EOTO: Motion Pictures

 

The history and impact of motion pictures are difficult to define for certain, as there are many conflicting accounts of who actually invented something first and what exactly the consequences of that invention were. However, through a number of sources, like this article from Britannica, I have landed on my personal concensus on the matter.

In 1891, Thomas Edison is credited with the creation of the kinetoscope, which is considered the first real motion picture camera. His interest in creating such a device came as a result of Eadward Muybridge, or rather Edison's refusal to partner with Muybridge to make said device. 

However, it was not actually Thomas Edison who worked on inventing the kinetoscope! It was one of his laboratory assistants at the time, William Kennedy Laurie Dickson. Dickson spent several years working on developing the kinetoscope on the behalf of Edison, but Edison is touted as the inventor merely because he was the one who owned the rights to it, since it was created in his lab.

Regardless, the kinetoscope was released to the public and it started to change the world of motion pictures. This was thanks to the fact that the kinetoscope not only could capture motion pictures, but could play them back for someone to watch! As such, kinetoscopes began appearing across the country, where anyone could pay a coin to watch a film through the peep hole on the device.

(Although some of Edison's films were distasteful to the public and resulted in the first batch of censorship for the new medium.)

While this achievement is certainly notable in the history of motion pictures, it is just the beginning of what created film as we know it today! Four years after the unveiling of the kinetoscope, in 1895, the Lumiere Brothers created the Cinematographe. Which is considered to be the first real projector for motion pictures.

Edison believed that devoloping a device that could project film for a large audience to view at once would ultimately cost him money in the long run, so he abandoned any investment in doing so. Unfortunately for him, the Lumiere Brothers seized this opportunity and it changed the world of motion pictures once again!

With a reliable way to play motion pictures for a large audience, instead of one at a time, the art form began to boom! People would fill every seat in the audience to watch a film together, further increasing the popularity of motion pictures. But not only did it create a boom in the consumer market, it also pushed other inventors to get back into the game and improve upon the technology further. 

From that point onward a series of devices were created, ultimately leading us to the equipment we know today. Not only that, but so began the era of film, wherein culture was en
tirely reshaped to include going to the movies. And while the positives of that cultural shift are undeniable, the negatives cannot be dismissed either, as large audience could now be influenced to think or feel a certain way on a wider scale than ever before!

In the end though, I must say, I am incredibly grateful for the existence of motion pictures, and I feel that most would agree with that sentiment. Wouldn't you?