Evolution of Early Cinema



The Evolution of Early Cinema

Introduction

The movies which are presented today were not actually the same in the past. Film industry went through the series of revolutions to present it in the way which it is exposed to the present. The history of cinema can be traced out from the seventeenth century. The early pioneers of the film industry initiated the concept of movies through the still pictures to the motion pictures.

Discussion

In the late 17th century the use of magic lanterns was invented which contributed in the initiation of projection through a lens. The magic lantern was introduced by the Athanasius Kircher in his great art of light and shadow. This magic lantern used to reflect the image on the wall. The magic lanterns first used the hand painted glass and the handmade drawing on the paper which was used for the projection of image on the wall. This invention went through the series of improvements such as glass photographic slides were introduced to bring motions in the pictures.

The concept of persistence of vision was identified by Peter Mark Roget in 1824. He introduced this concept to fool viewers' eyes and brains that they were presenting the motion pictures. In 1830, optical toys were introduced. The invention of toys represented the spinning images which provide the illusion of moving image. In 1932, Michael Faraday, Joseph Plateau and Simon Ritter introduced the Phenakistoscope. This brought the evolution at time and got the success as the pictures in each disc could be viewed through slots and that represented the moving and spinning picture when it was viewed in a mirror. Another illusion toy was introduced by William George Horner in 1834 that was named as Zeotrope. It applied the same principle of illusion that Plateau introduced in the Phenkistoscope but he used the rotating drums instead of disc. This Zeotrope was widely used after 1867.

Henry Fox Talbot introduced the important advancement in the photograph production in the 1839. He introduced the concept of negatives on paper against the glass. This was done by using the magic lanterns. The time period of 1846 was important in the evolution of moving pictures as during that period the intermittent mechanism was invented. Emile Reynaud invented the Praxinoscope in 1877 that was as similar as the Zeotrope. It contributed a major part in the illusion of movement. Eadweard Muybridge set up twelve cameras with the connection of trip wires to the camera shutters which took a picture of horse's hooves when they left the ground when they galloped. Each camera took the picture when the wires were tripped by the horse. He presented this projection in 1878 and got the success. He invented the Zoopraxinoscope which carried out this process. This Zoopraxinoscope was based on the Zeotrope. Etienne Marey was influenced by the horse locomotive studies presented by Muybridge. Marey started his own experiments in 1882 which was about the flight of birds and other fast moving ...