Pioneers of cinema

During our lesson with Pat we split up in groups and did individual research on pioneers of cinema. In the group of three I was in we researched about the Lumiere Brothers. The other case studies in the class were Charlie Chaplin, Sirgei Eisentein and George Melies.

The Lumiere Brothers

Some of the greatest film pioneers are the Lumiere brothers - Auguste and Louis. They were made famous for developing the first camera which could project moving images as well as take photos and print images. It was known as the 'cinematogrpahe'. After visiting Thomas Edison's 'Kinetoscope' Auguste and Louis were inspired to build their own camera after seeing Edison's simplified 'Kinetoscope'. By February 1895 the brothers had completed the building of their 'cinematographe'. With the camera they made 50 second short films which usually consisted of just one shot which would be filmed on a tripod. The Lumiere brothers made many short films but on the 28th of December 1895 in Paris ten of their films were presented in a presentation of projected motion pictures. The first to be shown was a 50 second short of workers walking out of a factory in Lyon which was owned by the Lumiere's.  This date was considered to be the birth of cinema itself. This gained huge success as no one had ever seen something like it. This paved the way for cinema. After the films release there was huge demand for a production of 'cinematograph's' all across the world. Auguste was born in 1862 and Louis in 1864. They were born in Besancon and raised in Lyon, France. Their father Antoine opened up his own photographic shop and this is where their passion developed.

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin has acclaimed fame around the world both as an English comic actor as well as filmmaker. Chaplin quickly rose to fame during the silent era. He became world renown for his screen comedy persona 'the Tramp'. Many consider him to be one of the most important pioneers in the film industry. As well as controversy during his 75 year period career he also gained a lot of success with fans around the world.  Chaplin was born on April 16th 1889 in London, England. He was born into a family of performing artists with his father being a vocalist and actor while his mother was an attractive singer and actress who went under the stage name of Lily Harley. From a young age Charlie and his brother Sydney were made to fend for themselves as their father died and their mother developed a serious illness. Both brothers took to the stage with their naturally inherited talent. By the age of 19 Chaplin was signed to the Fred Karno company, this took him to America where he developed himself in the industry. He was later scouted by a film company and made his first appearance in 1914 with Keystone Studios.  After many appearances in films Chaplin finally developed the world famous 'Tramp' persona. First debuted in the film City Lights which was released in 1931. Chaplin's character 'the Tramp' was well known for his famous mime which could be understood anywhere in the world. As well as all his work being highly regarded as brilliant he has also been centre point to a lot of controversy. Mainly due to his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in his own film The Great Dictator.  However without Chaplin we may not the great comics we have now and he helped shape the way for actors and filmmakers alike.

George Melies

George Melies is another key pioneer who helped carved the way for the development of cinema. He is widely regarded as 'the father of special effects'. He is accredited for creating the fade in and fade out effect in movies and by mistake he discovered how to create stop motion creations. He also learnt how to render thick visual effects. Melies was born in Paris in 1861, he is one of the first ever filmmakers to discover the moving picture. One of Melies' most famous films was 'A Trip To The Moon' which also starred himself. The short film was a silent and it lasted for 13 minutes. Due to technology at the time it was filmed in black and white. So Melies took it upon himself to colour the film the visuals in , this took place in the post production. The budget for this film reached roughly 30'000 in French currency. Without Melies cinema would not have progressed as far as to what it is now. The discovery of transitions like fade in and fade out might not have been so used or discovered and he has been a massive inspiration to many filmmakers. Especially to Martin Scorsese who even made a film about him in 20122 called Hugo.  As well as all that Melies also built the first movie studio in Europe and he was the first ever person to show movie trailers. The way he did this was by projecting images above a theatre in Paris in 1898 giving passers by an idea of what was on the screens and inside.