Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 2 Inventions and Origins 43

CHAPTER IN FOCUS

In this chapter you will:

• produce a short motion picture in a collaborative group using
  principles of visual storytelling


• investigate the origins and basic optical principles of motion pictures


• evaluate the effectiveness of visual communication in a variety of
  moving images

Light Moves

For many of us today, it is probably hard to imagine life

without photography and motion pictures. We have become

accustomed to seeing ourselves and those who surround

us in snapshots and fi lmed sequences. Flashes of our lives

are captured in the light that passes through lenses and is

recorded on a variety of media.

Picture human beings two hundred years ago, when the

only possible inscribed image would have been recorded

through drawing or painting (and even this would have

been relatively rare). As you think about their perspective

on time and memory, imagine the effect of seeing a

photograph of yourself for the fi rst time. Or of a loved

one who has passed away. When we hear stories of the

fi rst motion pictures shown to audiences, it is important

to keep in mind the enormous impact of these new ways

of recording the visual world.

All of these concepts revolve around the most basic

element of our visual world: light. Th e many developments

that progressed and coalesced to result in motion pictures

stem from the understanding and use of light. Photography is

all about the capturing and transferring of light to a preserved

state. In fact, many essential elements of photography

are refl ected in the source of our own relationship to the

visual world: the eye.

As we examine fundamental concepts of visual

storytelling in motion pictures, it is useful to understand

basic elements of the origins and invention of cinema.

Key steps in the development of photographic media off er

insight into the cultural, historic, and artistic importance

and uses of motion pictures.

Figure 2-1 Feeding the Baby directed by

Louis Lumière in 1895 and featuring Auguste,

Marguerite, and baby André Lumière.

(Courtesy of Photofest)

Figure 2-2 Over a century after Feeding the

Baby, images are constantly used to capture

everyday life. (Courtesy of Carl Casinghino)

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