-1898-to-1906/about-this-collection/

Key Terms for Review

• 35 mm film significance
• 46 frames per second significance
• Phantom ride significance
• AM&B significance
• Vaudeville halls, amusement parks, storefront theaters, opera houses, cafes, teahouses, churches significance
• Spanish American War of 1898 significance
• News, landscapes, travel, events, comedy, boxing, lectures significance