History of short film part 2

History of short film part 2

The Lumières brothers were born in Besancon, France in 1862 and 1864, they moved to Lyon in 1870. Their father ran a photographic company and the brothers both worked for him. They had made some improvements to the still photograph process.

The Lumières held their first private viewing of their so called films in 1895. They soon started to charge an admission cost to view the work, this began on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Café in Paris. This history-making set featured ten short films, including their first film, Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon (Workers Leaving the Lumières Factory). Each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 50 seconds. That would now be conceived as a micro short.



Voyage dans la Lune otherwise known as A trip was made in 1902. This is one of the first Genre based films, a 14 minute masterpiece, created by imaginative French director Georges Melies.

This film, Melies' 400th and most notable film, was made on an astronomical budget for the time of 10,000 Francs - risky, but worthwhile since it was hugely successful. Its popularity also led to it being illegally copied, released under others' names, and pirated.