SHORT HISTORY OF CINEMA Thaumatrope Very popular

SHORT HISTORY OF CINEMA

Thaumatrope. Very popular toy in the Victorian era

The magic of image inspired people long before discovery of a cinema. More than 200 years ago a MAGIC LANTERN summoned ghostly shadows at fairs.

Ephemeral pictures painted on the glass plates were projected on the smoke screen in the middle of the dark audience.

Magic Lantern was also called a Horror Lantern

Phenakistiscope was invented it in 1841.

Phenakistiscope

1832. STROBOSKOPE was a popular family entertainment in 19 th century. Its effect is based on inertia of an eye and brain, which perceives fast changing of the image as the movement. Why not use pictures for the same effect?

1877 Praxinoscope (or zootrope) was based on the similar effect

1878. The new technology reduced the exposure time and allowed to photograph the separate phases of the movement. Eadweard Muybridge set up to 24 cameras to make pictures of moving people and animals.

1894. Ottomar Anschütz continued the work in this direction.

Tomas Edison used film 35 mm wide with perforation on edge. Tomas Edison and William Dixon created KINETOSCOPE. It was a box with peephole for viewing short movies. People lined up to pay 5 cents to watch moving pictures.

The beginning of movies era The first movie studio was called BLACK MARIA. The high fees Thomas Edison demanded for using his kinectoscope forced the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière to create their own cinema. It was combination of several inventions. • People didn`t have to watch movies through peephole in the Edison`s box. • The image was projected on the screen with bright light through a lens like with the MAGIC LANTERN. • The film was moved with rotation of the handle.

The first movie produced for kinectoscope was The Execution of Mary Stuart (the actress is replaced with a doll in the final picture)

On December 28, 1895 the first public display of movie «Arrival of the Train» took place in Grand Café Boulevard des Capucines in Paris.

The first movies of brothers Lumières were documentary and lasted about a minute. The movies gathered a large audience in Paris. In some days there were huge lines of people at the entrance of the cinema theater. Soon there were hundreds movies in brothers Lumière archive. Dozens of operators went searching for plots worldwide.

Georges Méliès raised cinema to the level of art. Before getting engaged with cinema he was the managing director at theater of focuses. Méliès was universal genius. He made scripts, scenery and performed. His most famous movie is «A Trip to the Moon – Le Voyage dans la Lune » . In his movies Méliès used tricks known in theater, and created new ones. He was a father of special effects.

Leon Gomone and brothers Pathé turned cinema into film industry. The Pathé Company became the largest company in the world. It purchased the rights for screening of many movies and created film distribution in a modern style. They showed movies with Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Fritz Lang and others.

Pathephone (portable gramophone) was first sold in Russia by Pathe

Since then the camera was always present at all important events. It was used for sport news reports or historic events, for example the flight of brothers Wright.

Sound and soon after - the color came to the movie.

The movie camera went to the most remote places for scientific researches. It was icy plains of permafrost and ocean depths. It helped to get the necessary data for the industry and to research space.

In fictional films the image becomes more natural. With the technique of directing a camera one can repeat the sequence indefinitely. The repeated exposition creates new optical effects. The space ship looks as if it moves thanks to this effect.

Woman in the Moon (1929) by Fritz Lang

The fictional film. Today it means a small army of specialists from the all world working for months. The modern followers of brothers Lumière have possibility of instant viewing that`s why director can watch all the film immediately. The simple wooden box gave place to hi-tech devices which costs millions. The improvements in this area have no visible the end – the huge screen, 360 degrees projection. The illusion of reality in cinema becomes more and more perfect.

In 1929, Fox introduced Fox Grandeur, the first 70 mm film format. The every shot has a size of a postal card. Though it quickly fell from use. During Expo '74 in Spokane, Washington, an IMAX screen that measured 27 m × 20 m was installed. About five million visitors viewed the screen, which covered the viewer's total visual field when looking directly forward. This created a sensation of motion in most viewers, and motion sickness in some.

Questions 1. Why are movies called movies? 2. Tell us about your first visit to the cinema. 3. Do you prefer watching movies at the cinema or on TV? 4. What is the first movie you remember watching? 5. What movie genres do you know? 6. What was the oldest movie you have seen? 7. What special effects do you like? 8. What other technical inventions about movies do you know? 9. Are movies good for us? 10. What do movie critics do? 11. Would you like a job as a movie critic or a movie star? 12. If you could make a movie, what would it be about?

Pick your favorite movie/actor or director Tell a few words or interesting facts about it