The Pioneers of Cinema

The Lumiere brothers

Auguste Marie Louis Nicholas Lumière and Louis Jean Lumière Louis are two brothers who were some of the earliest filmmakers in history.

In 1895 they created a working model of their ciné camera which they called a cinematographer. This camera was not only one of the first moving image cameras but also when used with a lantern also served as a projector for their films they had shot. The films shot with this were usually about fifty second long. Filmed with no camera movement and in one shot.

 The first film they made to be shown to an audience was of factory workers leaving a factory in lyon the film was called La Sortie des ouvriers de l’usine Lumière (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory) and it is considered the first motion picture.  The showing was the first time people had seen images projected on a screen.

The first public screening of one of their films was on 28 December 1895 in paris. This date is often used to mark the beginning of cinema.

After that screening they began commercial production of their camera.

Louis Lumière was quoted as saying “The cinema is an invention without any commercial future”

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/movingpics/movingpics10.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1403398/Lumiere-brothers

Georges Méliès

Georges Melies was a professional magician. By accident he discovered you could use stop motion photography to create trick visual effects. He was the first to utilize techniques such as fade in, fade out and dissolves to help to create the first films with a story  with them.

In his life he made over 500 films the most famous is the 1902 film A trip to the moon (voyage to the moon) he abandoned film production in 1912

Some people think of him as the father of special effects.

Méliès was a member in the 28 December 1895 screening of the lumière brothers film after the screening he tried to buy their invention so he was turned down.

 All the editing he did was in camera during production.

http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/melies_bio.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0617588/bio

George Albert Smith

George albert smith was one of the first people to do post production he created the film the kiss in the tunnel. where he added a scene to a film of a train journey to skip the section where the train traveled through a tunnel he replaced it with a scene of two people kissing. because of this he was on of the first people to use post production editing. He also developed one of the first successful colour film process called called kinemacolor 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Albert_Smith_(film_pioneer)/

Edwin S Porter 

Edwin S porter created the film life of an american firefighter. 

this was the first film to use a variety of shots, a strong narative and many actors and special effects - with composite shots. he also used close ups for one of the first times in film. He was also one of the first people to follow the action of the narrative he also used multiple angles in the final scene of Life of an American firefighter but not in the way we use them today as he showed the scene from the inside of the house in full then the same scene from the outside of the house in full.

in the same year as life of an american firefighter he created the film The Great Train Robbery
in this film he introduced crosscutting.
He also followed the action more and it was a longer film one thing that he failed to do was have pace in the film to help keep people interested.
He also failed to keep to the 180 degree rule.
also for the first time camera movements were used in stead of a static camera. also he used movement to hide jump cuts.

http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/porter_bio.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Stanton_Porter

http://www.victorian-cinema.net/porter.htm