The History of Film

It all started with 1878 when the first motion graphic was created, ‘Horse in motion’. It was
only a few seconds long and was intended at first as an experiment to determine whether a
horse has all its legs off the ground at a point during running. Not long after that in 1888 one
of the oldest surviving short films was created, ‘Roundhay Garden Scene’. It is only 2.11
seconds and was first intended to explore how to capture moments.

Later on, in 1896 the Lumiere Brothers who are considered to be the first two pioneers of
film made their first few films. By the end of the year collectively they totalled over 40,
which each of them being filmed at 16fps and consisted of clips of people’s daily lives. (Like
short home videos). To film each of their short films they used their own filming invention
called ‘The Cinematograph’ which was an improvement on its rival the ‘Kinetograph’. This is
because it is a lot smaller and lighter which allows it to be moved around much more easily.
Furthermore it filmed at a slower rate of 16fps compared to the Edison’s device, which
resulted in it being a lot quieter during filming. Although the main feature of it which
revolutionised how films were recorded was the mechanism which moved the film through
the camera. It allowed the film to be moved through the Cinematograph smoothly, then
retracted. This enabled the film to not move when it was being exposed. This is what caused
it to be considered the first viable film camera.

Next came Georges Melies, a professional magician and managing director for a theatre. He
was one of the first people to watch the Lumiere brothers work in Paris. Their work made
him think about the future possibilities of film and their technology. After watching their
work he bought a camera and started to do work of his own. Creating a glass studio,
gathering actors, creating sets and writing scripts to film. During his time filming he
discovered and used man camera/editing tricks which we consider the basics today, such as
stop motion, dissolving and fading out.

I n 1870 Edwin S Porter, an American film director, was born. He helped invent a device to
control the light intensity of electrical light at the age of 21. This early contribution to the
film industry was already very large due to how much it made lighting scenes easier as it is
vital, even today to be able to change how strong we want lighting to be. Without it, it would
be much more time consuming and harder to light a scene. Afterwards, in the early 1900s
Edwin moved to practice continuity of editing. Look at other filmmakers work and copies
that were created illegally. This enabled him to understand their processes before he went
on to create his own production ‘The Great Train Robbery’, which is widely thought to be
one of the first films with such innovative use of dramatic editing to allow the film to flow
flawlessly.
Not long after Edwin had created ‘The Great Train Robbery’ we were introduced to the work
of Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout his career he became to be known as the 'Master of
Suspense' from his work on films such as 'The 39 Steps' and ' Psycho'. He developed many
techniques within film which innovated how they were created. One of the techniques he
used is the use of orchestration with images. It consists of using different distances of shots
to create shock and tension. For example by having a long wide shot cut to a close up is very
sudden and helps to create a 'jump' and shock the audience even without audio to support
it. Then in Psycho, he took a cinematic approach and used his technique 'Hitchcock
Montage' in the shower murder scene. This consisted of lots of close up small shots cut
together to covey what is happening to the audience without using a wide shot to show
everything, which kept the tension high and helped to add pace to the scene.

At a similar time to Hitchcock, Orson Welles was also pioneering film. He was born May 6 th
1915 and started off as a natural performer as a child. Early on he could play the violin, act,
paint and draw. He would also set up Shakespeare plays for his friends. This showed off his
passion for showmanship and acting very early on in his life. As he grew he continued to
pursue his passion, regularly getting parts in theatre shows and expanding into radio. Then
in 1941, a good 19 years before Alfred Hitchcock released Psycho, Welles produced, co-
scripted and acted in the film ‘Citizen Kane’. The film went to be a great success and is still
considered one of the best films from Hollywood to this day. What mate Citizen Kane so
popular was the use of camerawork within the film. For example, one techniques that he
used that has made a large contribution to film as we know it, was the use of 'deep focus'.
This is where everything in the frame is in focus. To do this, Welles had to change a lot of
perimeters such as lighting, camera lens and the composition had to be changed and moved
around to perfect it.

Since when the film camera first came into use in 1888 with the introduction of 'The Kodak',
significant technological advancements have been made which have revolutionised how we
now film and watch films. In the Early 20th Century Bell & Howell manufactured the Bell&
Howell 2709, standard 35mm. With this new camera they standardised all their equipment
they manufactured to run according to 35mm film as there wasn't yet a standard size
between film manufactures yet. From this they went on to standardise the whole film
industry with it, as by 1919 the majority of the industry was using Bell & Howell equipment.

Then next came the Bolex H16. It didn’t match in quality to some of the industry cameras of
its time, but was able to be bought at a reasonable price for everyday consumers who
aspired to create films. This camera was one of the first to be widely available to the public
to purchase due to its lower price. A little while after the H16 was released, the Super
Panavision 70 was released. It had a spherical lens based camera system which allowed for a
large image size which still stands up against some digital films today.

In the 1970s, IMAX camera were first used. They could use film sizes multiple times larger
than the typical 70mm which allowed for high quality recording which would be roughly
similar to what 12K would be on a digital camera. Their ability to capture detail and give a
realistic image is what made them such a large addition to the film industry and are even still
being used in modern films today.
As well as there being major advancements in filming equipment, there has also been major
changes in post-production. Back in 1895 editing was different to how it is today, because
films were filmed on film it wouldn't be possible to plug it into a computer and edit it even if
the technology was available to them. Therefore instead the only way to edit the film was to
physically cut the film in two and tape it to the next section. This was a very slow process
and took a long time to complete. Whereas digital editing is a lot faster and easier to do. It
allows the editor to undo changes that they have made, unlike with analogue editing. It also
it very simple to do, so virtually anyone can do from most devices such as a phone,
computer, tablet etc...

Furthermore, on the post production side of film, visual effects have come a long way since
they were introduced. The advancements in technology have allowed us to create realistic
sets and scenes that would be impossible to recreate in real life. One of the major examples
of a film which heavily uses visual effects is 'Gravity'. The film itself is mostly set in space,
and filming scenes in space would be near impossible. Therefore the location was created
with visual effect. In the film, around 98% of the shots were created using visual effects
therefore making it nearly completely comprised of computer generated frames. Even with
it being comprised of 98% digitally created shots, the advancements in technology allow it to
work successfully due to the realism that can be created.

Looking back, there are key films which shaped the industry today. First of all, in 1902 ‘A Trip
to the Moon’ was created. It was considered one of the most famous films of its time. This
was mainly due to its outreaches and advancements into special effects. It was one of the
first science fiction films and had one of the largest budgets of its time. Although due to the
film’s success it was a worthwhile choice. Its success caused it to make lots of revenue,
although due to the laws at its time it was easy for people to duplicate it and sell it off under
other names, stealing revenue from George Melies. 'A Trip to the Moon' was also one of the
first films to incorporate a series of SFX and VFX into the production. Melies's use of SFX
revolutionised film and set the stage for use of effects and their evolvement into what we
see in films today

Going a bit further on in time, in 1942, Orson Welles released Citizen Kane. It, similar to ‘A
Trip to the Moon’ was considered one of best films of its time and many even believe of all
time. At this stage in time film technology has advanced and allowed for the camera to be
more portable to allow for moving shots. Although at this time, as can be seen in the clip to
the left, shots in the film are quite long and there is minimal cuts. When there is cuts you
can hear the change in audio due to the placement of the microphone etc… This is shows
that technology has come along to allow the camera to be in multiple places within one
scene and still allow the narrative to flow. Although it is still a way from making the
transitions smooth and unnoticeable. Furthermore the cameras of the time that are being
used can only film in grey scale (black and white), although they are clearly of much higher
resolution than their predecessors.Although one of the main aspects which makes Citizen
Kane stand out against other films of its time is the camerawork. The shots are smooth and
steady as the camera moves around without any noticeable shake.
Then finally, in 2017 one of the most respected directors of the 21 st century, Christopher
Nolan, released the film ‘Dunkirk’. The film itself is based on the real event that took place
during WW2. Nolan carefully crafted it to match as closely to the real life event that took
place attempting to capture what people who were there experienced. The whole film was
captured using IMAX cameras which was a technical challenge, but resulted in a high
resolution product perfect for cinematic viewing which helped to make it feel real to the
audience. Throughout the film Christopher Nolan tried to film as much as possible of the
film on set and use as little VFX as possible to further perfect the realism of it. Due to
advancements in filming equipment since the start of film, equipment available made it
possible for scenes such as the dogfights to be filmed live. A profound cinematographer Van
Hoytema said "In many ways it was the most challenging film I have ever worked on" when
referring to how Nolan wanted to film as much of the film in-camera rather than in post.
Furthermore, a veteran who experienced Dunkirk, Ken Sturdy, watched the premiere of
Dunkirk and said "It was just like I was there again". This shows how far film technology has
come to allow us to recreate events so realistically that it’s as if we have been put into the
event.

Now, because of the work of from all these pioneers such as the Lumiere Brothers, Alfred
Hitchcock, Georges Melies and Edwin S Porter. Producing, recording and editing films has
become much easier, and has giving us many more ways in which we can create our ideas
into films. Due to the advancements in technology, filming equipment have become easily
commercial available for young film makers to access and use. Furthermore industry
standard equipment has become so advanced that films can be created so well that we as a
viewer are placed into the production. From the lifelike detail we can see in the video
captured to the smoothness of shots and transitions, which make it seem effortless and
unnoticeable, allowing us to feel as if we are a character within the film. In addition to this,
work from people such as Alfred Hitchcock, developing the use of image to create feeling
has allowed modern film makers to take their own view on it and further convey emotions to
the audience. This has subsequently led to films being able to create a deeper connection to
the audience, making them have a bigger impact on people. This is also due to a
combination of many other factors such as resolution of video, camera angles etc… which
make the films we watch lifelike and appear real to an audience.