The Cinema Machine
The whole journey
Scroll down. Time moves forward.
Camera obscura: where the camera began
The dark room · antiquity to the 11th century
Light through a tiny hole paints an upside-down picture on the opposite wall. Mozi, Aristotle and Ibn al-Haytham all described it.
Did you know?
“Camera” is simply Latin for “room”.
Magic lantern: the projector’s ancestor
Magic lantern · c. 1659 · Christiaan Huygens
A lamp that throws a picture painted on glass onto the wall. One of its earliest descriptions comes from Christiaan Huygens.
Did you know?
Late-1700s “phantasmagoria” shows were the horror films of their day.
The oldest surviving photograph
View from the Window at Le Gras · 1826/27 · Nicéphore Niépce
Nicéphore Niépce fixed the view from his window onto a metal plate. The original is at the Harry Ransom Center, Texas.
Did you know?
Last shown in 1905, it was lost for 47 years until Helmut Gernsheim found it.
One of the oldest surviving negatives
Latticed window, Lacock Abbey · 1835 · Talbot
Talbot photographed a window of his house as a paper negative.
Daguerreotype: the first public photo process
Daguerreotype · 1839 · Louis Daguerre
Each picture is a one-off on a silver-coated plate. There is no negative to copy from.
Hold your finger still to “expose” the plate
Did you know?
The street looks empty — moving people never registered. Only a man having his boots shined stood still long enough.
The negative: many prints from one
Calotype · 1841 · William Henry Fox Talbot
William Henry Fox Talbot's calotype let you print many copies from a single negative.
Did you know?
The calotype was a negative–positive process: as many prints as you like from one negative.
Wet collodion: faster, cheaper photos
Wet collodion · 1851 · Frederick Scott Archer
Glass plates had to be exposed and developed while still wet. Exposures became much shorter.
Did you know?
Photographers hauled darkroom wagons wherever they went.
Motion split into frames
The Horse in Motion · 1878 · Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge lined up a row of cameras in Palo Alto to photograph the mare Sallie Gardner at a gallop.
Did you know?
Yes — all four hooves leave the ground, but tucked under the body, not stretched out.
Marey’s chronophotographic gun
Chronophotographic gun · 1882 · Étienne-Jules Marey
Étienne-Jules Marey shot birds in flight with a rifle-shaped “chronophotographic gun”.
Did you know?
It captured about 12 images per second.
The camera for everyone
Kodak · 1888 · George Eastman
The first Kodak camera came loaded with 100 exposures. Slogan: “You press the button, we do the rest.”
Did you know?
When the roll ran out, you mailed the whole camera back to the factory.
The oldest surviving film
Roundhay Garden Scene · 1888 · Louis Le Prince
Louis Le Prince filmed four people strolling in a Leeds garden. The best-known copy is just 52 frames.
Did you know?
Nobody agrees on its speed: 12 frames per second, or closer to 7?
The inventor who vanished
Louis Le Prince · 16 September 1890
Le Prince boarded the Dijon–Paris train and was never seen again. The case is still unsolved.
Kinetoscope: cinema for one
Kinetoscope · 1894 · Edison lab, W.K.L. Dickson
The Kinetoscope, built by W.K.L. Dickson in Edison's lab: one viewer, one peephole. The first parlor opened on Broadway in April 1894.
Did you know?
The 35 mm film width chosen in Edison’s lab is still a cinema standard.
The earliest film with recorded sound
Dickson Experimental Sound Film · 1894/95
Dickson plays the violin while two men dance — about 17 seconds of film with live-recorded sound.
Sound is lagging
Did you know?
Picture and sound were only synchronised in 2000, by Walter Murch.
The first film shot with the Cinématographe
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory · 1895 · Louis Lumière
Workers stream out of the Lumière factory gates in Lyon — the first film shot with the Cinématographe.
Did you know?
Three different versions exist — the brothers filmed it more than once.
Paid shows before the Lumières
Latham (New York) and Skladanowsky (Berlin) · 1895
20 May 1895: Latham held a paid screening in New York. In November the Skladanowsky brothers showed their Bioscop in Berlin.
Did you know?
“The Lumières invented cinema” is a big oversimplification.
The Lumières’ first paid public screening
Grand Café, Paris · 28 December 1895
Paris, the Salon Indien of the Grand Café: 33 spectators, 1 franc each, ten short films.
0 / 33 spectators
Tear the ticket
Did you know?
28 December 1895 is cinema’s traditional birthday. Within days, more than 2,000 people a day were coming.
Myth: did audiences flee the train?
The Arrival of a Train · 1896 · Lumière
The Lumières’ most famous film gave birth to cinema’s most famous myth.
Flip the card
Did you know?
The film probably wasn't even in the 28 December programme.
Cinema spreads around the world
Lumière operators · 1895–1905
Between 1895 and 1905, Lumière camera operators shot more than 1,400 films around the world.
Cinema’s first show in Tashkent
Tashkent · 1897
In 1897 — according to some sources on 30 October — Tashkent saw its first film show, just 22 months after Paris.
0 months from Paris to Tashkent
≈ 5,150 km as the crow flies
Did you know?
According to some researchers, Lumière operator Félix Mesguich was in Turkestan that year.
One of the first science-fiction films
A Trip to the Moon · 1902 · Georges Méliès
Magician Georges Méliès turned the camera into a box of tricks: the rocket lands right in the Moon's eye.
Did you know?
A hand-coloured print was restored and shown at Cannes in 2011.
An early American narrative hit
The Great Train Robbery · 1903 · Edwin S. Porter
At the end of Edwin S. Porter's 14-scene film, a bandit fires his gun straight at the camera.
Did you know?
It wasn't the first western or the first story film — but it was hugely influential.
So who was first?
Four different “firsts”
It depends on what you mean by “first”.
Four doors, four different “firsts”. Open one.
The first Uzbek cameraman
Khudaibergen Devanov · Khiva · 1910
Khiva photographer Khudaibergen Devanov brought a Pathé camera back from St Petersburg and in 1910 filmed Asfandiyar Khan riding in a phaeton.
Did you know?
He is called the founder of Uzbek photography and cinema. His photographs are held by the Getty Research Institute.
Chaplin’s Tramp first appears on screen
Kid Auto Races at Venice · 1914 · Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin's Tramp first appeared in Kid Auto Races at Venice.
Did you know?
Chaplin keeps getting in the way of the newsreel camera — that is the whole joke.
The icon of German Expressionism
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari · 1920 · Robert Wiene
In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, light and shadow were painted straight onto the sets.
Kuleshov effect: editing creates emotion
Lev Kuleshov’s experiment · 1920s
Same face, different next shot. The audience invents the emotion.
What is he looking at? Choose the next shot:
Did you know?
The original footage is lost, and some scholars question the results.
Bukhkino: the first film organisation
Bukhkino · Bukhara · 1924
The Bukharan People’s Republic signed a deal with Leningrad’s Sevzapkino — and Bukhkino was born.
Did you know?
Its only feature film was Vyacheslav Viskovsky’s The Minaret of Death (1925).
Uzbekistan’s first film studio
Sharq Yulduzi (“Star of the East”) · Tashkent · 1925
In Tashkent, Central Asia’s first film factory — Sharq Yulduzi, “Star of the East” — opened in an old madrasa.
The scene that became an editing textbook
Battleship Potemkin · 1925 · Sergei Eisenstein
This sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin became the textbook on how editing creates tension.
Did you know?
A massacre on the steps themselves is not documented — though there was real violence in Odessa in June 1905.
The first feature with synchronised speech
The Jazz Singer · 1927 · Alan Crosland
The Jazz Singer: the first feature with synchronised songs and speech — though only about two minutes of talking.
Did you know?
The whole film has only about two minutes of synchronised talking. The rest is songs and intertitles.
The first full three-strip Technicolor feature
Becky Sharp · 1935 · Rouben Mamoulian
Becky Sharp: the first feature shot entirely in three-strip Technicolor.
Keep scrolling: red, green and blue strips come together
Did you know?
Before it, three-strip Technicolor had only been used in shorts, such as Disney cartoons.
The name “Uzbekfilm” is born
Sharq Yulduzi → Uzbekfilm · 1936
The studio became Uzbekfilm. In wartime it was Tashkent Film Studio; Uzbekfilm again from 1958.
Cinema’s most famous switch to colour
The Wizard of Oz · 1939 · Victor Fleming
In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy opens a door — and the sepia world floods with Technicolor.
Italian neorealism: real streets, real people
Bicycle Thieves · 1948 · Vittorio De Sica
Italian neorealism: real streets, non-professional actors. Bicycle Thieves became its emblem.
Did you know?
The lead, Lamberto Maggiorani, was a real factory worker.
The first CinemaScope film
The Robe · 1953 · CinemaScope
Fighting television, Hollywood launched CinemaScope. The first film: The Robe.
CinemaScope
Did you know?
An anamorphic lens squeezes the image onto film; the projector stretches it back.
The first Uzbek comedy
Maftuningman · 1958 · Uzbekfilm
Maftuningman, a black-and-white musical comedy full of songs, is considered the first Uzbek comedy.
French New Wave: the jump cut
Breathless · 1960 · Jean-Luc Godard
Godard's Breathless shook up film language with a handheld camera and abrupt jump cuts.
Did you know?
A jump cut is an abrupt skip within a shot. Godard turned a mistake into a style.
Super 8: home movies
Super 8 · 1965 · Kodak
Kodak launched Super 8: film in a ready-made cartridge you could load in seconds.
One of the first one-person video kits
Sony Portapak · 1967
The Sony Portapak was one of the first video kits one person could carry — and video art was born.
One of Uzbek cinema’s best-known films
Tashkent, City of Bread · 1968 · Shukhrat Abbasov
Directed by Shukhrat Abbasov (1931–2018, born in Kokand): boys fleeing famine come to Tashkent in search of bread.
Did you know?
The film is based on a novella by Alexander Neverov.
The first summer blockbuster
Jaws · 1975 · Steven Spielberg
Spielberg's Jaws had queues stretching around the block.
Did you know?
The mechanical shark kept breaking, so Spielberg mostly hid it — and the fear grew.
The first digital camera (prototype)
Kodak prototype · 1975 · Steven Sasson
Kodak engineer Steven Sasson built a 100 × 100 pixel (0.01 megapixel) camera. It weighed 3.6 kg.
Did you know?
Saving a single image to cassette tape took 23 seconds.
Steadicam: the camera that runs
Steadicam · 1975/76 · Garrett Brown
Garrett Brown's rig let operators run and still get smooth shots. First feature: Bound for Glory.
Did you know?
Rocky's run up the steps made it famous.
VHS: movies come home
VHS · 1976 · JVC
The VHS cassette brought films into the home — pause, rewind, watch again.
The film that changed visual effects
Star Wars · 1977 · George Lucas
For Star Wars, George Lucas set up his own effects house: Industrial Light & Magic.
The film that made CGI a revolution
Jurassic Park · 1993 · Steven Spielberg
In Jurassic Park, computer-generated dinosaurs shared the screen with full-size animatronics.
The first fully computer-animated feature
Toy Story · 1995 · Pixar, John Lasseter
Toy Story: the first feature film made entirely with computer animation.
First major studio film shot fully digitally
Star Wars: Episode II · 2002
Star Wars: Episode II — the first major studio feature shot entirely on digital cameras.
Did you know?
It was shot on Sony HDW-F900 cameras at 24p.
A camera in every pocket
Sharp J-SH04 (2000) → iPhone (2007)
The iPhone arrives. Back in 2000, Japan's Sharp J-SH04 was one of the first camera phones.
4K cinema for independents
RED One · 2007
The RED One shot 4K for far less than big studio cameras, opening the door to independent filmmakers.
The first EOS stills camera to shoot Full HD
Canon EOS 5D Mark II · 2008
The Canon 5D Mark II was the first EOS stills camera to shoot Full HD video. Vincent Laforet’s short Reverie stunned everyone.
Frame rates: 16 → 24 → 48
Silent film · sound film · The Hobbit (2012)
Silent film ran at ~16–18 fps (hand-cranked), sound film at 24. The Hobbit came out at 48 fps — and split audiences.
A feature film shot on an iPhone
Tangerine · 2015 · Sean Baker
Sean Baker shot Tangerine entirely on an iPhone 5s.
Did you know?
Three iPhone 5s phones, an $8 app and an anamorphic lens adapter.
A streaming film wins Oscars
Roma · 2018 · Alfonso Cuarón
Netflix started streaming in 2007. In 2019 its film Roma won three Oscars.
LED-wall virtual production
StageCraft · The Mandalorian · 2019
The Mandalorian was shot inside walls of LED screens instead of green screen — the background moves with the camera.
AI: a new tool
Generative video · 2020s
In the 2020s AI began generating images and video. What kind of tool it becomes for cinema is still being debated.