Lights, Camera, Action: How Movies Were Invented

Merriam Webster defines film as a series of pictures projected on a screen in rapid succession with objects shown in successive positions slightly changed so as to produce the optical effect of a continuous picture in which the objects move. Maybe that the technical version of film for all the boring people but come on films is more that. I define film as a transportation device to another dimension, galaxy, world, country, and or time. The ability to make one forget about the past and the future and the present. Can bring people together. Waste one's time. Give meaning to life. Now if you ask me that sounds a whole lot better. If you haven't guessed, I love film. It’s beautiful, and amazing, and I get so excited talking about it that I want to spontaneously combust. But, hang on before I get too excited and start talking about the best art form ever, I should clarify why film means so much to me. Film to me reminds me of my family. That's how we get together and connect, it’s our thing. Without film we wouldn't be as close and thanks to it, it keeps us together.

It is thanks to the very first motion picture that my family was even able to have that connection. E. Initial Preview: We all know what film is but most of us don’t quite know how it started. It involves luck, creativity, a plagiarist, oops I mean Thomas Edison, and magic. We shall see what film is, who the players were that started the system, and what tools they used. Transition to 1st main point: So how did this all start? Why did this all start? Great question.

Now what is film? It’s an illusion of our eyes and our brain. Peter Mark Roget, a big nerd, found that there is a trick that your eyes play called persistence of vision. “The inverse process of de-convoluting a distorted object utilizing motion and the persistence of vision is employed in a device called the “anorthoscope. ” The analysis of this device is discussed and a simple instrument is shown”. So, did you understand that. If so, good job because I have no idea what that means I was just trying to fill my needed citations. What it is trying to say is this trick keeps you from seeing the black spaces in between frames. A frame is one of the still images that makes up a movie. Exciting. I used to think that I would just blink every time the black part came up. I think that would be more impressive if I’m being honest. But what really happens is that your eyes retain an image for a fifth of a second, so if another frame comes within that fifth of a second you won't see the blank space. Thus, the Phi Phenomenon was born in 1912 by Czech psychologist, Max Wertheimer. So, it's like all those flipbooks where you flip through the images fast enough to see a moving picture. So, who do we have to blame for this medium that, thanks to Netflix, has been the cause of more surprise children than any other source.

Now movies weren't invented they were more stumble upon. Which is amazing because the only thing I stumble upon old food crumbs in my bed. Now let me address that comment about Thomas Edison. Yes, Edison invented the lightbulb, but he also helped with film. He hired a batch of talented assistants and put them to work in the world's first industrial research lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Through this lab Edison would make many contributions to technology but more specifically film. This led to the man whose name we all know W. K. L Dixon…. You know William Dixon…. . Willy…. . . old Wilbur…. Ok yeah, he has got the raw end of the stick and been forgotten. “Dickson deserves as much credit as Edison for the invention of the Kinetograph”. But not on my watch. If you take anything from this remember that name, William Dixon. His assignment was to create something that would animate photographs, something Edison hoped would do for eye what the phonograph does for the ear. I quote "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear. . . " Within a few years, Dixon invented a couple devices: the world's first motion picture camera and a peepshow-style device that let people watch movies. And thus movies were born!

Now Edison, who should be known as the man who would patent the patent if he could, applied for patents for the device before it was even finished. His vision was that music and or speech would play over the moving picture, rather than with the images make sense. Edison took a trip to a friend in France, Etieenne-Jules Marey where he saw the chronophotographic gun. Basically, it was a camera that took fast pictures. Then Dixon discovered that celluloid film strips is the magic juice to be able to capture long series of images. This is what is still used today. So, we know what film is and we know who was there but what exactly is this kinetoscope.

The kinetograph was the first motion picture camera, which worked because they figured out how to synchronize the shutter of the camera to a single frame of film, using the sprocket holes, those little holes on the edges of film strips, and the intermittent stop-and-go device. But it could only record images inside a studio because it was too big to haul around and needed electrical power to work. In 1891, at the National Federation of Women's Clubs in New York City, Edison unveiled his prototype for the kinetoscope. It was basically a cabinet with a peephole on top so you could look inside and watch pictures move - movies! I love movies.

“Around 1905, “Nickelodeons”, or 5-cent movie theaters, began to offer an easy and inexpensive way for the public to watch movies”. They looked much different from what we know as the movie theatre today, but that doesn't make it any less annoying as they still overpriced concessions because that's where most of the money came from as they had to lease or buy the kinetoscopes. Edison wanted to make sure he was earning as much as possible so he put Dixon in charge of the very first production company in West Orange, New Jersey Dixon was the casting agent, the writer, the set builder, the cameraman, and director. OH, look at me I am William Dixon I can do everything blah blah blah, good grief, let someone else shine.

The first movies were Vaudeville acts. But things would not stay peachy forever. Edison's tight grip on the motion picture world was being loosened by the downfalls to the kinetoscope. First, the kinetograph was static, the camera couldn't move, it was too big and required electricity to run so you could only shoot movies from one perspective. Second, the kinetoscope required lots of light, so it could capture images well when the sun shining in New Jersey, Third, the Kinetoscope people viewing system meant that only one person at a time could watch a movie. Which is fine if you're like me and you don't like being around other people, but it's not for everyone. That meant a lot of waiting your turn to watch, limiting the number of customers a kinetoscope parlor could admit each day. Finally, there wasn't any editing yet, so each kinetoscope movie was just one single uninterrupted shot. This wasn't necessarily a limitation - throughout the history of cinema there have been extraordinary films made from single long takes, but until filmmakers could edit different shots together the kinds of stories that could be told had to begin and end inside one brief shot. However, this is where film started. This flawed machine was what caused film to take the path it did. I don’t have the time to tell exactly the rise of every single part of film, so in brief, two brothers, a magician cheats and use film to do magic, A racist film, another racist film, and then depression. And that takes us to the golden age of Hollywood.

In conclusion, the beginning of film was a messy and confusing time. The main thing to take away is Wilbur Dixon. Also, remember that Thomas Edison is not only to thank for the light bulbs above your head but also the movies you go to see. So, yes, he may have not been the best person, but his impact is still being felt to this day. I think the real goal is to be as epic as Wilbur while being as memorable as Edison. Just going all in in something you believe.