History of Cinema
By : Parthajit Baruah
The beginning of film history can not be easily defined by a single invention or event. The beginning of motion pictures can be traced back to the 16th century experiments with the camera obscura which was a dark chamber in which an image of outside objects could be thrown upon a screen and with the use of magic lantern which was a device that helped images, painted on glass to be projected by means of an artificial light source. In those days, magic lanterns were used to present a succession of images for the purpose of telling a story, often describing humorous scenes, theatrical tragedies and miracle plays. These were very well accepted and popular in France, England and the United States in late 18th and early 19th century. With scientific developments in the study of visions, the 19 th century created the necessary pre-conditions for the technical development of motion pictures. While in 1833, the Optical toys like Zoetrops, were invented which helped to give the illusion of continuous movement by spinning a narrow disc of drawings in a revolving drum, anatomical motion experiments carried out by Eadweard Muybridge. This experiment helped him to study not only about motion pictures but also about the technical methods for recording movement photographically. In 1872, Muybridge was hired by Leland Standford, a former California governor and wealthy businessman, to record the galloping horses. Muybridge devoted the rest of his life to refining his process of series of photography. But he was not 'the man who invented moving pictures'. He recorded live action continuously for the first time in history, but he did so with a series of twelve or more cameras until the separate functions of these machines could be incoroperated into a single instrument, the cinema could not come into being. A French physiologist named Etienne-Jules Marey recorded the first series photographs of live action in a single camera. In 1882, he invented the 'Chronophotographic gun' in order to take series pictures of birds in flights. This instrument, a camera shaped like a rifle, took twelve instantaneous photographs of a movement per second and imprinted them on a rotating glass plate. After some days, he switched from the cumbersome plates to paper roll film which had the effect of introducing the film strip to cinematography. In 1889, the American inventor George Eastman introduced celluloid roll film. Thomas Edison and a team of technicians working under William Kennedy Laurie Dickson in New Jersey, invented the 'Kinetograph', (the first true motion picture camera )and the Kinetoscope viewing device. In 1893, the Kinetograph, which was first exhibited at the world's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, was designed as a form of amusement. On April 14, 1894, a Canadian enterpreneur named Andrew Holland opened the first Kinetoscope parlor in a converted shoe store at 1155 Broadway in New York city. Holland charged twenty five cents per person for access to a row of five Edison peep-show viewers, each of which had a single film loop shot with the Kinetograph. Soon Kinetoscope parlors were opened every where.
When Edison unveiled the Kinetoscope, at the same time , Auguste and Louis Lumiere were working hard to develop a compact camera or a projection device popularly known as the Cinematographe. It was on December 28, 1895 that the Lumiere brothers, Louis and Auguste, who discovered Cinematographe, had their first public show in Paris (France) in the basement of the Grand Cafe on the Bouleuard des Capueines, Christened the Salon Indien. They exhibited one or two minutes duration short films in which they showed the workers leaving the photographic manufacturing factory of Lumiere brothers in Lyon, and Auguste and Madame Lumiere feeding their infant daughter. Madame Lumiere is said to be the first female to be shown on the cinema screen. But the most important and interesting aspect of this exhibition happened when they showed the short film called 'The arrival of the train'. When the film was shown for the first time, audience watching the film thought that the running train would come out through the screen, and so,they screamed and feared to watch the film any more. The admission fee for the exhibition was one franc. The Salon Indien that could accommodated 120 audience, held 20 shows daily and within 7 days, the profits rose to 2,000 francs a day , but interestingly, the first and second days, they got only a meagre 35 francs. The first public exhibition held by Lumiere brothers was a great commercial success which proved Antoine Lumiere, father of Auguste and Louis Lumiere, wrong because he predicted that the inventor of Cinematographe done by his sons had no commercial future and might ruin the minds of the people. Auguste and Louis Lumiere were greatly encouraged by the commercial success at home and so, they made a plan to exhibit their invention all over the world. To fulfil their dreams, early in 1896, Louis Lumiere appointed some interested assistants and trained them about the use of camera, projector and printing machine. The cinematographe invented by Lumiere brothers, was only ten pounds weight which helped the assistants to carry easily. As the Cinematographe was an hand cranked, the assistants could easily shoot in the street.Taking the camera and other necessary equipments with them , Lumiere assistants travelled across Europe, South and North America, Oceania and the Orient, exhibiting their short films and at the same time, if possible, they shot local delightful sights which they screened the local audience . The films covering local scenes increased the interest of the local people.
July 7,1896, was a historic moment on the part of Indian context because Marius Sestier, the assistant of Lumiere brothers, who was on his way to Australia to exhibit films, exhibited the first Cinematographe show in Bombay at Watson's Hotel. But as for as the social scenario was concerned during 1896 in India, it was not very good. The wide-spread floods of Bombay, bubonic plague that killed more than 20,000 people, scarcity of drinking water at Bengal, Famine spreading all over India, hungry crowd looting the bags of grains at Sholapur and police firing at the rioters were the social scenes at that time. But in spite of such social atmosphere, the newspaper "The Times of India" described the show as 'the marvel of the country', 'the wonder of the world'. They exhibited six short films and they were - 'Entry of Cinematograph', 'Arrival of a Train', 'The Sea Bath', 'A Demolition', 'Leaving the Factory', 'Ladies and Soldiers on Wheels'. As each film was only 17 metres long, the total time of the show was less than an hour. There were four shows everyday and the entry fee was one rupee. At Watson's Hotel at Bombay, the exhibition continued for seven days and on 14th July, 1896, the Cinematographe show was shifted to the Novelty Theatre with complete new flims for the regular exhibition. As against the four shows shown at Watson's Hotel, the novelty theatre because of its large seating capacity, held two shows daily. Moreover, two more historic things were introduced at Novelty Theatre : Reserved boxes for Purdah ladies and their families and the addition of a 'selection of suitable music under the direction of F. Seymour Dove, the organist at St.John's Church, Colaba.' Apart from the two indigenous parts, a broad scale of entry fee was increased. At Watson's Hotel, the entry fee was one rupee, but at Novelty Theatre, the entry fee ranged from a low of four annas to a high of two rupees. Even if the price was high, the audience gathered at the hall. On July 27th, 1896, ‘The Times of India ’wrote : " The house holds its breath till it is over and then Cheers lustily ....". It shows how the people of that time were keen to watch the marvel of the world. On 15th August, 1896, after more than one month's profitable business, it was announced as 'positively the last exhibition in Bombay' . The Bombay Gazette wrote, "Messrs Lumiere Brothers who are on their way to Australia are the exhibitors of this truly marvellous discovery ...". The article writer mistook Lumieres' assistants for Auguste and Louis, but the interesting thing is that the two brothers never left France.
The enduring popularity and success of Lumiere’s exhibition in India encouraged other exhibitors to take cinema exhibition as money making profession and they began showing films in open tents, improvised tin sheds and rented halls . It is said that after Lumiere’s film show in Bombay which ended in August 1896 ,there were no more film exhibitions in the remaining part of the year. It was in 1897, in the month of January ,Stewart’s Vitagraph came to Bombay which ran almost seven days at the Gaiety Theatre , while in September in the same year ,Hughes came with his latest marvel of cinematograph named ‘ Moto-photoscope’ and exhibited at different locations. During this time, a number of magicians like Professor Anderson and Carl Hertz who considered the power of cinematograph as the ultimate illusion travelled around the world like India, Burma, China, Australia introducing and exhibiting motion pictures . Both the magicians carried with them female co-performers . Professor Anderson brought Mll Blanche , while Carl Hertz with Mademoiselle D’ Alton as the vanishind woman. It was on December 17, 1898 , they opened their show at the Tivoli Theatre. The newly invented ‘Andersonoscopegraph’ showed the Bombay people a moving train reaching Bombay station etc. It was just the beginning to showcase the local scenes in their films which delighted the local people. Even on 1st January, 1900, twenty five pictures were shown by a showman at the Tivoli Theatre with the accompaniment of music . With the passage of time, a little long duration films were made having a story . Towards a latter part of 1901, this type of film was made named the ‘Passion Play’ which was almost 2,000 feet long . It was shown on October 2, 1901 at the Framjee Cowasjee Institute. The film was so popular at that time that it was repeated at the Gaiety Theatre during Christmas.
While Bombay was undergoing such marvellous experience , Calcatta was also visited by many exhibitors . It is said that in calcatta, films were shown as early as December 1896, but there is no authenticity on it. It was on September 30, 1898 that the Amrita Bazar Patrika gave an advertisement that in calcatta , the first screening of films was held at the Star Theatre on 2nd October ,1898. A popular Bengali actor- dramatist Girish Chandra Ghose performed . In Calcatta, Prof. Stevenson had a great role in bringing the first ever bioscope show in October ,1898 at the star theatre. The programme ran with great success and some of the films which were screened were ‘Death of Nelson’ and ‘Mr.Gladstone’s Funeral’ . Mr. Stevenson photographed some of the local scenes to attract the local audience. The first scene Mr. Stevenson chose was a dancing scene from the Arabian Nights Opera, ‘The Flower of Persia’. After one month , Mr Stevenson again shot some local scenes which was named ‘A Spanish Bull- fight’. Mr. Stevenson brought a young Bengali, named Hiralal Sen into the world of film.. Hiralal Sen came into the film world as a exhibitor and then as a producer who , in course of time, managed to get a projector and a quantity of important films and established Royal Bioscope in 1899 in partnership with his brother Motilal. Sen showed imported footage at Amar Datta’s Classic Theatre. The beginning of the 20th century is very important because film crew was sent to Calcutta to shoot some topical by Pathe of France and at that time, Hirala sen , a well known exhibitor, who had a dream to make film, joined the Pathe team to have experience in the field of film making . He borrowed a camera and went on shooting the interesting scenes like Calcutta streets, taking baths in Hoogly river. Sometimes, he shot actual scenes from Bengali plays. In 1903, in the month of January , Hiralal Sen did a new thing. He showed his films named ‘Indian Life & Scenes ‘ which included events like Indian history, Scenes from Hindu mythology, domestic life etc. During this time, W.H.Palford’ ‘Pulfagraph’ which came to Calcutta, then British capital ,exhibited some small narrative films, like ‘Gullivers’ , Melies – A Trip to the Moon ,first Science film in the cinema history .
After Sen , another figure played an important role to bring cinema to Calcatta and he was Jamsetji Framji Madan, a rich Parsi. As he was highly impressed by Cinematograph, he purchased cinema projectors from Pathe and in the year 1902, he established regular ‘bioscope’ shows in tents at different major points of the Calcatta city. In 1907, Jamsetji did a great thing in the film world. He constructed the Elphinstone Picture Palace which was the first of large chain of theatres throughout India and Burma .
Lumiere brothers’ exhibition in India planted the first seed of making films in the minds of the Indian people. One of the Indian viewers who was highly inspired watching Lumiere’s showing was a portrait photographer named Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar, popularly known as Sava Dava , a Maharashtrian About him , it is said that he established a photographic studio in Bombay about 1880. He is considered to be the first Indian to import a motion picture camera from London at the cost of 21 guineas. When the motion picture camera arrived, in the following year , he photographed a wrestling match between two renown wrestling men , Pundalik Dada and Krishna Nahvi at Bombay’s Hanging Gardens This film was sent to London for processing. The subject of his second film was on the training of circus monkeys . Meanwhile, He purchased a projector and became a travelling open air exhibitor . In 1903, Harishchandra photographed the coronation of Edward VII, an important event, which was held in Delhi with pomp and paseantry.
One of the influential itinerant showmen was Abdulally Esoofally who roamed throughout Asian countries from 1901 to 1907 . Carrying ‘bioscope’ with him , he made people understand what is cinema. He also carried with him a tent which was 100 feet long and 50 feet wide . It had the capacity of almost one thousand people. He also introduced music during the show and usually , the local band was employed. Abdulally’s ‘Touring Cinema’ covered almost the entire parts of India between 1908 and 1911. But after some years in 1914, he became partner with Ardeshir Irani.and in 1918, he built the historic Majestic Theatre . It was historic because India’s first talkie film Alam Ara (1931) was premiered at Majestic Theatre .
Bombay, Calcutta and equally cinema conscious city was Madras. It was in 1905 that . Swamikannu Vincent , a draughtsman for the railways, somehow got a projector and film from a visiting Frenchman . He established a touring cinema by which he exhibited cinema in the small villages and towns of southern part of India. In the year 1909 at Esplanade grounds, Madras, Swamikannu Vincent held the first show.. Moreover, he took agency for Pathe projectors which was the main reason that the touring cinema were frequently seen in Madras.
The historic year on the part of Indian cinema occurred in the year 1910 during Christmas, when Dhundiraj Govind Phalke saw a film called ‘Life of Christ’at the America- India cinema, in Bombay. This film left an indelible mark in his mind
In the beginning of the world cinema , most of the early film -makers tried to give a new meaning to cinema, but it was Georges Melies and Edwin Stanton Porter who made significant contribution to give a different narration to cinema . Georges Melies ,a French filmmaker and a professional performing magician, was a significant innovator of staged film theatre. When for the first time, Melies experienced the first Cinematographe programme in the year 1895, immediately , he understood the future prospect of the ‘living pictures’’ and so, he tried to purchase a Cinematographe from the Lumieres for Fr 10,000, but the Lumiere brothers refused to sell it realizing its future prospect. In due course , he purchased an Animatograph projector from Robert W Paul at the cost of Fr 1000. As he was a performing magician , he decided to add film to his theatre show employing a host of camera trick to create novel fantasy illusions. His first film to use film trick was ‘The Vanishing Lady’ (1896) in which Melies transformed a woman into skeleton by stopping the camera between shots. Melies’ Star Film Company was founded in 1896 . Building a glass-enclosed studio in 1897, Melies experimented with the cultural and creative potential of the new medium, as for example , The Dreyfus Affair (1899) was a film that was made in ten shots , while those shots were released as separate films.
Melies , the first narrative artist in cinema , adopted certain strategy of still photography , theatre spectacle and magic-lantern projection to the linear medium of the film strip and invented narrative devices like the Fade-in, the Fade out, the over-lapping , dissolve and stop-motion photography. To use the narrative devices into his films, he constructed a small production studio on the grounds of his housein the Paris suburb of Montreuil. In the newly constructed studio, Melies produced ,directed ,photographed and acted in some five hundreds films . By 1902, his studio Star Film became one of the world’s largest suppliers of motion pictures , with offices in New York, London, Barcelona and Berlin and had nearly driven the Lumieres out of production.
All the film critics of the world do agree that the first Science fiction film made in cinema history was A TRIP TO MOON (1902) which was made by Melies . The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. This is the first science fiction film,in which Melies uses innovative animation and special effects, including the well-known image of the spaceship landing in the moon's eye This film was composed of thirty separate scenes . He called it as ‘tableaux’, i.e all photographed from the same angle and connected by means of lap dissolves. This was a multi-shots film that usedediting techniques to stress on the event of a space capsule landing on the moon . With its multi tableaux including , for example, a rocket passing from a clif on the lunar surface, through space towards the era and down to the seabed. Melies discovered the tremendous potential inherent in the editing of exposed filmthrough his influence on contemporary directors, he pointed the cinema on it way toward becoming a narrative rather than a documentary medium. On the contribution of Melies to the cinema, Charlie Chaplin called Melies ‘the alchemist of light’ , while D.W.Griffith said of Melies, ‘I owe him everything’’
Edwin S.Porter , worked as Vitascope projectionist in1896, helped to establish the landmark Koster and Bial’s projection of April 23. And in the year 1900, Porter joined the Edison Manufacturing Company as a mechanic , but in couse of time ,he serves as director and his first films were one shot skits and actualities such as Kansas city Saloon Smashers (1901). One of the important cinemas made by him was Pan-American Exposition By Night (1901) which used time –lapse photography to make circular panorama of the illuminated fairgrounds by modifying the camera to expose a single frame every ten seconds. Porter’s experience as a projectionist at the Eden Musee in the late 1890s led him to practise continuity editing. Porter was greatly influenced by Melies’s ‘A Trip to the Moon’ about which , Porter himself said that it was Melies films that had given him the idea for ‘telling a story in continuity form’. As a result of this influence , Porter made ‘Life of an American Fireman’ in1903 and the theme of this film was about the dramatic rescue of a woman and a child from burning building by firemen. The unusual part of this film was Porter’s idea of combining stock footage from Edison archive with staged scenes of the rescue to make a different kind of cinematic form.
Porter is often credited with making the first story film in ‘Life Of an American Fireman ‘(1902). This film begins with a long shot of sleeping fireman. Conveyed at the top of the screen is a dream or ‘vision scene’ – that of a woman and child threaned by fire. After that, the film illustrated the fireman racing to the scene, using a mixture of location and studio filming. The film conveys the rescue twice, using overlapping action. The first time, the rescue is seen from the inside house, while the second time, the rescue is conveyed again but this from a perspective outside the house The film was regarded significant for its unusual editing style, being regarded the earliest example of cross-cutting, especially during the final scenes of the rescue of the woman and her child. From this point of view, Porter was hailed as an innovative editor.
Porter’s most epoch-making film was The Great Train Robbery (1903) and this used eleven shots to tell the story of a train robbery by a gang of bandits. This fim is considered as one of the first cinematic westerns and incorporates the popular structure of the chase to link together various shots: of the robbery, of a telegraph operator alerting the authorities and of a posse ambushing the thieves . The most daring shot of this film was that the outlaw leader Barnes fires his gun directly at the camera. It is found that, Porter, not linear in narrative terms, seemed to be inductive of the rise of fictional film-making in the early 1900s, coming away from actuality and documentary subjects towards story based films. The film used many innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. The film uses very easy editing techniques ,as for example, each scene is a single shot and the story is mostly linear, but it represents a significant step in movie making, being one of the first "narrative" movies of significant length.
The contribution of the early filmmakers particulary Georges Melies and Edwin Stanton Porter towards the development of the cinema was enormous .
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