World film history (1): Early films (from 1880- 1904)

The world film history is 1, and the initial stage of early films 1880~ 1904 includes birth and development.

1, born

First of all, the beginning of film history is the birth of film. Movies can't be made overnight. Everything has a long process, and movies are no exception.

When it comes to the birth of the film, we must mention the essence of the film. Zhou Chuanji thinks that the essence of film is an illusion. Although this statement is biased, it is correct. (I won't elaborate on this statement. If you are interested, you can go and listen to Mr. Zhou Chuanji's open class. There are many online resources, which are not confidential. ).

Let's imagine this scene. The protagonist leaves home for the bank. Under normal circumstances, any video resources we can see will not be completely filmed. The protagonist will follow the camera all the way out of the house and go to the bank. Just use a few shots to show it: the protagonist closes the door, goes down the stairs and turns a corner. The next shot can be the bank door. This is the application of our gestalt psychology. We only saw these shots, but in our hearts, we have made up all the distance the protagonist has traveled.

With psychological preparation, you have to be physically prepared. As we all know, movies actually show some pictures quickly, giving people a continuous illusion. In fact, what we see is just a bunch of pictures, but why do we feel that what we see is moving? This is a phenomenon of visual retention.

What we see will not disappear immediately at the moment we see it, but will stay on the retina for 0. 1 to 0.4 seconds. As long as we look at another picture for our eyes during this time, the two pictures will be connected together, making our brains think that what we see is moving.

If you still don't understand (this concept should not be difficult), then you can find a fan, or stick a piece of hard paper on a stick, draw a bird on the front of the paper and a cage on the back. When you rub the stick back and forth quickly, you will see the bird enter the cage, which is visual retention.

If it's too much trouble, you can buy something called "trick plate" on Taobao, like the turntable we use for lottery, and draw some patterns on it, such as running horses. When you move it quickly, you will see the horse running.

Of course, the birth of the film also has a technical condition, that is, photography technology and projection technology. These two are easy to understand, namely photography and projection. Everyone has taken photos in class or other places and used projectors. If you want to shoot a video, you just need to take a bunch of photos that are continuous in time and then play them in order.

We all know that famous bet. A man and photographer Edward muybridge made a bet that the horse would be empty for a while when running, so the photographer set up many cameras on the horse's runway. When people play the photos taken by these cameras in turn, they get a video of a horse running.

In the above example, the space is used for continuous shooting. There is also a man named Jules Mahler who invented something called a camera gun. As long as you press the shutter, this device will take six or seven photos in a row.

But these things are only the basis for the birth of movies. The real birth was Edison's invention of a moving camera and a moving film projection box. The camera is easy to understand. Actually, it's the same principle as a camera gun, except that you can take more photos of continuous shooting.

But the projection box is different from the projector. Instead of projecting the image on the big screen for everyone to see, it is only played in the box, so that the audience can only see it with their eyes on the box. It's not that Edison couldn't invent the projector or anything, but that he thought he could make more money by showing it to one person at a time.

However, it is generally recognized that the symbol of the birth of movies is not Edison's invention of these two things, but two French brothers Lumiere's showing movies in cafes. A big reason is that Edison chose this screening mode, which can only be watched by one person at a time. Everyone thinks that movies can only be born if they are shown in public like the Lumiere brothers.

But there is actually another reason that is not so aboveboard: after Edison invented this technology, he firmly held it in his own hands as a cash cow and imposed patent tax on other filmmakers, so other filmmakers had a bad impression on him and were unwilling to give him this honor. His behavior has had a great influence on the film industry, which we will mention later.

Both Edison and Lumiere chose this company to develop their films. Edison also set up a film studio to shoot. Although the Lumiere brothers invented the film machine (this machine can enlarge the projected image and copy the film, which is a machine that can shoot and play) and used to shoot movies, they set up a company after discovering the huge business opportunities in movies, so their hundreds of short films were not just shot by themselves.

At that time, the film company hired a large number of photographers to shoot films around the world and then show them around the world. They didn't want to sell their cameras or projectors (for the sake of technology monopoly), but the Lumiere brothers began to sell their own film machines, which greatly promoted the development of the film industry.

2. Development

2. 1, Lumiere brothers

The Lumiere brothers played an important role in the birth of this film and made great contributions to its subsequent development. However, the Lumiere brothers did not devote their lives to the film industry. When the movie was shown to them on 1905, they were caught in a fire and were beaten by the authorities. They stopped making movies (which also reflected that they only paid attention to film production at that time, but their contribution to film was indelible).

The films made by Lumiere brothers are more documentary. They record some small things or work scenes in their lives and shoot important events (news). They think that the film only needs to be recorded, so they don't care much about the scheduling scenery of the film, and the content of shooting is mainly outdoor.

Their films usually have only one shot, without any changes in scenery or editing techniques (just like a person standing in a fixed position watching the whole event). This is also related to the technical conditions at that time. It can only be displayed for about 20 seconds, and it is difficult to create too many technologies in 20 seconds.

However, this does not mean that the Lumiere brothers' films are completely without any tricks or completely true. The film "Panorama of the Nile" is the scenery on both sides of the Nile taken by the photographer on the boat with a camera rack. Although it was an accident, it was also an improvement (the movement of the plane).

Another example is The Watered Gardener by Lumiere Brothers, which was a great success. Although the film is completely realistic, when they found that the audience liked this interesting scene, they also asked some actors to play it. And "Workers Hit the Wall" also uses the technique of upside-down (for example, the film is upside-down, but the effect of upside-down is that a pile of bricks automatically becomes a wall), giving people a magical feeling.

2.2. George May Leahy (Egypt)

George May Li Ai has two names, also called Meria, an American, and he is also a pioneer in promoting the development of movies.

May Lea was originally a magician. When he found the film, he found it very interesting, so he contacted the companies of Edison and Lumiere at the first time, hoping to buy their equipment. However, due to the monopoly of technology, neither company was willing to sell it to him, so he made such equipment himself.

As a magician, his first reaction when he discovers the characteristics of movies is to perform magic with it, so many of his movies are like video tapes of small magic tricks on the stage. But watching his movies is not like watching magic on the stage. He used movies to create many magical effects. For example, when he stopped filming, he used this method to create the effect that the actors suddenly disappeared, which could never be achieved in magic, but it was easy in movies. So he made the earliest movie special effects.

His films, as well as the rehearsed news clips, are all about the actors reinterpreting important events, which is quite different from the complete documentary style of Lumiere brothers.

Mei Li 'ai also made many long films with storylines, mainly of the mythological and sci-fi types. The reason for choosing the theme in this way may also be to give full play to the advantages of his film special effects. He used the method of stopping to shoot, covering and overprinting to express magical scenes, the most famous of which is a trip to the moon, which is still very interesting.

However, his films have a strong sense of drama. Most of his films are interior scenes (because they need the help of scenery). He used the narrative method of drama to create a full-length drama on the screen, and divided the film into scenes (even wrote the first few scenes), which is simply not seen in our current movies.

At the same time, the perspective of his films is generally the perspective of the conductor (that is, the perspective of the audience facing the center of the stage), so it gives people a dramatic feeling, without any change in scenery or perspective (and almost all the films we watch today will have farewell or change in perspective).

He also streamlined film production and initially established a film production model (although it was a manual workshop). He set up a star film company, which not only produced and distributed films in the film industry, but also designed film posters himself, which set a precedent for film promotion.

However, influenced by World War II, the film industry declined, and Mei Li 'ai was miserable in her later years, so she had to open a grocery store to make a living. This was shown in the film Hugo in memory of him, and you can watch it if you are interested.

2.3 Brighton School

Brighton School is a British film school, named after its main characters are from Brighton, England. Although not as famous as Lumiere Brothers and George May Lea, they have also made great contributions.

Their films have different scenes, and the use of editing techniques makes the narrative more interesting, and the organic combination of inside and outside can be said to have created an early montage. Because of these technologies, their films are more "cinematic". If you are interested, you can see "The Disaster of Mary Jane" (multi-translated, also called "The Misfortune of Mary Jenny"), which is very interesting.

The Lumiere brothers tried their best to make the film "real", giving people the feeling that I was witnessing it with my own eyes. After watching Mei's movie, people will think it is fake and magical. Brighton school combines the two and creates a real illusion. Just like The Misfortune of Mary Jane, although the content is realism, it does not exclude fiction and creation, which involves the essence of the film.

2.4. Art Film Movement

The art film movement originated in France. When the film was first developed, the people at the bottom knew little about it, so it was an elegant art popular in the upper class. Because the upper class is used to enjoying drama, and Mei's screen drama has achieved great success, at this stage, film companies tend to regard movies as a means of expressing drama, rather than focusing on exploring film language. This movement is the perfect embodiment of Mei's film concept.

It is worth mentioning that the early films were all silent in black and white, but in order to satisfy people's yearning for color films and sounds, people would use film coloring and band accompaniment to make up for this deficiency.