Film
EARLY CINEMA
No one person invented cinema. However, in 1891 the Edison Company in the USA successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience (i.e. cinema) were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris.
At first, films were very short, sometimes only a few minutes or less. They were shown at fairgrounds and music halls or anywhere a screen could be set up and a room darkened. Subjects included local scenes and activities, views of foreign lands, short comedies and events considered newsworthy.
The films were accompanied by lecturers, music and a lot of audience participation—although they did not have synchronised dialogue, they were not ‘silent’ as they are sometimes described.
THE RISE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY
By 1914, several national film industries were established. Europe, Russia and Scandinavia (for example famous Swedish film Haxan from 1922) were as important as America. Films became longer, and storytelling, or narrative, became the dominant form.
As more people paid to see movies, the industry which grew around them was prepared to invest more money in their production, distribution and exhibition, so large studios were established and special cinemas built. The First World War greatly limited the film industry in Europe, and the American industry grew in relative importance.
The first 30 years of cinema were characterised by the growth and consolidation of an industrial base, the establishment of the narrative form, and refinement of technology.
Animation
Although a few other films had been created in the years prior, Fantasmagorie is widely considered the first true animated film. Created by Emile Cohl, the short film follows a stick figure who encounters other characters and transforming objects. At the time, chalkboard caricatures were popular on vaudevilles circuits, so the drawings were filmed in negative to give the animation the appearance of a chalkboard drawing brought to life.
Fantasmagorie has long since entered the public domain and you can feast your eyes here:
In 1915, Max Fleischer developed the rotoscope technique, where projection equipment is used to trace figures from stills of live-action footage. This method allowed animators to get a better understanding of the finer aspects of a moving form to create realistic, fluid motion in animated pieces. Fleischer’s patent on rotoscoping expired in 1934, allowing other animators to swoop in and freely use the technique.
Gertie the Dinosaur — Animation
The first animated films, created in the early 1900s, were pioneered by comic illustrators and featured characters from popular comic strips of the time. Made using the single-frame method — single images projected at a high volume of frames per second — the earliest surviving animated short is 1906’s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. But it is sketch artist Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), however, that is known as the first successful animated cartoon. Innovation in animation techniques continued to develop in shorts until the first full-length animated film, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released on Dec. 21, 1937.
THE FIRST COMPUTER-ANIMATED FEATURE FILMS
If the founding of Disney Studios is the biggest turning point in animation history so far, Pixar’s release of Toy Story in 1995 could be deemed the second biggest.
While it’s amazing that Toy Story still looks incredible two decades later, it’s undeniable that the CGI animations released since are following some kind of Moore’s Law effect: every year the rate of technological increase is growing exponentially, leading to mind-blowing results which are light-years ahead of titles released just a couple of years ago.
Visual Effects
MINIATURES
Around the turn of the century, the French magician George Méliès released his first film Indian Rubber Head (1901) bringing his own form of magic to the big screen. The following year he released A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Dancing Midget (1902), using almost every type of special effects trick used today.
In his landmark 1927 film, director Fritz Lang created the dystopian world of Metropolis using intricately detailed miniature models. Full-scale cityscapes were used alongside perspective techniques to create otherwise nonexistent environments. George Méliès’ Trip to the Moon (1902) was the first to use miniatures — including a model spaceship — a technique that would continue in classic sci-fi franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek until digitally created counterparts were thrown into the mix. Unlike most effects of films past, miniatures are still used in modern cinema.
MATTE PAINTING
The film also employed matte paintings, complex compositing, and back or rear projection. An essential part of many films produced before the CGI era, matte paintings were actual projections or paintings placed behind foreground objects to trick audiences into believing the actors were in a different location. Here an example 1968’s Planet of the Apes’ last scene where it looks like the Statue of Liberty is jutting out from the sand.
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