Editing History of film (section)

== Precursors ==
{{Main|Precursors of film}}

The use of film as an art form traces its origins to several earlier traditions in the arts such as (oral) [[storytelling]], literature, theatre and visual arts. [[Cantastoria]] and similar ancient traditions combined storytelling with series of images that were shown or indicated one after the other. Predecessors to film that had already used light and shadows to create art before the advent of modern film technology include [[Shadowgraphy (performing art)|shadowgraphy]], [[Shadow play|shadow puppetry]], [[camera obscura]], and the [[magic lantern]].

Shadowgraphy and shadow puppetry represent early examples of the intent to use moving imagery for entertainment and storytelling.<ref name="Bohn-1987">{{Cite book |last=Bohn |first=Thomas W. |url=http://archive.org/details/lightshadowshist0000bohn_a8u0 |title=Light and shadows: a history of motion pictures |date=1987 |publisher=Palo Alto, Calif. : Mayfield Pub. Co. |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-87484-702-4 |pages=4}}</ref> Thought to have originated in the Far East, the art form used [[shadow]]s cast by hands or objects to assist in the creation of narratives. Shadow puppetry enjoyed popularity for centuries around Asia, notably in [[Java]], and eventually spread to Europe during the [[Age of Enlightenment]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parkinson |first=David |title=History of film |date=2012 |publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd |isbn=978-0-500-20410-8 |edition=2 |location=New York |page=16 |oclc=794136291}}</ref>

By the 16th century, entertainers often conjured images of ghostly apparitions, using techniques such as camera obscura and other forms of projection to enhance their performances.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruffles |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BIL2BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |title=Ghost Images: Cinema of the Afterlife |date=27 September 2004 |isbn=9780786420056 |pages=15–17|publisher=McFarland }}</ref> Magic lantern shows developed in the latter half of the 17th century seem to have continued this tradition with images of death, monsters and other scary figures.<ref>{{cite web |last=Meier |first=Allison C. |date=12 May 2018 |title=The Magic Lantern Shows that Influenced Modern Horror |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-magic-lantern-shows-that-influenced-modern-horror/ |access-date=15 August 2020 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref> Around 1790, this practice was developed into a type of multimedia ghost show known as [[phantasmagoria]]. These popular shows entertained audiences using mechanical slides, rear projection, mobile projectors, [[superimposition]], [[Dissolve (filmmaking)|dissolves]], live actors, smoke (on which projections may have been cast), odors, sounds and even electric shocks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castle |first=Terry |date=1988 |title=Phantasmagoria: Spectral Technology and the Metaphorics of Modern Reverie |journal=Critical Inquiry |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=26–61 |doi=10.1086/448473 |issn=0093-1896 |jstor=1343603 |s2cid=162264583}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mannoni |first1=Laurent |last2=Brewster |first2=Ben |date=1996 |title=The Phantasmagoria |journal=Film History |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=390–415 |issn=0892-2160 |jstor=3815390}}</ref> While many first magic lantern shows were intended to frighten viewers, advances by projectionists allowed for creative and even educational storytelling that could appeal to wider family audiences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eisenhauer |first=Jennifer F. |date=2006 |title=Next Slide Please: The Magical, Scientific, and Corporate Discourses of Visual Projection Technologies |journal=Studies in Art Education |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=198–214 |doi=10.2307/25475781 |issn=0039-3541 |jstor=25475781|doi-access=free }}</ref> Newly pioneered techniques such as the use of [[dissolving views]] and the [[chromatrope]] allowed for smoother transitions between two projected images and aided in providing stronger narratives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marsh |first=Joss |title=Cinematicity in Media History |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780748676118 |editor-last=Geiger |editor-first=Jeffrey |page=23 |chapter=Dickensian 'Dissolving Views': The Magic Lantern, Visual Story-telling and the Victorian Technological Imagination |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt9qdrrf.7 |editor-last2=Littau |editor-first2=Karin |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt9qdrrf.7}}</ref>

In 1833, scientific study of a [[Stroboscopic effect|stroboscopic]] illusion in spoked wheels by [[Joseph Plateau]], [[Michael Faraday]] and [[Simon Stampfer]] led to the invention of the Fantascope, also known as the stroboscopic disk or the [[phenakistiscope]], which was popular in several European countries for a while. Plateau thought it could be further developed for use in phantasmagoria and Stampfer imagined a system for longer scenes with strips on rollers, as well as a transparent version (probably intended for projection). Plateau, [[Charles Wheatstone]], [[Antoine Claudet]] and others tried to combine the technique with the [[stereoscope]] (introduced in 1838) and photography (introduced in 1839) for a more complete illusion of reality, but for decades such experiments were mostly hindered by the need for long exposure times, with motion blur around objects that moved while the reflected light fell on the photo-sensitive chemicals. A few people managed to get decent results from [[stop motion]] techniques, but these were only very rarely marketed and no form of animated photography had much cultural impact before the advent of chronophotography.

{{multiple image
| align             = right
| width1            = 253
| image1            = The Horse in Motion.jpg
| caption1          = Eadweard Muybridge's ''The Horse in Motion'' cabinet cards utilized the technique of [[chronophotography]] to study motion.
| width2            = 155
| image2            = Electrotachyscope1.jpg
| caption2          = An Anschütz [[electrotachyscope]]
}}

Most early photographic sequences, known as [[chronophotography]], were not initially intended to be viewed in motion and were typically presented as a serious, even scientific, method of studying locomotion. The sequences almost exclusively involved humans or animals performing a simple movement in front of the camera.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Latsis |date=2015 |title=Landscape in Motion: Muybridge and the Origins of Chronophotography |journal=Film History |volume=27 |issue=3 |page=2 |doi=10.2979/filmhistory.27.3.1 |jstor=10.2979/filmhistory.27.3.1 |s2cid=194973091}}</ref> Starting in 1878 with the publication of ''[[The Horse in Motion]]'' cabinet cards, photographer [[Eadweard Muybridge]] began making hundreds of chronophotographic studies of the motion of animals and humans in real-time. He was soon followed by other chronophotographers like [[Étienne-Jules Marey]], [[Georges Demenÿ]], [[Albert Londe]] and [[Ottomar Anschütz]]. In 1879, Muybridge started lecturing on animal locomotion and used his [[Zoopraxiscope]] to project animations of the contours of his recordings, traced onto glass discs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lawrence |first=Amy |date=2003 |title=Counterfeit Motion: The Animated Films of Eadweard Muybridge |journal=Film Quarterly |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=15–25 |issn=0015-1386 |jstor=10.1525/fq.2004.57.2.15}}</ref>

In 1887, the German inventor and photographer [[Ottomar Anschütz]] started presenting his chronophotographic recordings in motion, using a device he called the Elektrischen Schnellseher (also known as the [[Electrotachyscope]]), which displayed short loops on a small milk glass screen. By 1891, he had started mass production of a more economical, coin-operated peep-box viewing device of the same name that was exhibited at international exhibitions and fairs. Some machines were installed for longer periods, including some at [[The Crystal Palace]] in London, and in several U.S. stores. Shifting the focus of the medium from technical and scientific interest in motion to entertainment for the masses, he recorded wrestlers, dancers, acrobats, and scenes of everyday life. Nearly 34,000 people paid to see his shows at the Berlin Exhibition Park in summer 1892. Others saw it in London or at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition|Chicago World's Fair]]. Though little evidence remains for most of these recordings, some scenes probably depicted staged comical sequences. Extant records suggest some of his output directly influenced later works by the Edison Company, such as the 1894 film ''[[Fred Ott's Sneeze]]''.<ref name="copycats">{{Cite journal |last=Rossell |first=Deac |title=Copycats: Anschütz Chronophotographs as Direct Source Materials for Early Edison Kinetoscope Films |journal=Film History |year=2016 |volume=28 |issue=2 |page=142 |doi=10.2979/filmhistory.28.2.06 |s2cid=192159745 |url=https://www.academia.edu/28339416 |language=en}}</ref>

Advances towards motion picture projection technologies were based on the popularity of magic lanterns, chronophotographic demonstrations, and other closely related forms of projected entertainment such as [[illustrated songs]]. From October 1892 to March 1900, inventor [[Charles-Émile Reynaud|Émile Reynaud]] exhibited his [[Théâtre Optique]] ("Optical Theatre") film system at the [[Musée Grévin]] in Paris. Reynaud's device, which projected a series of animated stories such as ''[[Pauvre Pierrot]]'' and ''[[Autour d'une cabine]]'', was displayed to over 500,000 visitors over the course of 12,800 shows.<ref name="emilereynaud.fr">{{cite web |date=11 November 2008 |title=Le Théâtre optique – Émile Reynaud |url=http://www.emilereynaud.fr/index.php/post/Le-Theatre-optique |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081111172705/http://www.emilereynaud.fr/index.php/post/Le-Theatre-optique |archive-date=11 November 2008}}</ref><ref name="myrent1989">{{Cite journal |last1=Myrent |first1=Glenn |year=1989 |title=Emile Reynaud: First Motion Picture Cartoonist |journal=Film History |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=191–202 |jstor=3814977}}</ref> On 25, 29 and 30 November 1894, [[Ottomar Anschütz]] projected moving images from [[Electrotachyscope]] discs on a large screen in the darkened Grand Auditorium of a Post Office Building in Berlin, the first showing of life sized pictures in motion.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ottomar-anschuetz.de/kino_1__vorfuehrung.htm | title=Ottomar Anschütz, Kinogeschichte, lebender Bilder, Kino, erste-Kinovorführung, Kinovorführung, Projektion, Kinoe, Bewegungsbilder }}</ref> From 22 February to 30 March 1895, a commercial 1.5-hour program of 40 different scenes was screened for audiences of 300 people at the old Reichstag and received circa 4,000 visitors.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ottomar Anschütz, Kinogeschichte, lebender Bilder, Kino, erste-Kinovorführung, Kinovorführung, Projektion, Kinoe, Bewegungsbilder |url=http://www.ottomar-anschuetz.de/kino_1__vorfuehrung.htm |access-date=19 April 2020 |website=www.ottomar-anschuetz.de}}</ref>