Pioneers: describe, evaluate and analyse their work

Eadweard Muybridge – this man did kick started the world of film and moving media as he was the inventor of frame rates and he used the persistence of vision to add to his work. His most famous work is the moving horse which was the first ever example of stop frame moving image. He used 100 cameras, all set up in a straight line with wires across the track for the horse to trigger the cameras in order to capture different images at different points of a horse race. Stitching them together then gave the illusion of movement. This was an extremely clever way of doing this because he used the technology which was available to him at the time, to the best of his advantage. By creating this piece of work he allowed other creators to use his work to influence their own. The Moving Horse is still used today as film creators use their understanding of this experiment in order to make their films the best standard for the consumer to watch.

Thomas Edison – Edison was most famous for his invention of the Lightbulb, however one of his best creations is in the area of cinematography. He created the Kinetoscope. This was a device aimed for people to be able to watch a film like piece through a device. It was a tall standing box with a peep hole at the top which looked onto a roll of 18mm film. There were many vertical rollers in the box which allowed the film to quickly run across them, making it look like a moving image through the peep hole. It was unveiled in May 1891. This had a hug impact in film making because hand-held film cameras were later invented, using this invention and the knowledge behind it. It had an impact in the industry even later than this and it was in projection film. A film projector uses the same technique as the Kinetoscope however they implemented a light in order to project the image larger and further. It is a very intelligent way of showing moving image because it uses the historic methods of The Persistence of Vision and Muybridge’s work.

Emile Raynaud – Raynaud was famous for the invention of the Praxinoscope. This was an optical toy which was from the 19^th century (1876). It consists of a cylinder, a paper strip (typically with 12 frames of an animation on it) and some stationary mirrors. When the cylinder was rotated, the mirrors in the centre reveal an image which appears to be in motion. This had an impact on film because it was the first device which allowed more than one person to view the film at once. This then sparked a huge industry of aiming to show media to a group of people, which then later became the industry of cinema. If it was not for the Praxinoscope then we would not have to world renowned animations like Shrek that we have today.