Film and Television are a big part of our everyday lives and have been for many

years. Over time films and TV programmes have become more professional and
interesting because of the improved equipment and skill that can be found in the
industry. Camera work is one of the key factors of creating a film. Without good
camera work a video would look unprofessional and it would be hard for the
audience to understand the story line.

The history of film goes right back to 1878 when the first video was created. This
video was called The Horse in Motion and was created by Eadweard Muybridge. It
involved a horse running and was made to prove a point. The idea was that at some
point during a horses run all four hooves are off the floor at the same time and this
video successfully proved this while also becoming the first ever movie. It was made
by playing a group of photos repeatedly next to each other in the order they were
taken in. Muybridge did this by placing 12 cameras in different positions along a
track and as the horse ran past it tripped wires which were connected to the cameras
so photos were taken. He had to make sure that the cameras took the photo with an
exposure that lasted the smallest amount of time possible so it caught the picture as
soon as the horse came past. 

Following this was the Roundhay Garden Scene in 1888. This movie showed a
group of people walking around outside a building laughing. It was the first film
showing consecutive action that was filmed on a motion picture camera and was
directed by a French inventor named Louis Le Prince. Even though the film was only
2.1 seconds long it was still seen by the public as impressive because it was the first
of its kind and they had never seen anything like it before. It was recorded at 12
frames per second which is now considered to be not a lot but at the time it was
good as it had never been done before. This movie is now known as the oldest
surviving movie in existence.

Another important movie showing the beginning of film making is the Arrival of a
Train. It is known as the first film to be a documentary. This was filmed and created
in 1895 by the Lumiere Brothers. It is a silent movie that lasts 50 seconds showing a
train pulling into a station in France. We can see people performing their daily
routines getting on and off the train as they would normally do. This film is unedited
but still effective. This was because people had never seen anything like it before so
they were shocked to see a full-size train coming towards them. It is well known in
history because it is said that people were so shocked that they jumped out of the
way off the train as they thought it was going towards them.

But before all of this the camera had to be created. The very first camera was
invented around the year of 1816. However, there is a lot of confusion on the topic of
the camera invention as there is a big group of people connected to the invention.
The most well-known inventor of the camera is a French man named Joseph
Nicephore Niepce. He was the first man to take a photo and he did this on a camera
that he made himself out of silver chloride coloured paper. It wasn’t a very successful
camera but it is considered to be the very first surviving photograph which is why he
is seen as the inventor of the camera.
Another person that is associated with the creation of the camera is Johann Zahn.
He was the designer of the first hand held reflex camera however he was not around
at the time that it was actually created as this took 150 years.

The first movie camera was created in 1888 by an American inventor named
Thomas Edison. He began designing a camera which could record moving images
and a few years after this his idea became a reality and a device was made that put
images onto a reel of film. However, during this process, a French inventor was
faster and he created the movie camera that was used for the Roundhay Garden
Scene. While on tour with his camera the French man went missing and many
people suspect Edison to have arranged his assassination.

Nowadays a film without colour is seen as weird and not normal. But this was not
always the case. The process that many photographers went through to get colour
into their photos was long and difficult. The first photographs were taken in 1839 and
people were filled with excitement however many people were disappointed that
there was no colour. The first stage of getting colour into photographs was done by
artists and they did this by colouring in photos by hand. This was good because it
made the photographs look more exciting and eye catching and also provided many
artists with employment. At the time this process was popular as it was so cheap and
easy to do however as time went on they realised this would not work for film. In
1861 the idea that any colour can be made by mixing red, green and blue light was
found out by a Scottish physicist named James Clerk Maxwell. Not long after this
discovery a French man named Lois Ducos Du Hauron found another method that
involved different coloured pigments instead of light. However both of these methods
took a long time to do and they needed many different steps.

The next working method was called the Autochrome and this was created by
French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumiere in the early 20 th century. The pair were
producing these plates in 1907 but making them wasn’t easy. It was a complex
process however when made, they were easy to use. This was because they didn’t
require any special equipment which made them popular to the public. There was
only one downside to this invention and this was the exposure time. Even with
perfect lighting it could last for up to 30 seconds. Over time other inventors took the
idea and made it easier and better.

In film however, things started out slightly different. They used dye to tint the colour
of some of the scenes. For example, outside scenes would be tinted a dark purple or
blue colour to show that it is night time. Another method that was very time
consuming was, just like in photographs, colouring by hand. This method was used
in the film “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902. But this was expensive and took a long time.
Inventor George Albert Smith found a better method that was Kinemacolor in 1906.
This method was projecting images through red and green filters to show the colours
being filmed.

Finally, the best and most popular working idea was the Three colour Technicolor.
This was used by big companies such as Walt Disney. It was only used by these
companies because you needed to rent special cameras to use it so it was very
expensive. Even the biggest companies would only use it for their biggest and best
ideas. The method was developed over many years which made it cheaper and
easier which eventually made it so popular that black and white became a thing of
the past.

One of the first full length movies shown in colour was The Wizard of Oz. This film
was made in 1939 and is very well known for its storytelling, acting, special effects
and most of all, its colour. Many happy and bright colours were used throughout the
set, costume and makeup. This makes the film more eye catching and exciting. They
have also exaggerated the idea of colour by using colour names as titles for places
in the film such as Emerald City and the Yellow Brick Road. I think that this was
because everyone was so excited about colour being in film so they wanted to make
it the main focus. The idea of Dorothy stepping into the world of Oz can be seen as
the industry stepping from a world of black and white into a new and updated world
of colour.

When it comes to camera movement there have been many changes over time and
camera operators have become more creative with the way they tell the story
through the movement and angles. When filming was still new people believed that
the whole of the actors’ body should be shown because they thought that cutting off
someone’s body would confuse the audience too much. Eventually the close up was
invented and was first shown in The Little Doctor and the Sick Kitten in 1901. This
was the first step into a new way of filming and many other movements were created
after this.

The film Shaun Of The Dead was directed by Edgar Wright and he has a unique
style of film which involves many fast moving pans. This is effective because it can
show a change in time or a change in scene while making it look exciting so is more
appealing to watch.

Another type of camera movement that I find interesting is the tracking shot. This can
be seen in Steve McQueens film Shame when the actor is jogging. Throughout the
scene the camera follows the man along the street which makes it flow nicer and
helps the audience connect to the character as they feel as though they are there
with him.

The dolly zoom is another interesting camera movement. It is considered to be one

of the most difficult ones to perform. It shows the camera moving towards a subject
while zooming out at the same time. You can see this is the film Jaws and it makes
the character look worried and confused.

1917. This 2019 film is very interesting when it comes to the camera work behind it.
It is filmed in a way that makes it look like one long shot. It is set in a war zone about
two men who are sent to deliver a very important message which could save the
lives of thousands of men. The audience can easily connect with the film and feel
like they are there because it all looks like one shot which makes us feel like we are
the camera. In this scene we can see a man running through the war zone and then
jumping into a lake. For this scene the camera operators had to use Jeeps,
motorcycles and were running on foot to get the best shots and making it look like
one long shot. They changed the shot when he jumped into the lake but edited it well
making it look like the shot was continued. It is said that the director, Sam Mendes
“wanted to create an immersive experience and put the audience in the shoes of a
British soldier fighting in World War 1. Getting the camera right up in the soldiers
faces as they moved through long, narrow trenches was a major aspect of this”. In
my opinion I think that the camera movement and angles is the main reason why this
idea works so well.

There are many different types of camera operators. They all have different ways of
doing things and their own style of filming. An example of a successful camera man
is Tony Keene. He specialises in situation comedy in TV and sometimes film.

He began his journey into the industry at the London College of Printing. He started
off by studying photography because his father was a photographer. But this didn’t
last long as he found that the process of taking photos and watching them in a dark
room was long and boring. This made him realise that he found TV and film more
interesting because it was such a big thing at the time when he was studying so he
pursued this instead. Since then he has been a camera operator for more than 40
years and has been part of many shows including The Bill, Live at the Apollo and
The IT Crowd.

He took part in an interview and one of his tips for young people wanting to get into
the industry is not wasting time with theory. He says that to be a good camera
operator you must be very hands on. You must prove to people that you can do the
job and that you can do it well and to do this you must make yourself recognisable.
To get into the job you need to find the people and the job you want to do and keep
bothering them until they say yes.

He believes that the most important skill needed when working as a camera operator
is being on time. He says “time is always of the essence” and that “time is the
biggest killer”. This is because time is always limited on set so he can’t delay
anything as this can result in paying overtime or having to schedule another day
which isn’t always possible. To prevent everyone having to repeat any scenes you
must always be on the ball and you must be good at what you do.