FILM STUDIES 1

FILM STUDIES

Subject : FILM STUDIES

(For undergraduate students)

Year : 1st

Paper No. & Title : 1A

Social History of Cinema
(Group A: Western Cinema)

Topic No. & Title : 1a

Early Cinema

Lecture No. & Title : 1

Early Cinema: Lumiere,
Mellies, Porter

Video Programme Link: 1A.1a.1

SCRIPT
Early Cinema: Pre History to Lumieres, Melies and
Others
After the invention of the motion-picture cameras and its
exploration by a number of practitioners and inventors
the cinema in the early period moved from a novelty to
an established medium. In 1878, Edward Muybridge
made a series of photographs of a running horse by using
a series of cameras with a glass plate film and fast
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exposure. In 1882 Étienne-Jules Marey invented a

camera which could record 12 separate images on a
revolving disc. In 1889, George Eastman introduced a
crude flexible film base, Celluloid. Gradually the creation
of lengthy series of frames became possible and
projectors were modified to become early motion-picture
projectors. In 1893, Thomas A. Edison's assistant, W.K.L
Dickson, developed a camera that made short 35 mm
films. The first rotating camera for taking panning
shots was built in 1897. The first film studios were built in
1897. Special effects were introduced and film continuity,
involving action moving from one sequence into another,
began to be used. In 1900, continuity of action across
successive shots was achieved and the close-up shot was
introduced. However in this section I will try to discuss
the cinema medium during this period locating it on the
intersecting planes of emerging technology, film viewing
culture, filmic devices and their aesthetic paradigms. We
have to remember that cinema necessarily did not
emerge as an art medium and the early film makers were
known as scientists and not directors. Lumiere once
famously said that “subject is like an insect” and it seems
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that he is looking through the microscope. Reminding

these instances we will try to understand how cinema at
this period functioned like not only as an entertainment
form but also as a technological novelty, system of
communication and a language. And here we will engage
more with certain film form and the politics behind their
formation and less with the chronological events and their
causal links. In our discussion we will try to maintain a
non teleological approach while discussing the film forms.

Features:
Some of the characteristics of the early cinema mode are
absence of camera movement, one shot film, frontal
address and discontinuity. In early period of cinema the
perception of continuity was not essential in making a
film. So very often the characters leaving to the left in a
particular shot also enters from the left in the next shot.
And there was no effort observed in trying to make the
film object centrifugal. Theatrical frontality influenced the
film form during this period where actors or performers
directly looked at the spectator. Often the film was
designed in one action, one shot and without any cut. The
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concept of frame or framing an object is also different

from the classical model where very often somebody from
the pro filmic space can enter in the frame fully or
partially in the early film form. Theorists discuss the film
form working with a tableaux mode which correlates itself
with the static shot. Theorists argued that the
autonomous tableau in early cinema worked as narrative
mode but not as a linear narrative. Thomas Elsaesser
sees the tableau having its own “narrative dramatic
momentum”. Unlike the industrial mode these films
functioned with an open ended structure. In the early
period while shooting a film lighting source was mostly
sunlight and very rarely simple arc flood lights or mercury
vapour tube lamp were used as sources of lighting. In
case of acting instead off ‘naturalistic’ acting style as the
only template for acting, there were different traditions of
performing arts which shaped the body language of the
performers. The nature of shot transition also functioned
in a specific way during this period. For instance when
dissolves were used in early cinema the perception of
time lapse was not essential behind using this device. The
use of cut as an important transition device developed
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with ‘chase films’ and gradually the idea of ‘outside to

inside’ cut was also developed (esp in films like The Kiss
in the Tunnel, 1900). The early film makers and
technicians used close up as a cinematic device but the
perception of point of view or perspective was not
developed with this use. A rare example from the early
period Let Me Dream Again (G. A. Smith, 1900)
effectively used focus-pull device to create the effect of
fantasy of the protagonists. Thus the early was not
completely devoid of technological developments and in
later period the institutionalized cinema was not
necessarily resulted with the technological progress of
film medium. Many of the essential cinematic devices of
later period were very much present in the early cinema
mode. The difference was s in the alignment or the over-
all designing of them.
In his discussion of early cinema film historians used the
term “cinema of attractions” to describe the early film
aesthetics. This term is used again and again in early film
studies. Tom Gunning explains its definition: attractions
address the viewer directly, soliciting attention and
curiosity through acts of display. As moments of
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spectacle, their purpose lies in the attention they draw to

themselves, rather than in developing the basic of
narrative or the creation of causality or a consistent
fictional world. This attraction, Gunning argues, is
characterized by Baudelaire’s motifs of modernity: “the
ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent,” and the urban
crowd. It is easy to see the bath films in this light.
Decidedly non-narrative and spectacular in various ways,
Lurline Baths, Sutro Baths, and Sutro Baths, No. 1 are
scenes of modernity: recently constructed swimming
pools, spectacular feats of modern engineering in
themselves, are captured on film teeming with dynamic
activity only made visible through the camera’s ability to
register movement. Gunning states that his use of
Eisenstein’s term “attractions” in the “cinema of
attractions” paradigm points to early film’s preference for
“exhibitionist confrontation rather than diegetic
absorption.” Gunning writes that:
First it is a cinema that bases itself on its ability to show
something. Contrasted to the voyeuristic aspect of
narrative cinema, this is an exhibitionist cinema. An
aspect of early cinema is its different relationship with its
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spectator: the recurring look at the camera by the actors.

This action which is later perceived as spoiling the
realistic illusion of the cinema, here establishes contact
with the audience. From comedian smirking at the
camera, to the constant bowing and the gesturing of the
conjurors in the magic films, this is a cinema that
displays its visibility, willing to rupture self-enclosed
fictional world for a chance to solicit the attention of the
spectator.(Gunning, 1990)

In a different context in his discussion of early cinema

Noel Burch also talks about ‘erotic films’ during the early
period where partial or full nudity of the women
performers acknowledged the presence of camera. Trick
films are also interesting examples where the entire films
were series of display without any narrative causality
working between them. Instead of inviting into the
illusion of the narrative world through the identification
with a subject the early cinema captivates its spectator’s
mind through a direct address into the exhibition space.
To do this the early cinema capitalizes on the
hallucinatory effects. According to Burch, unlike the
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classical mode of cinema early cinema emphasizes, the

spectatorial space-time.

Pioneers in this field: Lumiere Brothers Melies and

Others
Thomas A Edison known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park”
patented over a thousand inventions and received many
notable awards which became pioneering attempt in the
field of cinema. While working as a telegraph operator
Edison made his first invention - a telegraphic repeating
instrument which enabled messages to be transmitted
automatically over a second line without the presence of
an operator. In 1883, Edison employed W.K.L Dickson as
his assistant which initiated a major move in the history
of cinema. Edison was motivated by the work of Marey
and Muybridge and constructed a large laboratory for his
experimentation and research. Edison wrote on October
8th 1888 that, “I am experimenting upon an instrument
which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the
ear.” Most of the experimentation and research at
Edison’s laboratory was carried out by Dickson, including
early experiments using techniques developed with the
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phonograph. These experiments arranged rows of tiny

photographs on the outside of a cylinder with a light, or
igniting sparks inside which continued for some years.
Other ideas included the coating of the cylinder with
emulsion and Dickson looked for some other alternatives.
With Dickson leading the experimentation and research
the Kinetoscope was developed - a peepshow device
which required viewers to peer into the top of a large
cabinet where they would be treated to a minute or so of
moving pictures. One of the first films made for the
Kinetoscope and copyrighted by Dickson was “Record of a
Sneeze” made in early January 1894. Edison received the
Congressional Gold Medal for “development and
application of inventions that have revolutionised
civilisation in the last century.” Robert William Paul a
successful electrical engineer based in London is also
credited for some important inventions in the early years.
Along with manufacturing cameras and projectors, Paul
also produced films. Paul successfully copied the
Kinetoscope and made several machines which he sold to
other showmen. But his customers were unable to show
Edison’s films on these machines as they were not
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licensed Kinetoscope operators. Paul appointed

photographer Birt Acres to operate the camera for his
production. Birt Acres had provided Paul with provisional
designs for a moving picture camera. Paul and Acres had
made a working camera with which they produced the
first film in Britain - 'Incident at Clovelly Cottage'. The
camera they had made was based upon Marey’s
Chronophotographe and used 35mm sprocketted film
which worked with the Kinetoscope design. In 1898 Paul
started working on the construction on Britain’s first film
studios in Muswell Hill, North London and produced over
eighty short dramatic films. But after few years he closed
his production company down and he returned to his
previous occupation of electrical engineering.
On December 28, 1895, the Lumiére Brothers, Auguste
and Louis, sons of well known Lyons based portrait
painter held one of the first public showings of motion
pictures projected on a screen, at the Grand Café in Paris.
During his experimentation, Louis discovered a process of
making a new ‘dry plate’ which assisted the development
of photography. The brothers worked through the winter
of 1894 and their aim was to overcome the limitations
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and problems, as they saw them, of Edison’s peephole

Kinetoscope. They identified two main problems with
Edison’s device: firstly its bulk - the Kinetograph - the
camera and its weight and size. And secondly - the
nature of the kinetoscope through which only one person
could experience the films at a time. By early 1895, the
brothers had invented their own device combining camera
with printer and projector and called it the
Cinématographe. Patenting it on February 13th 1895, the
Cinématographe was much smaller than Edison’s
Kinetograph, was lightweight, and was hand cranked. The
Lumières used a film speed of 16 frames per second,
much slower compared to Edison’s 48 frames per second.
The brothers kept their new invention a secret with
Auguste organising private screenings to invited guest
only. The first of such screenings occurred on 22nd March
1895 at 44 Rue de Rennes in Paris at an industrial
meeting where a film especially for the occasion,
“Workers leaving the Lumière factory”, was shown. This
screening generated discussions and widespread
excitement surrounding this new technology. This led to
their first public screening on 28th December at the
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Grand Cafe on Paris’s Boulevard de Capuchines. The

programme of films on show that day included La Voltige
(1895) , Les Forgerons (1895), La Sortie de usines
Lumière (1894), L’ Arroseur arrose (1895) Repas de bebe
(1895) and several other. Louis photographed the world
around him and some of his first films were known as
'actuality' films, like the workers leaving the factory etc.
The brothers began to open theatres to show their films.
In 1896 they had opened Cinématographe theatres in
London, Brussels, Belgium and New York. In 1900 the
brothers projected a film on a huge 99 x 79 foot screen at
the Paris Exposition, after which they decided to limit
their film exhibitions and devote their time to the
manufacture and sale of their inventions.
In 1896, George Méliès purchased a projector from
Robert William Paul and later made a camera based on
the same mechanism. Méliès, with a background in
magic, discovered the potential and effectiveness of
simple special effects. In 1897 Méliès built his own studio
out of glass so that the studio did not have to move with
the sun. Méliès also began to build elaborate settings to
create fantasy worlds within which his magical
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transformations could occur. Over time Méliès progressed

from simple short films to longer narratives with a series
of tableaux. Méliès’ principle contribution to cinema was
the combination of traditional theatrical elements to
motion pictures - he sought to present spectacles of a
kind not possible in live theatre. In the 1896, an event
occurred which has since passed into film folklore and
changed the way Méliès looked at filmmaking. Whilst
filming a simple street scene, Méliès camera jammed and
it took him a few seconds to rectify the problem. Thinking
no more about the incident, Méliès processed the film and
was struck by the effect such a incident had on the scene
- objects suddenly appeared, disappeared or were
transformed into other objects. Méliès discovered from
this incident that cinema had the capacity for
manipulating and distorting time and space. He expanded
upon his initial ideas and devised some complex special
effects. He pioneered in effectively using double exposure
(La caverne Maudite, 1898), split screen with performers
acting opposite themselves (Un Homme de tete, 1898),
and the dissolve (Cendrillon, 1899). Edwin S. Porter, a
fan of the films of Georges Méliès followed the trick
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photography which Méliès had introduced and he

successfully emulated these effects in films such as 'The
Finish of Bridget McKeen' (1901) and 'Jack and the
Beanstalk' (1902). Porter’s skill with editing and methods
of projection were invested in some of the most
significant films of this period. Though Melies was an
inspiring film maker for Porter he did not rely only on
fantasy settings. he adopted a documentary style of
filmmaking and he combined documentary footage with
his own footage in films like 'The Execution of Czoyosz' in
'Life of an American Fireman.' 'Life of an American
Fireman' juxtaposed stock footage of fires, firemen and
fire engines with dramatised scenes shot by Porter shot.
And this juxtaposition added tension and effects of drama
in a contemporary setting. Porter developed his ideas
further in the following year with the release of 'The
Great Train Robbery', considered to be the most
influential film of that decade. 'The Great Train Robbery'
presented well composed and sophisticated camera work
and offered an excellent climax, joined together by
Porter’s excellent use of editing. During his time at
Edison, he made many films for the company; in fact he
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was the mainstay of their film production for over five

years. He left in 1909 and took senior production posts
with a number of new independent companies.

The Role of Exhibition and the Early Cinema as a

Public Sphere:
In early period cinema was shown at the mobile tent
show, where film screening was part of an entertainment
package. Often it was part of music hall performances
where immediately after a film screening dance show or
magic show was performed. And film viewing as an
entertainment was designed or aimed for the working
class population. The working class were not permitted to
many other shows and performances for the elites and
hence the film exhibition spaces became a democratic
space. The indefinite nature of moving image technology
expanded experimentation to outside the production of
motion pictures as well. Many exhibitors of films during
this period took on a more creative role in how films were
shown: they would create single-subject evening-length
programs, displaying a series of motion pictures with
sound accompaniment. Perhaps the most striking of these
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attempts was of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons fight. Illegal in

the flesh, boxing matches could be legally exhibited and
watched as a motion picture. Exhibitors, and the boxers
themselves, took advantage of this privilege, turning the
fight and its various re-enactments into a nationwide
spectacle that could be promoted and sold for weeks as
an evening of entertainment. On a smaller scale,
projectionists were given creative leave in how they
would display the short motion pictures. Bill Bitzer, a
projectionist and cameraman for the Biograph Company
often merged individual films together with slides in
between in order to create a more cohesive unit of
moving pictures. Such displays of early films certainly
had consequences in the way movies developed: as
precursors to editing these activities anticipated the
narrative system with which film would soon be defined.
Showman Lyman H. Howe programs of films were
innovatively accompanied with narration, music, sound
effects, and voice. Howe almost transformed the short
silent movies of film’s early days into multi-media
performances.
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Charles Musser has produced an insightful scholarship on

this topic of early film exhibition. Through his studies,
Musser develops an argument that challenges Gunning’s
“cinema of attraction” model. The film, ruptures and all,
in Gunning’s paradigm confronts, stimulates, and
astonishes the viewer; the moving picture, for Gunning,
is ultimately a closed object. Musser, on the other hand,
understands film production as merely one node in the
creation of a moving picture. In his book on the
exhibitor-turned-filmmaker Porter (who produced What
Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City), Musser
goes as far as to assert that the work of exhibitors is in
fact the work of editing. In the period of filmmaking
around 1897 to 1901, film programming created by the
projectionist and exhibitor constituted the post-
production activities of picture making. Through this
claim, along with his extensive research on Howe and
Porter, Musser’s goal is to open film scholarship to
exhibition as well as production in order to account for
the difference between film in its early manifestation and
cinema as it came to be known in the 1910s. Along with
that we also have to be aware of the fact that the early
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films were screened most commonly in a vaudeville

setting where audiences were accustomed to sing along
with musicians, heckle comedians and generally
transgress the separation between stage and audience. It
is notable in fact that the first public display of the
Vitascope was at the famous vaudeville theater in New
York, Koster and Bial’s Music Hall, in April of 1896. Here,
contemporary accounts claim “the spectator’s imagination
filled the atmosphere with electricity” more than the new
projection machine itself, which was “neatly covered with
the blue velvet brocade which is the favorite decorative
material in this house.” With even this very first Vitascope
projection, then, we see the emphasis placed on the role
of the spectator in the creation of cinema. Miriam Hansen
while discussing the significance of early cinema argues
that early cinema provides this condition for alternative
public sphere. Firstly in a historically crucial time period it
catered to people who were on the social periphery. And
then early cinema’s availability to the diverse audience
elaborated the classical modes of narration and spectator
positioning. Films were viewed differently and likely to
have wide range of meanings depending on the status of
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the theater, the ethnic or racial background of the

audience, the skills of exhibitor and the performer and
numerous other things. But this mode of film making and
film viewing did not survive after a period of time. With a
section of industrialists showing serious interest in cinema
‘film show’ moved from tent show to established theaters
in later period. From unprofessional set up film making
slowly moved towards the studio system and it various
film-making techniques were developed in order to
achieve a new form and a new appeal.