HISTORY’s Moment in Media: The Lumière Brothers and the Birth of Cinema

Auguste and Louis Lumiamp232re had only patented their Cinamp233matographe on February 13 1895 Just a few months later on May 20 1895 their American rivals the Latham brothers used their Eidoloscope to show a film of a recent boxing match to a paying audience which made them the first to offer a public movie screening The Lumiamp232res wouldnamp8217t reach that particular milestone until December 28 1895 when they presented a Cinamp233matographe show in the basement of the Grand Cafamp233 on Parisamp8217 Boulevard des Capucines Also in the United States was Thomas Edison who had offered the first public exhibitions of his Kinetoscope in 1894 but that system required viewers one by one to look through a peephole to watch moving images inside the deviceItamp8217s the Sociamp233tamp233 damp8217Encouragement pour lamp8217Industrie Nationale screening and their superior technology which made the Lumiamp232re brothers the men who created the moviesTheir father Antoine Lumiamp232re was a successful portrait painterturnedphotographer who also ran a business making photographic plates In 1881 17yearold Louis Lumiamp232re invented a new way to develop film which supercharged the family business By 1894 they were manufacturing 15 million photographic plates from a factory outside Lyon It was Antoine who first saw Edisonamp8217s Kinetoscope in Paris and encouraged his sons to devise a superior more economical counterpart one that could show its images to a large audience And by the next year theyamp8217d come up with the Cinamp233matographeThe Lumiamp232re system had several important attributes First their threeinone device could film moving images process the film and then project it to audiences which made it far more practical Second it was much more lightweight and portable than Edisonamp8217s system Whereas the Lumiamp232resamp8217 early films actualities were shot outdoors and showed real life like the famous sequence of a train arriving in a station that according to legend so shocked audiences Edisonamp8217s early films required so much recording equipment that they were mostly vaudeville acts filmed indoors often at Edisonamp8217s famous Black Maria studio in New Jersey Third the brothers39 film moved at 16 frames per second When compared to Edisonamp8217s 48 frames per second the Lumiamp232res39 projector was quieter and saved money by using less film In the 20th century 24 frames per second became the cinematic standardIn 1896 the Lumiamp232res opened theaters in London Brussels and New York City They filmed scenes in France and around the world dazzling audiences with amp8220Workers Leaving the Lumiamp232re Factory in Lyonamp8221 and the famous train film Other important films of theirs include quotBicyclistequot quotLes Pompiers amp224 Lyonquot which might be considered the first documentary and quotThe Gardnerquot which some call the first comedyBy 1905 with cinema established as an art form and an industry the Lumiamp232re brothers moved on In 1907 they patented the first successful process for color photography called Autochrome Lumiamp232re For decades theirs was the most used colorphotography format and it led to an explosion in intrepid photographers traveling the world and capturing new kinds of images National Geographic has more than 15000 color glass plates in its archive the majority being AutochromesMeantime the filmmaking process theyamp8217d created developed into the global juggernaut which is the movie business It wasnamp8217t until 2013 more than a century after the Cinamp233matographe that more Hollywood films were recorded digitally than shot on film And by 2019 digital production had surpassed 90 percentPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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