These where the words that Thomas Edison told a reporter in 1894. Thomas Edison was an American inventor who invented the phonograph (for recording and reproduction of sound recordings), the motion picture camera, projector and a long-lasting electric light bulb. His inventions greatly influenced the world that we live in. In 1899, Edison hired Edwin Stanton Porter and made him the manager of his New York motion picture studio. Edwin Porter is considered to be the first american filmmaker who experimented with film editing.
Edwin Porter
The Great Train Robbery 1903 |
Edwin Porter was born and raised in Connellsville, Pennsylvania on the 21st of April. He began his electrical engineering at the Vitascope Marketing Company before moving on to Edison's manufacturing company whilst working as a projector. One of Porter's many duties included the duplication of Méliès films. He would take apart one act of reels and combine several of these into fifteen minute program's. In 1903, he put his talent to use when he directed 'The Great Train Robbery', one of the first major American motion picture. The eight minute feature film showcased an excellent climax, story line and boasted a cast of forty strong actors. Combined with Edison's production rights and Porter's editing talent, it became an epic Western film.
The Lumière Brothers |
The Lumière Brothers
In the other hand in France around 1895, the brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière, invented the Cinématographe, a combined printer, camera and projector. The cinématographe became widely known for its usage in short silent films, such as waves crashing in a shore and a gardener watering a lawn. In one of these films, a mail train appeared to rush towards the audience which made them to lurch back in their seats in fear, (sounds like a 3D film projection). The cinematograph widely spread in the US market, including many countries around the world. The invention earned them an international presence as its silent nature bridged between the language barrier
An early drawing of the cinematograph |
D.W. Griffith |
Birth of a Nation trailer
George Albert Smith
George Albert Smith |
Cecil Hepworth
Cecil Hepworth |
Rescued by a Rover 1905 |
Lev Kuleshov
Lev Kuleshov |
The Lev Kuleshov Experiement
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Eisenstein Born Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein in Russia on the 23rd of January 1898, he was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the 'father of montage'. Most notably noted for his 1924 film 'Strike' 1925 film Battleship and October (1927), including his historical epics 'Ivan The Terrible' and 'Alexander Nevsky' (1938). In 1920, Eisenstein moved to Moscow and began his career at the theatre, working for Proletkult, later working as a designer for Vsevolod Meyerhold. In 1923, Sergei Eisenstein began his career in film theory, by writing 'The Montage of Attractions for LEF (Left Front of the Arts) Journal. His 1927 film 'October' or Ten Days That Shook The World (about the 1917 Russian October Revolution) received critical acclaim. Critics of the outside world praised him, but in his home town, Eisenstein's main focus in this film and 'The General Line' or 'Old and New' was on structural issues such as camera angles, crowd movements, and montage. Two of his earliest theories written was that montage (editing) was the essence of the cinema. His books and articles, mainly Film Form and The Film Sense, explain the importance of montage in more detail.
1927 film October
Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE, was born on the 13th of August in 1899. He was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques used in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After having a successful career in the British cinema for both silent and early talking ones, he moved on to Hollywood in 1939, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1955. With a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock's fashioned himself to have a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in an way that mimics a person's gaze, making the viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism (the practice of spying other people during sexual activity like undressing and having a shower). He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, using innovative film editing. Many of Hitchcock's films have twisted endings and thrilling plots that show, murder, violence and crime, usually with an 'icy blonde' female character as the victim and fugitives on the run from the law, as villains. With his cameo appearances in his films, interviews, film trailers and television programs like 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', he became a cultural icons. Alfred Hitchcock has directed more than fifty feature films in a career and is regarded as one of the 'greatest British filmmaker'. In 2007, he appeared in a poll by film critics of the Daily Telagraph, which states that "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else." Alfred Hitchcock's Information sources courtesy from wikipedia, imdb, archive.org and early cinema.com |