Pre and early cinema is a period of history that most sources agree runs from 1896-1908. Although other technologies existed before Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope and the Lumiere brothers cinematograph early cinema began with these inventions. Other technologies such as the magic lantern (16th-19th century) or the Praxinoscope may have inspired the later inventions they do not count as early cinema. They are optical illusions designed to trick the eye into seeing movement or in the magic lantern’s case a sort of early projector where one image can be shown at a time blown up so that a large audience can see. 

Once the cinematograph was invented however the game changed completely. The very first films such as “train pulling into a station” or “employees leaving the Lumière factory” where under a minute short films designed to show that we now have this technology. It was Georges Méliès, among others, who first started to use the cinematograph to create fantastic stories with surprisingly real looking special effects and editing. These special effects where created in a multitude of ways. A character could be made to look like they had vanished in a puff of smoke by setting of a small smoke bomb and then splicing two frames together. One where the actor is there and another where he is not. These effects combined with editing techniques really set Méliès’ films apart as fantastically fictional tales. However Méliès did not start making these films until around 1902 with the release of “A trip to the Moon”. 

In conclusion pre and early cinema laid the foundations of technology but it was Méliès along with other directors who created the first films most comparable to modern filmmaking and for that reason his films will be talked about and watched for years to come. 

Lili

Pre and early cinema was a period of history that most sources agree ran from 1896-1908. Although other technologies existed before Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope and the Lumiere brothers cinematograph early cinema began with these inventions. Other technologies such as the magic lantern (16th-19th century) or the Praxinoscope may have inspired the later inventions they do not count as early cinema. They are optical illusions designed to trick the eye into seeing movement or in the magic lantern’s case a sort of early projector where one image can be shown at a time blown up so that a large audience can see.

Once the cinematograph was invented however the game changed completely. The very first films such as “train pulling into a station” or “employees leaving the Lumière factory” where under a minute short films designed to show that we now have this technology. It was Georges Méliès, among others, who first started to use the cinematograph to create fantastic stories with surprisingly real looking special effects and editing. These special effects where created in a multitude of ways. A character could be made to look like they had vanished in a puff of smoke by setting of a small smoke bomb and then splicing two frames together. One where the actor is there and another where he is not. These effects combined with editing techniques really set Méliès’ films apart as fantastically fictional tales. However, Méliès did not start making these films until around 1902 with the release of “A trip to the Moon”.

In conclusion pre and early cinema laid the foundations of technology, but it was Méliès along with other directors who created the first films most comparable to modern filmmaking and for that reason his films will be talked about and watched for years to come.

Until 1907 filmmakers generally stuck to a tableau style which meant that the shots where static and didn’t have any movement. This was heavily inspired by the set up of a stage in the theatre. By 1901 there was an explosion in the subjects and categories filmmakers chose to focus on in their films. These ranged from actuality films of real-life scenery and crowds, to vaudeville and musical performances. Multi-shot films started slowly appearing in the late 19th century. A lot of ‘trick films’ used the technique of cutting two shots together to create the illusion of a disappearance, especially directors like Méliès. The perspective of the shots also began to change around this time as well, George Albert Smith’s films, Grandma’s reading glass (1900) and Let me dream again (1900) developed the point of view shot and moved the audience’s viewpoint from an outside observer to part of the characters worlds. The development of different shot types and editing to create more intricate stories and spectacles meant that audiences could be overwhelmed by films. Films that captured exotic places they had never seen or thrilling narratives they had read about in literature. This progression paved the way for the idea of a cinema of attractions.