Monday, 2 February 2015

Assignment 2: Contexts of Production (The Birth of Cinema Leaflet)


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Assignment 2: Contexts of Production (Lumiere Brothers Profile)

The Lumiere Legacy
  • Who were the Lumiere Brothers? And when and where did they live?

 Auguste Lumiere, born in 1862 and Louis Lumiere born in 1864, were French inventors and pioneer manufacturers of photographic equipment. They moved to Lyon in 1870, where both attended La Martiniere, the largest technical school in Lyon.Their father, Claude- Antoine Lumiere (1840-1911), ran a photographic firm, where both brothers worked for him.

  • Who ruled their country?


Between 1895-1899, Felix Faure was elected the President of France, after previously being Vice President of Chambers of Duties in 1893 and Minister of the Navy in 1894.

He believed in colonial expansion and encouraged the conquest of Madagascar. He was also in favour of stregthening the Franco-Russian alliance.



  •  What was going on in the world around that time?
In 1899, many Chinese men took up terrorism, and were known as Boxers, and they were Nationalists. They would post slogans around in streets saying "protect the country and destroy the foreigner". Many were youths and they would attack and kill Christian missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. They were government approved.
In 1900, US, Japan + European nations sent military forces to China to rescue people and put down the Boxer Rebellion, attacking those who they believed were Boxers, but they also injured and pillaged the property of innocent Chinese.
  •  What are the Lumiere films about, how long are they and why?

Lumiere  Cinematographe was smaller and lighter than Eddison's Kinetoscope. It was less noisy to operate and used less film. The Lumiere apparatus consisted of a single camera used for both photographing and projecting at 16 frames per second. Their first films (made more than 40 films during 1896) recorded everyday French life. Many of the films were 50seconds- 1minute long, because this was the length of a single film spool back then. Some of the short films included:


- the arrival of a train
- a game of cards
- a toiling blacksmith
- the feeding of a baby
- soldiers marching
- early comedy shorts
- first newsreel
- first documentaries.

La Sortie des ouvriers de L'usine Lumiere, (Workers leaving the Lumiere Factory) was considered the first motion picture.


  • What can you say about the cinematography and other aspects of the films' language?
-Simple and straightforward films.
-Black and white film
-Locations used are ordinary everyday scenes
-Stationary cameras - no tilting, panning or zooming.
-No additional editing - apart from maybe title sequences
-Mixture of wide/mid-shots
-Costuming - Showing everyday life, by looking at costuming of the subjects, the audience are
able to depict the wealth of the people - either being upper,middle or working class.
-Silent film - No sound










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