The Lumiere Brothers
Pioneers of Cinema and Color






The original topic for my paper was to be on “Nanook of the North” due to my background in Anthropology and Archaeology and my interest in the concept of cultural impact derived from the mere presence of industrialized peoples influence on isolated culture. This anthropological perspective is well documented and debated, and through my research have come to conclude that Flaherty keeps good company when tromping all over the “Anthropological perspective”. Also, I have come to understand the importance of the Lumiere Brothers as pioneers of cinema and believe their story to be much more interesting.

The Lumiere Brothers were not only the first to project images on a screen for an audience in December of 1895 in a commercial setting, they were also first to make documentaries, called “actualities”, a comedy, “Le Jardinier (l'Arroseur Arrose)” (The Gardener of The Sprinkler Sprinkled), a home movie “Le Repas (de Bebe)” (Baby's Meal), and a host of other first films including “La Sortie Des Ouviers De L’Usine Lumiere a Lyon” or “Workers leaving the Lumiere Facotry”, not only the first series, but also most likely their first films and “Arrivee d'un train en gare a La Ciotat” (Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat), which some sources reported was shocking to its first unsophisticated viewing audience.

Throughout the evolution of both technique and technology, the influence of their filming style, such as using a high contrast medium and the use of the “close-up” can be seen in future filmmaking throughout the history of filmmaking to current films such as Ken Burns’ “The War”.

The Latin for "light" is lumen. What a wonderful verbal coincidence that the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, were the first to patent a motion picture camera, which they called a "Cinematograph”. The cinematographe was not only a camera housed inside a wooden box, but a printer and projector as well. This first “all in one” device was patented in February of 1895. This device was remarkably compact and did not rely on electrical power. In contrast, Edison’s “Kinetograph” did rely on electrical power to ensure consistency in film speed and operation and therefore was limited in it’s use due to the rarity of available electrical power at that time as well as it’s large size and weight. For both of those reasons, the Edison machine was anchored at the Edison studio called “the Black Maria”. Items were brought before the kinetograph to film there. The cinematographe, however, could be used anywhere to either shoot film or for use as a projector.

The mechanics of the cinematographe included a film transport mechanism, whereby “claws” were inserted into sprocket holes on each side of the film that moved away during exposure of the film thereby leaving the film stationary during exposure. This “claw” apparatus was based on the principle used in the mechanism of a sewing machine. The handle at the rear of the cinematographe operated the rotating shutter and take-up magazine as well as the film transport mechanism. The cinematographe used a film width of 35mm, and a speed of 16 frames per second. This format was an industry norm until the advent of sound in film in the late 1920s. 35mm film shot at 24 frames per second then became the standard.

Each Lumiere show comprised ten films and lasted about 15 minutes. There were twenty shows a day, starting at 10:00 am and ending at 1:30 am the next morning. Admission was one franc. There was little public interest at first, the few papers that reported on it criticized the name “Cinematographe”, but curious passers-by who ventured into the hall were astonished at what they saw and returned with their friends. News soon spread. On some days, lines extended a quarter of a mile, and sales amounted to 2,500 francs.

The first public screening of the cinematographe in Britain took place at the Malborough Hall of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, London in February of 1896. The opening performance attracted only 54 customers but, as in Paris, the cinematographe’s popularity soon increased. Cinema quickly became part of music hall programs and Cinematographe shows started at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, London in March of 1896.

In America, the first Cinematographe show took place at Keith’s Union Square Theater in New York in June of 1896. In November the Lumieres established their own agency in New York selling equipment and films. This was very successful for a few months but by April of 1897 the agency began liquidating stock and shortly afterwards transferred its business to the American agents Maguire & Baucus. This transfer was partly because the Lumieres had fallen foul of the American customs by importing apparatus and films illegally. Their manager had to flee the country. Mainly, the transfer occured because films sprockets in the Edison format were becoming the industry standard. The Lumieres issued copies of films in both their original and the Edison format but it signaled the obsolescence of the original Cinematographes. Before the end of 1897 the Lumiere Cinematographe Model B, a projection-only machine designed for film with Edison perforations, had largely superseded the original cinematographe.

In the first years of the Lumiere film operation, cameramen were sent all over the world to record scenes in Russia, Japan, and the Middle East. Auguste and Louis continued to work on technical developments and in 1900 devised a camera that took large format 75mm films. By 1905, however, the Lumieres withdrew from the cinema business and the “Studio System”. They worked instead on inventing the first successful photographic color process, the Lumiere Autochrome. In 1907 they started manufacturing dry plates at their facility in Lyons, France. Shortly thereafter a manufacturing facility was established in Burlington, Vermont, USA. The process, which they sold at that time, was known as the Autochrome process. Louis also worked on a process of stereoscopic cinematography.
The two brothers lived long enough to be fated as pioneers of the cinema, as Louis stated, “On December 28, 1895, was really born the expression:” “I have been to a movie.”


References:


Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Winter 2005.

Documentary, A History Of The Non-Fiction Film, Erik Barnouw, Oxford University Press, 1993, p 5-29.

Film History Before 1920, Tim Dirks, 1996-2007, www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro2

Lumière and Company

by Sarah Moon, Director
Fox/Lorber Home Video, NY, NY, 1995
DVD, 88 mins. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa, USA


The First Practical Color Photographic Process, Dan McNeil, USA, Micscape Magazine, October 2001.

The Lumiere Brothers, Pioneers of Cinema and Colour Photography, Thom Ryan 2006, http://filmyear.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/index.html