Annnnnddd…. Action!
The old movies. The ones that started it all.
Most people like movies. They come in all shapes and sizes. And throughout history, they have pushed the limits, allowing us to see things we never dreamed we would see. Or perhaps, giving us hard looks at reality and the world around us. Either way, movies have the ability to get a hold of us.
So when was the first movie? Well, there’s a bit of to and fro over that question. But, if we’re judging “movie” by its dictionary definition? Well, then, “The Horse in Motion” by Eadweard Muybridge was the first movie ever made.
The Horse in Motion was initially a series of photographs. But then it “technically” turned into a motion picture in 1880. That is when Muybridge began projecting it onto a “zoopraxiscope disc.”
But the first one ever truly made as a “movie” is called “Roundhay Garden Scene,” produced in 1888. The creator was a French artist named Louis Le Prince. He probably did more to develop movies than almost anybody in the history of film. He made a lot of little movies early on. But. Most people haven’t heard of him because he mysteriously disappeared before showing his movies to the general public.
Here is what they know. He disappeared forever on September 16, 1890. He had been traveling, but Le Prince had promised he would rejoin his friends in Paris. From there, they would all go together for a return journey to England.
However, he failed to arrive at the agreed-upon meeting time. He was never seen again by his family or friends. The last sighting of him was onboard a train leaving the Dijon platform in France.
The French police, along with Scotland Yard, carried out an extensive search for his body and luggage. But they never came up with anything. Not him. Not his luggage. They didn’t find anything, and the case remains unsolved.
This was all on the cusp of him getting the acknowledgment for being the world’s first movie maker. But he never got to enjoy the accolades. He has since been posthumously rewarded his rightful status as the ‘Father of Cinematography’.
At any rate, that very first movie of his from 1888 — Roundhay Garden Scene — is very short. Like two seconds short.
https://youtu.be/F1i40rnpOsA
Le Prince’s filmmaking process inspired thousands to explore and research motion pictures, including the likes of Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers.
But for whatever reason, the works of Muybridge and Le Prince have been mostly forgotten, or perhaps pushed in the corner, by the works of Thomas Edison, Georges Méliès, and the Lumiere Brothers.
Yet. It was a full ten years after Le Prince did his work that Edison, Méliès, and the Lumieres started putting out their movies.
Here are two other movies often (wrongly) credited as “the first movie ever made.”
A Trip To The Moon (1902) (Georges Méliès) — https://youtu.be/xLVChRVfZ74
The Great Train Robbery (1903) (Thomas Edison) — https://youtu.be/In3mRDX0uqk
And that is how it all started more than a century ago. To be exact, 135 years ago. The movies. The things that allow us to feel a wide range of emotions. Those movies have the ability to transport us to a different time, place, or situation we may never know in our real lives.
Movies allow us to explore our minds. To see in new ways. And to see in old ways. They open up our thinking.
To be continued tomorrow — more about the movies.
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My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.
— Billy Connolly
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Critical thinking and curiosity are the key to creativity.
— Amala Akkineni
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Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.
— Plato
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Picture it. The first motion pictures.
