 |
| Thomas Alva Edison |
Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers:
Known for inventing the light bulb, Edison had worked with the Lumiere Brothers to produce the very first short film that was ever made on 1895.
The first ever short film that was made is called 'Sortie d'usine'
This is a 46 second long movie. It was first shown on 28 December 1895 at the Grand Cafe on the Boulevard des Capusines in Paris.
At this time, there was no editing, no story, no sound effects just the piano being played, and no camera movement (as you can see from the video).
This film was made in 35 mm format and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds.
 |
| G.A Smith |
The Miller and the Sweep is a 1898 British short black and white silent comedy film made by G.A Smith.
This film has a story behind it unlike 'Sortie d'usine'. Smith figured out that making films is not just about filming people coming out from a factory but can also have a story plot and set in different location.
Improvements:
In 1898, this had improved just by three years.
This film is meant to be a comedy. Back at this time, people who have watched this had gone crazy. They faint, they collapsed because this is the first time they ever saw a moving people from a sheet of paper.From the work done by G.A Smith, the film called 'The Miller and the Sweep' have had a story. However, there's still no editing nor camera movement being made.
Story line
The story of 'The Miller and the Sweep' is featuring a miller carrying a bag of flour and had a fight with the chimney sweep carrying a a bag of soot in front of a windmill, before the crowd follows them and chase them away (as you can see from the video).
Another film that was produced by G.A Smith is the 'Kiss in the Tunnel (1898). Just like the other film G.A Smith produced, this is also a British short silent comedy film.
There's three sections made in this film. The first section is when the train is going in the tunnel and as it goes through the tunnel, that's when the section sections comes in. It jumps in the scene of two people kissing. This 'kiss scene' didn't really happened inside the train. This was filmed in s studio at that time and they just edited it to make it seems like it really is happening inside the train. Last but not the least, comes in the third section. The third section is when the train goes out of the tunnel and that's when the film ended.
Few Facts:
When this film was shown, lots of woman had fainted as this was the first ever film that was made that includes a kissing scene.
Another facts is that the camera is attached to the train so that we can see that the train is going through and coming out of the tunnel.
George Melies
George Melies was a magician who have seen the film that was made by the Lumiere Brothers. With this, he then acquired a camera, built a studio and he was also the first person who have exploited the basic camera tricks (such as Filters and formatting) that we know so well today.
Many had said that he also discovered the 'art of stop motion' by making the camera broke down for a brief second and start filming again. We can see this from the film that he had produced.
'The Vanishing Lady'
The Vanishing Lady was a French short silent trick film directed by George Melies.
The Vanishing Lady
Melies made 'The Vanishing Lady' using the technique known as in camera editing.
Synopsis:
A magician walks into the stage and took a newspaper and lay it down on the floor (to show that there's no door underneath nor a whole) and took a chair and placed it on top of the newspaper. He then called his assistant in and asked to sit down on the chair. The magician then placed a blanket over his assistant. And for a brief seconds, the assistant had disappeared. After the assistant had disappeared he then placed the blanket over the chair to make the assistant come back but a skeleton appeared. On his 2nd attempt of bringing the assistant back, the assistant then appeared.
How its done:
The way this it was done was making sure that the camera is being rolled the right speed other wise the film could either go really fast or really slow. From what Melies had done, he asked his assistant to sit on the chair and to make her disappear the magician didn't move an inch while the assistant is getting out of the cover. We can see the in camera editing from the video shown above. We can see this in camera editing three times. The first was one when the assistant disappeared; second was when the skeleton appeared (we can see from this scene that there was a use of in camera editing as the hand of the magician moved a bit since he couldn't stay in that position as long as the camera's back on the roll of filming); the third was when the assistant finally appeared back on the chair.
Back at the time this film was shown, many people was shocked, fainted, in tears and had also collapsed as this was the first ever film that was made using in camera editing and was also the first ever film with magic included.
George Melies
 |
| George Melies |
George Melies was a magician who have seen the film that was made by the Lumiere Brothers. With this, he then acquired a camera, built a studio and he was also the first person who have exploited the basic camera tricks (such as Filters and formatting) that we know so well today.
Many had said that he also discovered the 'art of stop motion' by making the camera broke down for a brief second and start filming again. We can see this from the film that he had produced.
'The Vanishing Lady'
The Vanishing Lady was a French short silent trick film directed by George Melies.
Melies made 'The Vanishing Lady' using the technique known as in camera editing.
Synopsis:
A magician walks into the stage and took a newspaper and lay it down on the floor (to show that there's no door underneath nor a whole) and took a chair and placed it on top of the newspaper. He then called his assistant in and asked to sit down on the chair. The magician then placed a blanket over his assistant. And for a brief seconds, the assistant had disappeared. After the assistant had disappeared he then placed the blanket over the chair to make the assistant come back but a skeleton appeared. On his 2nd attempt of bringing the assistant back, the assistant then appeared.
How its done:
The way this it was done was making sure that the camera is being rolled the right speed other wise the film could either go really fast or really slow. From what Melies had done, he asked his assistant to sit on the chair and to make her disappear the magician didn't move an inch while the assistant is getting out of the cover. We can see the in camera editing from the video shown above. We can see this in camera editing three times. The first was one when the assistant disappeared; second was when the skeleton appeared (we can see from this scene that there was a use of in camera editing as the hand of the magician moved a bit since he couldn't stay in that position as long as the camera's back on the roll of filming); the third was when the assistant finally appeared back on the chair.
Back at the time this film was shown, many people was shocked, fainted, in tears and had also collapsed as this was the first ever film that was made using in camera editing and was also the first ever film with magic included.
Edwin S Porter
Two of Porter's film are 'The Life of an American Fireman' and 'The Great Train Robbery' that are
both produced in 1903.
'The Life on an American Fireman'
One of the film Porter has produced is 'The life of an American Fireman' in 1903. This was shot late 1902 but was shown in 1903. It depicts the rescue of a woman and child from a burning building.
The Life of an American Fireman
This was the first ever made film that has a plot, action, and even a close-up of the hand pulling the fire alarm and has also a camera moving and also had use of editing. Also, this has used a parallel editing in where we get to see what's happening inside the building and also what's happening at the outside.
Two of Porter's film are 'The Life of an American Fireman' and 'The Great Train Robbery' that are
both produced in 1903.
'The Life on an American Fireman'
One of the film Porter has produced is 'The life of an American Fireman' in 1903. This was shot late 1902 but was shown in 1903. It depicts the rescue of a woman and child from a burning building.
This was the first ever made film that has a plot, action, and even a close-up of the hand pulling the fire alarm and has also a camera moving and also had use of editing. Also, this has used a parallel editing in where we get to see what's happening inside the building and also what's happening at the outside.
'The Great Train Robbery'
The Great Train Robbery' is also produced by Edwin S Porter and is also made in 1903. This is an American silent short Western film.
Porter uses an unconventional techniques including composite editing, on-location shooting and a frequent camera movement. This film is the earliest that had use the technique of cross cutting in which two scenes are shown but at different location.
In the video, you will see a shot where there's a bit of colored scene added at the explosion. The way they did is by hand painting it (tinting). Porter had also uses a parallel editing as at the beginning of the film, we can see the scene of the robbers robbing the office of the train and the scene of the train coming. Porter had put the two scenes in one section to make it seem realistic. And also, watch the door closely, you can see that it's not a proper door that we use as when one of the robbers closes the door, the door was left ajar. This had happened quite often from this film.
Charles Pathe
 |
| Charles Pathe |
Pathe was a major French pioneer of the film and recording industries.
He made a film called 'The horse that Bolted' in 1907. He introduces the first example of a parallel editing that is seen in his film 'The Horse that Bolted'. This is an example of a parallel editing because there's been a cutting between two story lines: The Horse and the deliveryman.
Story Line:
A deliveryman delivered a basket to a family and he left the horse outside. While the deliveryman was out delivering the package, the horse outside then started eating what's in the outside of the shop they stopped in. When the deliveryman came back he saw the horse eating almost everything and quickly run away but the owner of the shop saw that there's nothing left on the bag and so the owner started chasing the deliveryman and the horse. While they were running away, they hit other people who was on the road and so they also chased them. People who were chasing them keep increasing until the horse ended up going back home.
D.W. Griffith
 |
| D.W. Griffith |
Griffith was an American film director who is mostly known for making the film 'Birth of a Nation' in 1915.
He was the first of the early directors how have use the editing techniques in the production of 'feature' length film.
Just like Porter and Pathe, Griffith also developed the art of story telling through editing. He uses cross-cutting to show the parallel action that is happening in different locations in the film 'Birth of a Nation'.
'Birth of a Nation'
The 'Birth of a Nation' is 1915 American silent epic drama directed by D.W. Griffith.
The 'Birth of a Nation' is a 3 hours long film. The filming had began in 1914 and pioneered such as camera techniques as the use of panoramic long shots, still shots, night photography (refers to photograph taken outdoors between dusk and dawn) and parallel editing.
Summary
From the very first film that was published in 1895 until 1907, the film industry had somehow been developed and improve as time past by.
From the film 'Sortie d'usine' by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895 where the first film that was ever made was a short black and white silent documentary film with no camera movement, there's now been a film that has a story with it 'The Miller and the Sweep' in 1898. It's true that this film was still in black and white; no camera movement; no editing; no sound coming from the actual film just the piano being played and there's no plot. However, this was a comedy film unlike 'Sortie d'usine' in 1895. G.A Smith (the producer of The Miller and the Sweep) figured that we can add comedy in films and that's what he did he made 'The Miller and the Sweep'.
That wasn't the only improvements there had been throughout the history of film industry. In the same year the 'Miller and the Sweep' was produced, the 'Kiss in the Tunnel' by G.A Smith was made in 1898. The improvements that was made in this film was that there's now been used of camera editing. The view of the train going in inside the tunnel; the view of two people inside the train and the view of the train coming out of the tunnel.
No comments:
Post a Comment