CIN201Y1 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: William Kennedy Dickson, Eadweard Muybridge, Athanasius Kircher
PARTS 1 & 2: KEY TERMS AND PEOPLE
LECTURE 2 (Pre-Cinema & Early Cinema)
Frameworks for Understanding Cinema’s Convention
1. “The Myth of Total Cinema”
André Bazin sees the origins of cinema residing in a shared dream of the recreation of
reality (IDEALIST HISTORY)
• Bazin thinks the reproduction of reality has been a desire for a while, that underlying
desire fuelled tech advancements
• Bazin is a philosopher—puts ideas over facts and evidence
• Pg. 17 “cinema has yet to be invented”
- What does it mean by “brings it closer to its origins”
- If cinema is a replication of reality, we can get closer to its original intention with
technological evolution
- There are limits to Bazin’s argument is animation an advancement or a
mutation of reality?
- “Profilmically Real” = does not exist in front of the camera
2. The History of Screen Practice
Charles Musser sees cinema as one stage in an ongoing history of screen entertainments
(CULTURAL HISTORY)
- big on projection
- in contrast to Bazin’s approach realism is not relevant to his framework
3. Technological/Series of Inventions (some argue that the history of cinema should be seen
from the sense of technological history, including optics/the illusion of motion)
- The earliest version of the Magic Lantern can be traced back to the writings of
Athanasius Kircher (1646)
PHOTOGRAPHY can be traced back to “Camera Obscura” (requires a medium on
which to record the projected images)
- First photographic image developed by Joseph Niépce on a glass plate (1826)
- George Eastman made the first rolls of celluloid film available for photography
(1889)
- Photography becomes an important pre-condition for the development of motion
pictures
Roget’s Theory of the Persistence of Vision (1824)
- The popularity of motion toys in the 19th century derives from this theory if
you change an image fast enough, the retina holds onto the previous image and
the production of the moving image occurs
Motion Toys
- Thaumatrope (Herschel)
- Phenakistascope (Plateau)
- Stroboscope (Stampfer)
- Zoetrope (Horner)
Émile Reynaud Praxinoscope Théâtre Optique (1882)
- Projected successive drawn images
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Photographic Analysis of Motion
• Eadweard Muybridge was hired to prove that a horse lifts all feet while running and did
so using multiple cameras (1877)
• Muybridge later projected his photographic motion studies on the Zoopraxiscope
• Étienne-Jules Marey wished to analyze the flight of birds and devised the
Chronophotographic Gun to take rapid photos through a single lens
Thomas Alva Edison & The Commercial Potential of Motion Pictures
• The 19th century witnessed the increased commercialization of leisure
• Businessmen recognized the capacity of technology to render the consumption of images
profitable
• Edison’s assistant, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, initially tried to develop a
synchronized audio-visual entertainment machine (the Kinetophone), but he was
unsuccessful
- Instead, Dickson devised a camera (the Kinetograph) and a single-person
viewing device (the Kinetoscope)
- Dickson oversaw motion picture production in the Edison company’s first studio,
the “Black Maria” (it was covered in tar paper on the outside and painted black on
the inside; it could turn 360 degrees and they could filter any kind of light through
it)
• Andrew Holland opened the first Kinetoscope Parlour in New York City (April 14,
1894)
- Not projected, but individuals could watch in/through the machine
The Lumière Brothers & The Advent of Projection
• The Cinématographe incorporated three functions of camera/printer/projector
• The first public exhibition to a paying audience (December 28, 1895)
• Thomas Armat, supported by investors Raff and Gammon, developed a projector
labeled the Vitascope, that Edison manufactured and publicized as his own
• 1896 = 3 premieres the Vitascope, the Lumière, the Biograph
- this demonstrates the importance of Vaudeville to early motion pictures
LECTURE 3 (Early Cinema in Transition)
Early Cinema Phases (1) 1895-1906/07:
• Even in multi-shot films, editing rarely functions to shape the action; instead, it highlights
the novelty of a new view
• The static, long-shot, shallow-planed compositions of many early films from this period
feature a pronounced degree of Frontality
- Action plays out across the width of a shallow space
• Certain devices are employed in unique ways in early cinema, such as the close-up, often
used to provide a distinctive view, as in the POV (Point of View) shot
• In POV films, the closer view is the pleasure point of the film editing works to provide
us with the attraction that the close view affords
• Editing in this phase of early cinema rarely creates continuity, nor does it support the
construction of a believable diegesis, nor does it ensure straightforward temporal
relations among shots
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- The Emblematic Close Shot promotes the tendency of early cinema performers
to address the camera directly, underscoring the cinema of attraction’s
exhibitionist tendencies
- EMBLEMATIC CLOSE-UP doesn’t quite fit into the film, not part of the
narrative; part of the EXHIBITIONIST PERIOD
- Temporal Overlap entails showing the same (story) action occurring more than
once by reversing plot time so that the story event can be shown again, this time
from a different perspective
the prevalence of temporal overlap demonstrates that a unified point of
view (within a single shot) takes precedence over temporal continuity
showing the same action more than once so that the full action can be
shown without cutting away from the space; spatial integrity is more
important that the continuous narrative
Ex. “American Firefighter”
approach that might be labelled Non-Continuous
• Cinema of Attractions
- Tom Gunning characterized early cinema until 1907 as a Cinema of Attractions,
aimed at display over storytelling
- “the cinema of attractions directly solicits spectator attention, inciting visual
curiosity and supplying pleasure through an exciting spectacle—a unique event,
whether fictional or documentary, that is interest in itself”
- directly solicits spectator attention through spectacle, supplies visual pleasure,
audiences are not interested in narrative; the spectacle is the attraction, a unique
event in cinema (Tom Gunning’s term for PRE-1907 film)
Early Cinema Phases (2) 1907/08-1913:
• Beginning in 1907, style starts to be enlisted more consistently for the purpose of telling
stories
• The aim becomes to tell compelling stories that will involve audiences without confusing
them
• Now, filmmakers are employing stylistic devices to aid in narrative development rather
than for purely visual purposes
• The resources of time and space are now shaped to the storytelling method and the
“diegetic effect” of the fictional world that is depicted is strengthened
• Mise-En-Scène
- shift in performance style (less gesticulatory, more prop focused—more diegesis-
building way of acting)
- more detail in décor (with an eye to verisimilitude)
- experimentation with DEEP STAGING and lighting during TRANSITIONAL
PERIOD, people are lined up behind each other, promotes depth on screen (uses
mise en scène)
• Cinematographic Properties
- greater camera mobility
- preferred shot scale became MLS
- experimentation with framing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Parts 1 & 2: key terms and people. Frameworks for understanding cinema"s convention : the myth of total cinema . 17 cinema has yet to be invented . What does it mean by brings it closer to its origins . If cinema is a replication of reality, we can get closer to its original intention with technological evolution. Profilmically real = does not exist in front of the camera: the history of screen practice. Charles musser sees cinema as one stage in an ongoing history of screen entertainments (cultural history) The earliest version of the magic lantern can be traced back to the writings of. Photography can be traced back to camera obscura (requires a medium on which to record the projected images) First photographic image developed by joseph ni pce on a glass plate (1826) George eastman made the first rolls of celluloid film available for photography (1889) Photography becomes an important pre-condition for the development of motion pictures.
