History of Cinematography and Short Films

The Lumiere Brothers

1881 Auguste and Louis were the sons of a

portrait painter who were both technically minded. In 1881 they invented 'the dry plate‘.

Steam Train

1895 The Lumiere brothers had invented

Cinematography by combing Projector, printer and camera. The Steam train was the subject for the first ever projected film. - L'Arrivée d'un train à la Ciotat, (Arrival of a Train, 1895)

La Voyage dans la Lune

1902 'A Voyage to the Moon' Georges Méliès,

produced, wrote and directed the film by himself. It is the best-known of the hundreds of films made by Méliès, and the moment in which the spaceship lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic images in the history of cinema. In the magazine 'The village voice', it was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century.

Chronophographe

1903 Etienne-Jules Marey created a

Chronophotographe gun which took 12 consecutive frames a second that was all recorded on the same picture.

The Great Train Robbery

1903 Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery

was cinemas first modern storyline. This was the first epic western with a cast of 40 actors that worked to an actual script.

Charlie Chaplin

1910 Famous for being in front of and behind the

camera, also famous for his funny walk and wearing a bowler hat. He has appeared in many short films

Luis Bunuel

In 1929 Luis made his first picture and it was called 'the most famous short film ever made'. Six of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound's 2012 critic's poll of the top 250 films of all time.

Edwin Porter

1929 An early film Pioneer worked as a director as

a part of Thomas Edison's company. Porter became the most influential filmmaker in the United States.

The Death of Short Films

After the 1930s, the short films were starting to die. There were fewer short films. Most of these short films were produced in-house. Sometimes these short films were financed by big film companies. There were companies that would force owners of short films to sell the short films to the big companies. These big companies or theatre-chain-owners would then turn these short films into big-name features. This deed was called block booking. The Supreme Court of the United States declared block booking to be illegal.

Le-Prince

1935 Louis Le-Prince was an inventor who shot

the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera. He has been known as the "Father of Cinematography" since 1930

Hal Roach

1940 Hal Roach, for example, moved Laurel and

Hardy full-time into feature films after 1935, and halved his popular Our Gang films to one reel. By the 1940s, he'd moved out of short films altogether (though MGM continued the Our Gang shorts until 1944)

Short Film Festivals

North America's first and longest running short film festival is the Yorkton Film Festival, which was established in 1947 and continues today. It produces publicity for filmmakers and the opportunity for them to showcase their work.

Francois Trauffant

1948 He was a French influential film director,

screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic, as well as one of the founders of the French New Wave. His film career lasted over a quarter of a century, and he remains an icon of the French film industry

French New Wave

1950 They were a group of French filmmakers who

rejected the period pieces that were being made in France and created their own new style of filmmaking.

The Rise of Television

In 1955, a big competitor of short films appeared. It is the rise of television. Since then, short films have been attended to by only independent filmmakers. However, television programming included broadcasting old short films or short subjects. These short films were those that had been sold to television stations. By the end of 1960s, short films eventually disappeared.

Ridley Scott

1967 He formed the advertising production

company RSA (Ridley Scott Associates) in 1967 and spent the next 10 years making some of the best known and best loved TV adverts ever shown on British television.

Ashvin Kumar

2004 Independent Indian Filmmaker. His award-winning

short film is 'Little Terrorist' (2004) Ashvin is the youngest Indian writer/director with an Academy Award Oscar nomination, he's also the first Indian to be nominated at the European Film Academy with his film Little Terrorist which has been part of official selections to over 130 film festivals, winning awards in 25 of them, including the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) LA.

Youtube

2005 YouTube is the most used video website on

the internet. Anyone can upload and view videos from around the world, allowing filmmakers to showcase their work.

Christopher Nolan/ Tim Burton

2012 Two famous directors who produce both

feature length and short films. They have been seen as rivals at times due to their similar styles of filmmaking.