LECTURE ONE NOTES

The course looks at three main trains of thought that impacted the development of films (a) technical developments (b) the development of film language (c) social pressure/

All motion pictures are dependent on the persistence of image or the fact that an image is maintained briefly in the mind. If this were not the case, people would simoply see a set of rapidly changing still photos or drawings.

The earliest kinds of motion pictures are not projected but seen by one individual or a few at a time. There is indication that these kinds of pictures may have been invented in the 2nd century. But it is in the late 1800s that a number of them become popular, Initially there is a small set of pictures on a long strip of paper which is placed inside a cylinder with slits in the side. When the viewer spins the cylendar and looks through the slits, the pictures appear to move. This zoetrope as it is knows has many variations with different names, There were variations in the way these worked. Some had a series of cards that were flipped, but finally some were made on film. This entailed making a camera that could photograph a number of images in a row quite quickly. Muyerbridge had done this using many cameras, but eventually a single camera was employed. These film strips were also not projected by run through a device which allowed a single individual to look at the "moving picture".. . Thomas Alva Edison was very involved with these kinds of apparatuses.

It is however the Lumiere brothers who are able to project the images thus allowing many people to watch at once. This begins the idea of the motion picture theater although they are mostly store fronts being used at first.

The Lumiere brothers, like Edison tended to document actual events. Edison's "The Kiss" and "Sandow the Strong Man" and "Serpentine Dances" are all sorts of people performing they did on stage. Lumiere brothers films were documentations of things in the real world - people leaving the factory, people arriving at a convention but make what may be the first narrative film - "The Sprinkler Sprinkled" (also the first film known to have a poster.

Melies on the other hand learned that there were special effects that could be done by stopping the camera and restarting it again having moved things about in the frame. People and things appear and disappear. His films like "A Cook in Trouble" and his more famous "Trip to the Moon" are rooted in these kinds of effects.

It is with Edwin Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" that many film historians feel films begin. This is because of the way the film is structured and more importantly edited.

Initially the motion picture camera is used as though it were a still camera. The photographer positions the camera and the action is caused by the movement of the people and things in the frame.

Later, the camera is placed on moving objects like trains, and "phantom rides" appear in which the audience begins to feel they themselves are moving.

From here on in there is a great deal of development of cinematic language which is rooted in new technologies (faster film emulsions. different lenses and so on) and those techniques that have to do with editing principles.