The Lumiere Brothers, Georges Melies, George Albert Smith, Edwin S. Porter, Lev Kuleshov

Creative Media Production.

Source: http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html : accessed on 11/9/2012

Auguste and Louis Lumière - Famous quote: 'The cinema is an invention without any future.'

Film-making history -
Their father, Antoine Lumière, an artist, set up his own business involving manufacturing photographic equipment. Louis joined him in the business and started experimenting with the equipment. He then discovered how to develop the photography with a process known as dry-plating. The brothers ended up producing about 15,000,000 of these dry-plates every year.

They then managed to recreate their own version of a Kinetoscope, originally invented by Thomas Edison, in a way that would overcome the problems they had with it. They combined a camera, printer and projector and named it 'Cinematographe'. Thus managing to create the first moving picture in 1894 with a screening so that it wasn't just a one person experience as the original Kinetoscope allowed. 


Source: http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/melies_bio.html : accessed on 11/9/2012

 Georges Méliès - 

Film making history - 
Georges education consisted of stage design, puppetry and at his parents' insistence, he studied English in London. When he returned to Paris Georges worked as an illusionist with performances centred around magic. He did this full time.

Around 1895 the Lumière brothers made a presentation of their 'Cinematographe' and showed it to the public. Georges was in the audience. After the show he wanted to buy one of their machines but was turned down. Determined, he managed to get hold of a camera and then built his own. He presented his first ever film in 1896.

Georges was the one to discover stop trick photography and he did this by accident when his camera jammed when filming, he corrected it within seconds but when looking back at the film he was amazed at the effect the incident had. He used this idea to create further special effects such as a split screen and dissolve.

He was known as a 'cinemagician' and was one of the first filmmakers to use nudity in a production. A lot of his film productions included science fiction, fantasy and horror.


Source: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/449633/ : accessed on 12/9/2012

George Albert Smith -
 He was one of the most important and influential people in Victorian cinema. In the early 1880's he started to perform as a hypnotist and he bought his first camera around 1897. His ideas and skillful manipulation meant that he could create a successful dissolve. He cut between lenses to allow appearing changes in time, location and perspective. 

His films show how quickly he acquired an understanding of how to work within confines of seventy-five feet.

He showed subjective and objective points of view.

In camera editing; post-production editing; static camera. 


Source: http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/porter_bio.html : accessed on 12/9/2012

Edwin S. Porter -

Life of an american firefighter - 
This film used actual footage of fires, firefighters and fire engines combined with dramatised footage which Edwin shot himself, this added tension making the film dramatic in contemporary setting.  He uses a variety of different shots and angles and was the first film maker to use a close up shot.

The film uses actors and it has a storyline; the characters are developed throughout the story. 


Special effects composite. 

There is a linear narrative. He's following the action of the film and he uses the action to take the audience from one place to another. 


The Great Train Robbery -
The film had a strong storyline, good camera work and excellent editing. Edwin used the technique of cross cutting in some of the scenes and he also used jump cuts while manipulating movement to cover up any mistakes that occurred.  

The film is a lot longer than his previous film, he had some scenes that were long and some that were short, he failed to generate a pace which cost him his audience's attention. 

There was a lot more action in this film and he followed the action throughout the story. He also started moving the cameras. 

Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474487/bio : accessed on 12/9/2012

Lev Kuleshov -
A Russian director used an editing technique known as 'the Kuleshov effect'. Although this was already being used in Hollywood, Lev was the first to use it in the Soviet Russia. He was a controversial figure who made rare silent films based on his experiments. He made documentaries and feature films about communist propaganda and others from his own ideas.