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Questions and Answers
What does the term 'cinema' derive from?
What does the term 'cinema' derive from?
What is cinematography primarily concerned with?
What is cinematography primarily concerned with?
What does cinematic language refer to?
What does cinematic language refer to?
How is cinema described in terms of art and technology?
How is cinema described in terms of art and technology?
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What is a key aspect of cinema communication according to the text?
What is a key aspect of cinema communication according to the text?
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What substance is mentioned in the text as carrying the essence of being human in a specific time and place?
What substance is mentioned in the text as carrying the essence of being human in a specific time and place?
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Who played a significant role in the development of the first motion picture system called Kinetoscope?
Who played a significant role in the development of the first motion picture system called Kinetoscope?
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What was the predecessor to the motion picture projector developed by Thomas Edison?
What was the predecessor to the motion picture projector developed by Thomas Edison?
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In what year were projected moving pictures first presented to a paying audience by the Lumière brothers?
In what year were projected moving pictures first presented to a paying audience by the Lumière brothers?
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Where did Thomas Edison establish the first 'movie studio' around 15 years after Eadward Muybridge's work?
Where did Thomas Edison establish the first 'movie studio' around 15 years after Eadward Muybridge's work?
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Study Notes
What is Cinema?
- Cinema derives from the ancient Greek word "kinema", meaning movement.
- Historically, it's a shortened version of the French "cinematographe", an invention of the Lumière brothers.
- Cinema combines kinema with the Greek root "graphien", meaning to write or record.
Cinematography
- Cinematography is the illusion of movement by recording and rapidly projecting many still photographic pictures on a screen.
Definition of Cinema
- Cinema is a theatre where films are shown for public entertainment.
- It's the production of films as an art or industry.
- It's the art or technique of making motion pictures.
Brief History of Cinema
- Cinema stands at the intersection of art and technology.
- The mere ability to record a moving image would be meaningless without the art required to capture our imagination.
Cinematic Language
- Cinematic language has fundamental and increasingly complex rules for how cinema communicates meaning.
- These rules, as with any language, are iterative, forming and evolving through repetition, both within and between each generation.
Cinema as a Medium of Communication
- Cinema is a powerful medium of communication that carries what it means to be human in a specific time and place.
- It mediates our experience of the world, helps us make sense of things, and in doing so, often helps shape the world itself.
Motion Picture Technology of the Late 19th Century
- Major precursors of motion pictures include Eadward Muybridge (1878) and his famous "Running Horse" sequence.
- Nicephore Niepce and Louis Daguerre developed photoetching, capturing an image through a chemical process.
- Thomas Edison developed the Kinetoscope in 1891, the first motion picture system.
- The Kinetoscope was a device that would become the predecessor to the motion picture projector.
Development of Motion Picture Technology
- William Dixson joined Edison's team to help develop the technology that would combine pictures and sound.
- By 1893, Edison had built the first "movie studio", a small, cramped, wood-frame hut with a hole in the roof to let in sunlight.
- The first public Kinetoscope demonstration took place in 1893, and by 1894, it was a commercial success.
- The Edison Company began installing machines in hotel lobbies, amusement parks, and penny arcades, and soon kinetoscope parlors had opened around the country.
- Edison's Kinetoscope evolved into Vitascope (life scope) in 1895, and the American Mutoscope Company was established in 1894.
- The Lumière brothers presented the first projected moving pictures to a paying audience in December 1895 in Paris, France.
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Description
Explore the origins and definition of cinema, from its ancient Greek roots to the modern-day concept of cinematography. Learn about the Lumiere brothers and the invention of the cinematographe, as well as the experience of watching films in a cinema theatre.