The Evolution Of The Cinema

The creation of motion pictures has shaped the way Americans are entertained, informed, and even educated. The evolution of this medium has transformed how culture views life and processes information. It is amazing to see where this industry began and what it has evolved to today. From shadow puppetry, to picture projectors, to actual on-screen motion, the cinema is ever evolving. For ages men and women have been fascinated by the effects of motion and light. In the early 900s, artists from many different cultures began putting on shadow puppet shows.

Puppets on rods were put into motion between several different light sources and audiences watched in awe as these puppets narrated enchanting stories of heroes and villains.

The puppet shows entertained for many years but by 1420, magic lanterns turned the vague shadows into pictures. Magic lanterns simply shined light into a lens and projected it onto a screen. Static or moving slides were placed in between the light and the lens and produced vivid images.

This led to the invention of the peep show. Peep shows resembled that of a kaleidoscope. Spectators looked into one end of a wooden box, pointed the opposite end at a light source and a scene then appeared. Both inventions were not truly recognized until the early 1600s when Athanasius Kircher gave the world an improved version of the magic lantern.

The improvements made upon the magic lanterns began to spark inspiration in the artistic minds of men and women. In 1799, Belgian physicist, Etienne Robertson, introduced a new kind of entertainment to the French, horror.

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Phantasmagoria was a slide show accompanied with lights, sound, and special effects. People flooded into theaters to be petrified by images of ghouls, goblins, demons, and skeletons. As the years went on, more entertainment like Phantasmagoria came onto to the screen. Crowds would gather into churches, theaters, and even halls to watch lantern shows about holidays, such as Christmas and Halloween, fairy tales, and theological stories.

Visual entertainment was constantly changing. Innovative minds continually came up with ideas of how to take pictures and actually give them some type of realistic motion. Two photographers in particular, Eadweard Muybridge and Dr. E. J. Marey, gave on screen motion a boost by, interestingly enough, taking pictures of horses. In 1872, a wealthy man, Leland Stanford, hired Muybridge to take pictures of his horse galloping. Stanford wanted to see if a horse ever has all four of its hooves off the ground. Muybridge set up cameras all along the race track and placed strings across the track along with them. When the horse ran through, he would break through the strings and a picture would snap. In doing this, he proved that a horse does indeed have all four feet off the ground at one time while running. The idea of using photography to show motion fascinated Muybridge, but sadly, his methods required too many cameras.

Dr. E. J. Marey comes on the scene. Dr. Marey invented the photo gun. This camera could take over one hundred rapid shots with just one click. He projected images with the turn of a crank and thus came motion picture. Inventors quickly began to make improvements to Marey’s photo gun and built upon the idea of it. Scientist William K. L. Dickens was one of the many men intrigued by the enchantment of motion picture, so he began work on the Kinetoscope. Dickens worked on this projector in the lab of none other than Thomas Edison. Since the projector was designed in his lab, he had a patent on it and began to make improvements upon the idea of a projector. Edison designed a single person viewing booth that showed ten to fifteen second movie type clips to its viewers. Unfortunately, he did not release his design until 1896. By that time, two French brothers had already beaten him to the release of the design. The Lumiére brothers showed their first motion picture in a café in Paris, on December 28, 1895. The brother’s movies were short and sweet and were produced with rapid-fire. People paid to view their shorts and within a two-year time period the brothers had produced around 358 films.

In 1905, a motion picture theater was opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was named the Nickelodeon theater. The founders, Henry Davis and John Henry, reasoned that Nickelodeon was a fitting name. They simply combined the cost of a ticket, which was a nickel, and the Greek word odeon, meaning theatre. There never ceased to be an audience in line to go to the Nickelodeon theater, even though it had no seats. To remedy this the owners soon opened a ninety-six seat-theater. The Nickel theaters became so popular that within two years around five thousand opened in the U.S. Motion pictures were such a success they soon led to other forms of movies. One such example was the rise of animation. Cartoonists seized the opportunity to bring their animations to life. The first animated movie was developed by Winsor McCay. He developed a form of animation where every cel, or picture frame, was hand drawn. McCay’s first movie, Little Nemo, featured 4,000 different cels.

Another great animator that emerged from this medium was the world’s best-known cartoonist, Walt Disney. Of course, he is best known as the creator of Mickey Mouse. However, his first cartoon star was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In 1927, Oswald stared in the movie, Trolley Troubles. Later, Mickey Mouse came on the scene and he alone has changed the motion picture industry forever. Walt Disney’s creativity and imagination are still shaping the way people watch and enjoy movies. The art of motion picture has evolved exponentially over the centuries due to the creativity of innovative minds. Even today, the cinema continues to evolve. Movie picture has become clearer, color has become more vibrant, and sound has been progressively enhanced. An idea that seemed so impossible then has turned into the possible now. As the famous creator of the mouse, Walt Disney, says, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Works Cited

1. “Chapter 3.” Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, Alfred A. Knopf, 2008, pp. 103-104.
2. Howes, Lewis. “Forbes.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2012, www.forbes.com/.
3. Somervill, Barbara A. The History of the Motion Picture. Child’s World, 2006.