Film

Preconditions of film recording

In order to record motion pictures, a few preconditions had to be satisfied.

1) There had to be some way to create the illusion of movement. The "persistence of vision" had been discovered since the 1st century B.C.E and optical toys enabled scientists to explore the concept further.

Eastman's Kodak camera was designed for unskilled amateurs.

2) A medium superior to glass or metals was needed. It took several minutes for photographs to be imprinted on glass or metals, but the exposure time needed to be drastically reduced for multiple frames to be recorded in one second. Glass was also inflexible and could not be passed through a camera rapidly. These problems were solved with the introduction of celluloid film in the 1870s, which became the medium for film recording devices. Celluloid film technology was subsequently developed without motion picture recording in mind. George Eastman had pioneered the use of transparent celluloid roll film for still camera, but it was later adopted for motion pictures.

3) Cameras had to be designed to only allow a strip of film to be exposed for a split-second, then moved to the next frame to be recorded. For it to do so, the camera needed an intermittent mechanism, something like the sewing machine, invented in 1846, which could move strips of fabric several times per second.

These three preconditions had been satisfied in some way or another before the invention of film recording devices, and by inventions which did not necessarily foresee the recording of motion pictures.

Concurrent innovations of recording devices

Recording devices were concurrently invented for a variety of purposes and in a variety of places.

Marey's photographic gun

Eadweard Muybridge had set up a row of cameras in 1878 to record the movement of running horses to study their gaits. These cameras were able to record at one-half second intervals and his idea inspired French physiologist Etienne Jules Marey who developed a camera that could record photographs at up to 120 frames a second. Although Muybridge and Marey were more interested in research than in providing screen entertainment, their work inspired other inventors. Thus the invention of film recording devices was not necessarily the inevitable result of a response to popular demand for entertainment.

In the late 19th century, various recording devices were concurrently invented in France, England, Germany and the United States, suggesting that there was no one source, but the combination of multiple sources. (see table below, click to expand)

Creatively using film

Remarkably, limitations in the film medium, and film recording technology prevent people from using it in a wide variety of ways. Even before the introduction of colour on film, film had been used for entertainment and propaganda; and was manipulated with special effects and even with attempts to introduce 3D.

The early films by Thomas Alva Edison appealed to the basest desires of his audience to see sex, violence and spectacle, and were thus highly successful commercially. He used the medium to explore themes of stylized sexuality and exaggerated masculinity. Ella Lola, a la Trilby (1898), became a significant case of censorship because of Ella Lola's suggestive body display. In Boxing Cats (1898) two cats engage in a fascinating boxing match. (See videos below)

A sterling example of film propaganda can be found in World War II, when Frank Capra produced and directed a series of documentary films to boost the American war effort. (See below)

Georges Méliès pioneered many special effects in film that became frequently used in cinema for a long time until the digital era. With double exposures, mattes, reverse motion, cutting in the camera and many other techniques, Méliès demonstrated the near limitless potential of film. (See below)

Using two interlocked cameras, Natural Vision attempted to introduce 3-D films in the 1950s. Despite the initial enthusiastic response, the eyestrain caused by these films eventually led to general disinterest. This was perhaps one of the limitations of films that could only be overcome by an improvement in the recording and projection technology. (See below)

3-D film screening during the Festival of Britain in London, 1951

The remarkable ways in which film was manipulated and used to express different ideas in different ways suggests that the state of video recording technology does not necessarily restrict its usefulness. Rather, it demonstrates that the technology is adapted and utilised for various purposes.

Next: Magnetic Tape