Moving Pictures: How They Are Made and Worked

From the day when it was found possible (by the aid of sunlight) to fix a permanent image of an object upon a sensitised surface, inventors steadily applied their ingenuity to t...

The idea of producing apparent animation by means of pictures is by no means new. The origin of the most primitive form of moving picture device is lost in the mists of antiquit...

In the struggle towards the perfection of animated photography the use of glass plates was a great hindrance. Investigators were hampered very seriously; they were thwarted at e...

The World’s Fair at Chicago drew huge crowds from all parts of the world in 1893. The innumerable and varied side-shows evinced keen rivalry to obtain popular patronage. But the...

I have already shown how the perseverance and ingenuity of Eastman and Walker aided in solving the problem of animated photography. Their film was used for the first time experi...

We have seen that before the film can be used in the camera it has to be perforated on either side in order that successive areas of film ¾ of an inch deep--the equivalent of a...

Although it was as far back as 1894 that the first commercial moving picture camera appeared in Great Britain, the years have not produced many marked departures from the design...

The history of the cinematograph impresses upon us at every turn the necessity which experimenters were under of devising special facilities and improved apparatus in all of the...

Having obtained the positive film, with its string of consecutive pictures, we now proceed to reproduce upon a large scale the animation which has been, so to speak, harnessed b...

When the cinematograph made its bow to the public the latter were satisfied with the reproduction in animation of scenes and incidents associated with every-day life--rather tri...

In spite of the fact that the programme of the average picture palace of to-day is chiefly occupied with film plays, nevertheless the greatest attraction is undoubtedly the “top...

When moving pictures made their first claim on popular interest, they did so in the form of an item to the programme of the ordinary music-hall or vaudeville theatre. In the fro...

When a stirring drama or uproarious farce is projected upon the screen the actions are so natural, the situations develop so obviously--in fact, the whole thing proceeds so smoo...

During the past two or three years the cinematograph has entered a new field, which, fifteen years ago, would have been regarded as quite beyond its reach. With truly wonderful...

The first large film production, “The Passion Play,” running to 3,000 feet, made its appearance, as we have seen, as far back as 1897--the result of unquenchable American ambiti...

When Edison invented the “Kinetoscope,” his ambition was, not only to produce movement by the aid of pictures, but sound by the aid of the phonograph. But it proved a hopeless q...

The average audience before the micro-cinematographic film is very much in the attitude of the schoolboy in the natural history lesson. Scarcely any other subject holds such pos...

As soon as the cinematograph had established itself firmly in popular favour, and there was every indication that it would become a permanent form of entertainment, it entered o...

The achievements of Mélies and Paul set a very high standard of excellence in trick pictures. Their popularity precipitated a “trick film” fever. The market became inundated wit...

There are many curious and bewildering trick effects which cannot be produced by recourse to the methods I have already described. It is impossible to detail every artifice empl...

In Chapter XVIII. I made some reference to early methods of producing a class of films in which the principal performers were diminutive figures scarcely six inches in height. T...

“Princess Nicotine” ranks as one of the finest trick films ever made in the United States, and was the handiwork of two producers who rank as the leading American exponents of t...

operator runs a few feet of film to record the smoke. After development several images on the film--perhaps fifty per cent. of the movement obtained--are cut out, and thereby th...

At times a trick picture cannot possibly be produced by any of the methods I have so far described. Accordingly, the producer has to rely upon his own ingenuity and inventivenes...

Although we commonly think of the human senses as very acute, yet in reality they possess many imperfections. For instance, our vision is too slow to follow the excessively rapi...

We have seen how the topical picture has developed into one of the most attractive and extensively appreciated phases of the art. Events of annual occurrence like the Derby or t...

The perfection attained in the projection of animation upon the screen in black and white naturally stimulated efforts towards the achievement of similar results in natural colo...

Will the cinematograph ever enter home life? Will the world and his wife ever become wedded to a camera with which they can secure life in motion by some simple and easy method,...

There remains no doubt whatever that the cinematograph has completely won over the great public--the many millions who are constantly seeking fresh fields of amusement and diver...

is produced in natural colours enhances its effect; a schoolboy would be hard indeed to impress if he failed to appreciate the wonderful significance of this evolution of the hy...

In the opening chapter of this book cinematography is described as an _illusion_: that the eye believes it sees continuous animation in the pictures thrown upon the screen in ac...