Slide 1

Pre-cinematic phenomena

magic lantern shows

shadow performances

painted panoramas

the camera obscura

increasingly elaborate stage special effects

Slide 2
early1890s Edisons Kinetoscope
1895-1905 Lumires
Late 1890s Mlis makes first films
1902 Mlis Trip to the Moon
1900-1906 Non-narrative cinema of attractions
1904 -1912 experiments with narrative
By about 1913 - narrative system established

Slide 3
Cinema of Attractions (Tom Gunning)

Movies are not only an extension of novels or

theatre , but an unique entertainment form

Early cinema is more akin to amusement park rides

than in literature or drama

Nature of entertainment akin to roller-coaster rides

Sensations of acceleration and falling, but security

guaranteed by machine ( protected by reassuring

presence of industrial technology)

This form of early cinema has lineage in stunts of

vaudeville, the circus, pornographic literature etc

Slide 4
Cinema of Attractions ( Tom Gunning)

It is not about absorption in narrative world (story), that is the diegetic world

Early films are largely non narrative,

A cinema of instants -- direct visual impact

Aggressive -- the image confronts and tries to shock the viewer. Collisions,
crashes, accidents, deaths.

Obsessed with showing off spectacular sights, and spectacular points of view

Tendency towards showmanship and exhibitionism

Circus-like atmosphere

Slide 5
Thematic variations

Actualities, Travel logs

Stories based upon current events

Short Pornographic films for peep shows

Trick films

Gag or physical humour films

Visual Style

Generally comprised of a single, automous tableaux or scenes , frontally

framed and often static , as in photographs or on the theatre stage- totality
of action unfolding in a homogenous space

Closer shots served as comic/and or trick attractions.

Films were sold as semi-finished products which are finished during

exhibitions. Practices like variable projections speeds,re-edited or re-ordered
shots, colours applied to the film stock, accompanying music or sound

effects, lecturers offering narrative explanations offered varied textual

variance
Slide 6

George Mlis

Interested in appearance and disappearance

and the ability of cinema to make things
visible/invisible
Used camera like a magicians apparatus
Films play with presence and absence
Irreverent stance towards science
Slide 7
Lumiere Brothers Vs George Melies
Purely observational respect for the real
Vs
Creative manipulation

-deforming the real

Slide 8
Film as Narrative (Three distinct phases)
1.Single shot films
2. Multiple shot films where each shots corresponds to a scene
3.Multiple scene films where each scene is made up of multiple shots