The History of Motion Photos: When Were Moving Pictures Invented?

Source: Cinerama Inc

Since the beginning of mankind's history, pictures have been born. In fact, the picture is a genuine existential proof of human generosity and creativity: from drawn pictures on the walls of caves to moving pictures nowadays, all narrating our story. But have you ever wondered how or when these pictures transformed into animated ones? 

Zoetrope: A Horse in Motion 

Zoetrope is a series of pictures capturing the movement of a knight and his horse, on a battlefield, stuck to a rotating drum. This invention was innovated during the mid-19th century, exactly in 1834 during the civil American war.

If you spin the drum, you will get the moving pictures of “the toy”. Therefore, they were sequential photos of drawn pictures.

The Very First Movie: Is It Really a Scientific Experience?

British designer Edward Muybridge had a great interest in art and science as well and focused a large part of his life on the development of photography, and the movie "The Horse Movement" was his first attempt in the world of cinema.

The movie “The Horse’s Movement” was shown in 1878 and is considered the first achievement in the world of photography and cinema, as the British photographer Edward took multiple photos, and compiled the pictures taken to appear in the form of a single movement, which was published by the American magazine “Life of Boys”.

Source: PBS

The film was designed and prepared from 6 to 12 pictures, showing a horse and a person riding on its back, with it, where he took pictures while he was moving, and then collected them, the group of pictures in motion continuously and automatically

This motion photography was accomplished by using multiple cameras and combining individual images into a single motion picture. It's something you can do today, with some camera set up to go off at a certain moment. 

The film was made to scientifically answer a question widely discussed during this era: Are all four of a horse's hooves on the ground at the same time while the horse is running? The video proved that they really were, and most importantly, photography was born.

Chronophotography: A New French Technique

During the same time in Paris, the physiologist Etienne Jules Marey was studying animal motions, he managed to take 12 pictures per second, this technique was called chronophotography and it was the founding concept of projectors and motion picture cameras.

Thomas Edison and the Motions on the Screen 

Later on, precisely in 1892, the well-known Thomas Edison and his English assistant  William Dickson invented the kinetoscope, the machine that could project motion pictures on a screen, and yes it was the first concept of movie theatres.

Thomas Edison opened a theatre in the united states of America, producing short voiceless and spotless shows so-called “movies' ' such as; water going out from Niagara falls, waves crashing at the ocean, two trains colliding, etc. 

Source: Timetoast

Some of these movies still exist and they are available on youtube, go check them to have a closer look at what people used to call “a movie”!! 

The Brothers Lumière 

As previously explained, you can figure out that motion pictures at that time were just movements, no sound, no story or plot, not to mention the quality of the pictures: blurry and very slow motions.

However, thanks to the French Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere, who managed to make 16 pictures per second the shows have become clearer and steadier which allowed the movies to be realistic enough to mesmerize the people of the late 19th century.

For instance, we can mention the famous shot of the coming train in the first movie of the French pioneers in 1895. Some of the audience covered their heads screaming, the others, frightened, ran away from the movie theatre. 

And here is the link to the movie on youtube: The Lumiere Brothers' first movie. 

This movie was the first commercial movie not just some random videoes taken spontaneously from the streets of France, but there were paid actors, production and some sort of a scenario.

The audience also bought tickets to attend the ordinary show. In other words, the brothers Lumiere introduced a new term to the history of motion pictures; “the cinematography”.

Endnote

To sum up, the film industry has evolved a lot from the past and reached its best period, but this required many years of development and efforts that brought the film industry to this, and in the 19th century, the concept of cinema was not known from the ground up, despite the knowledge of the photographic technique until the shows of the  Lumiere Brothers in the late 19th.

Written By - Fatma Ben Rhouma