The First Movie Camera: Crash Course Film History #2
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- Опубліковано 1 лют 2025
- After serial photography became a thing, it wasn't long before motion pictures started to develop. And, at the front of that development was Thomas Edison, who you may know as an inventor and business person. In this episode of Crash Course Film History, Craig talks to us about Edison, his assistant W.K.L. Dickson, and their inventions that pioneered motion pictures.
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I love how the text bits are designed like a film script. Very neat addition!
Thought Cafe really nailed it! :)
- Nick J.
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Stephen Louis I
fun fact: louis le prince invented the motion picture camera. Edison had him "mysteriously disappear" on a train (which was on the way to premiere his work)
Edison was undoubtedly important, influential and innovative. But again, no mention of Louis Le Prince - the man who actually did develop the first successful single-lens camera in 1888 when he shot Roundhay Garden Scene. Le Prince was in with Muybridge experimenting with motion pictures back in Leeds in the 1870s and 1880s. There were indications Le Prince even had the intention to show his film to audiences in America, but it's difficult to conclude if this was for entertainment or (more likely) scientific purposes.
But he seems to have been wiped from film history, for some reason. It all gets boiled down to "Edison, Dickson and some experimental guys before him"
If anyone's interested in the clip of the lady dancing in at 3:01, her name was Loïe Fuller and there was a biopic recently made about her called La Danseuse by Stéphanie Di Giusto. It's a gorgeous film, worth checking out.
I'm guessing the Lumiere Brothers will be featured in the next episode, but no mention of Louis Le Prince?
Yes, Thomas Edison was a brilliant inventor, but can CrashCourse please acknowledge that despite several great accomplishments: Edison actively stole ideas or screwed over several of his assistants out of pay? Or if he was faced with competition, rather than try to devise a better product he attempted to sabotage competition?
Jaydoggy531 why? We are they are mainly talking about film here
I like Edison so much I don't believe he stole ideas
@@robinolsen185 he was still kind of jerk tho, like acdc thing proves it
@@haruki5360 Motion capture was invented by Louis Le Prince
love you Craig, killing it with this series, was more than exited when I realized this was your New topic and thus I've not been disappointed, thanks guys!
I have a degree in film and am a big wheezywaiter fan, it's like this series was made for me. gracias. -julián
love the mini "Gasp!"
Is that Chronophotographic Gun (Awesome!) the reason we say we "shoot" films?
Presumably yes.
Sweet.
Film came in to prominence around the time that clay pigeon shooting was also becoming a pass time. Some people believe this cross over is where the terminology comes from.
Couldn't tell if Craig loves movies or not 😉🎥
that eagle punch was so gratifying. I kept staring at it the whole episode waiting for it to get its due.
I'm really enjoying this series! Thanks for covering the history of film.
I'm so excited for the rest of the series!
Why didn't you mention Louis Le Prince? He invented a single lens camera which he used to shoot his first film in 1888, years before Edison...
Yeah, They are ignoring him
This comment is old, but I just did a presentation on Le Prince and this not including him made me real mad. My respect for this series went down a lot. If you are going to talk about history of the motion picture in a educational way for god's sake, not mentioning our man Louis is a disgraceful.
Watch the next episode.
thank you for this series. Film History was something I've been wondering about for a while
this helped me immensely in my film class! I am so happy that crash course exists! Makes studying more fun for me!!!!
if ur reading this drink some water !!! gotta stay hydrated pals
Thanks for the tip dude.
Two years too late
Movies started like UA-cam videos started out in 2005: short videos of small moments in someone's life. But both eventually became more sophisticated and more thought provoking(but I guess that depends on which movie or video you're watching...).
"You probably know of Thomas Alva Edison as the inventor of the light bulb, or the phonograph..."
No, I know him as a liar and a cheater and practically a thief, but not as an inventor, and I'm glad you gave us the real story behind something that he would otherwise have us think was something he did.
There used to be a kinetoscope in the Santa Monica pier but it's gone now I remember the film was about two guys at a railroad junction
Woohoo! Thanks for the shout out! I'm from West Orange, NJ. The Black Maria is so cool.
I just can't wait to see the bloopers for this series! Craig has such a high rate of jokes per minute, he's unstoppable :D
Craig is wholly underrated as a human being
Can I just say, I really appreciate the intro music for this series! To whoever thought to start with old-timey music and end with and inception buzz: awesome!!!
I honestly can't tell you if it was 100% Michael Aranda or not but I know we all talked about this for a long while before we started work on the series. I have a feeling it was mostly Aranda because Aranda is amazing.
A "Black Maria" is also a term for a horse-drawn hearse. So, lots of fun imagery here.
This guy is fantastic. I choose to believe there have been no outtakes and he isn't even reading off a script.
been loving this series so far 😊
The ancient Vines.
I'm watching this while my brother watches Dr. Strange down the hall. It blows my mind a little seeing how far this technology has come in so little a time
not even that interested in film history, but wheezy makes it really interesting! go wheezy!
MOM! Craig is punching eagles again!
Ben Aaron Urgh eagles hate 'EM *punch punch punch*
Any excuse
Hey! remember when edison falsely copyrighted Melies's whole film catalogue as his!? what a great man!
Yep. We'll be discussing that in our episode on Melies.
Yeah this is definitely my favorite crash course series
okay this guy is one of my favorite crash course hosts ever
great series love it
You are my favorite from CC. Thanky!
"When in doubt coat in light sensitive emotion" Best quote ever!!!
damn! what a clever jokes!! Craig was totally hilarious!! He hit the punchline perfectly 😂👍👍👍
I just found CrashCourse and when I find a new channel I always go to the “about” section of the channel and as soon as I saw Craig Benzine from Wheezywaiter (which is one of my favorite channels ((his wife Chyna is beautiful))) so I knew I had to check these out!
Craig is back!
The comment about editing reminded me of the Edison Frankenstein movie. It actually has some very interesting effects in it.
in the UK we were taught Louis Le Prince filmed the first movie in 1888
OMG Craig!! Please please do a strong man rendition!!!! 👍👍
Pls do an episode on my fave tarkovsky!!
love your channel and work
"I love movies"
Louis Le Prince is the real inventor, the only problem is, his patents registered in France and Britain were not considered international patients as he did not demonstrate to the Public of his device, he of course planned to go the US and demostrate his camera, taking along him all the papers involving of his patent working Camera in which it along with him disappeared never to be seen again. While the Camera didn't disappear since he was not taking the camera with him when he disappeared, legally by law his wife couldn't be allowed to demonstrate his product until after a certain period of time, but by then Thomas Edison had demonstrated his camera to the world.
Your jokes are genuinely hilarious 😂😂😂 I love em
I would like to imagine someone pulling a great heavy early camera around with them and attempting to vlog. "so today guys I'm just walking around vlogging [dies of fatigue] goddamn it I can't wait for the 2010s when this is considered a job,"
"Crash course recommends that you turn it to 11" YES IM DEAD
This helps me study for my midterm thank you
Can I suggest that you find a way to make all these episodes easy to find from any of them - at present I can't easily click on episode 1 from the second, and it's a bit convoluted to follow the course. Excellent course idea and awesome quality as always guys! :)
Thank you!
can't wait till we talk about the studio system!
this series i hope will be as good as the psych one, the philosophy, and the lit series, and i hope the same about the myth series. goddamn. CC be steppin up they game boii
Thomas Edison & William Dickson-Kinetograph and Kinetoscope- first motion camera and the device that allowed them to watch movies
Dickson also added the holes needed to stop the film at intervals sprocket holes
Etienne-Jules Marey- Helped Edison make the kinetograph
Cellulite filmstrips covered in light-sensitive emulsion
George Eastman- entrepreneur helped produce filmstrips
A film studio was made and it had a sunroof and a revolving thingy to adhere to where the sun was throughout the day
Kinetograph issues- (films were only 15 sec long)
it was static
Needed the sun to shine
Kinetoscope was one person at a time which limited customers
No editing
I love this guy
Man this is really cool
happy holidays.
This is so awesome, please do Environmental Science!
I love how the last note in this series's theme song is a giant Inception BWAMP.
Interesting ❤
You should do a video on the dawning of popular animation (it even plays into the introduction of synchronized sound)!
I love how he says "I love movies...!"
It's like he's speaking directly to me!
> The Story of the Kelly Gang from 1906 is credited as being the first feature length film.
If you are wondering what The Kelly Gang was, pop on over to Extra History: ua-cam.com/video/a1WmidFwFzY/v-deo.html
Yep. We'll talk about that one too :)
- Nick J.
The series they did over Ned Kelly was amazing
you know what's a cool movie from the way back? carl laemmle's "phantom of the opera" with lon chaney from 1925. it _was_ the special effects horror blockbuster of its day, and you can watch the whole movie for free right now, right here on youtube.
Please do an entire episode on 2001: A Space Odyssey!!
...are you sitting down? ;)
- Nick J.
How about Tommy Wiseau's The Room?
Drakost What about Neil Breen's films? They're revolutionary!
YEEASSSSS
Are you going to do individual episodes (or just episodes) about legendary directors? Woody Allen, Spielberg, Tarantino, David Fincher, Hitchcock, Nolan, Scorcese, etc.
They better make an AP Film History test now so I can ace it using these videos.
Where is this series going? Is it gonna be about the advancement of movie related technology, or more about the sociocultural aspect of films and an analysis of classical movie and why they're good or important?
When in doubt , add light sensitive emulsion , as the saying goes ahahahahaha !
You guys are missing that La Prince invented the motion picture years before Edison, Edison stole the idea after La Prince mysteriously disappeared before his paten could go through
All the talk about kinetoscopes made reminded me about Bioshock Infinite and how Jeremiah Fink resembles Thomas Edison. Not like they are totally the same, but they definitely have some similar traits.
Good to know
i studied photography, and teve-production in high-school. i studied film for 5 years in uni, i would have totally done this series for like 5 bucks a video.
and i've been a film nerd since i was like 9.
thanks to tarantino, scorsese, james bond films and igmar bergman. yeah i know, i saw my homeboy swede bergman when i was nine. holla
I have a question. You said that the most famous performers on the vaudeville circuit were not accessible to most people because they only played major cities. However I imagine that the kinetoscope exhibitions would have only been available to people who lived in cities as well. I understand that kinetoscope exhibitions would have made entertainment accessible to more people because the specific performer didn't need to be in a specific location for someone to see his or her work. But I don't how the same people who went to kinetoscope exhibitions would not be able to go a show on the vaudeville circuit. Can you elaborate on the reasons that the kinetoscope exhibitions made vaudeville performances more accessible?
We need a part 2 to this! What happens next?!
I sometimes watch these just for the theme song😂 best theme song ever
This makes me appreciate Bioshock Infinite level of detail even more.
I am going to take a class call art of film so this is going to be great!
Did you really cover everything in world history? It was my fav
You should do a Crash Course on the evolution of Firearms.
Are you guys gonna cover Sergei Eisenstein?
Just a note you seem to have forgotten to mention the Lumiere brothers who at the very least where neck and neck with Edison
Bluebuthappy182 Next episode. They are the ones who started projecting for an audience, a bit later than Edison's invention
Why werent the sprocket holes only spaced the length of a frame rather than having lots of sprocket holes either side of one frame?
+CrashCourse Love your videos! What kind of camera do you use to film these series?
**pops into this CC subject**
Are we going to talk about how Edison probably killed a man and wiped him off the face of the earth for the movie patent in this episode?
**episode opens with Edison bashing**
**pulls out popcorn**
Do not disappoint me, Crash Course. I'm counting on you.
**continues watching**
**no mention of Louis Le Prince or his suspiciously timed disappearance before he could demonstrate his invention in the US**
...oh. OK then.
NotAGoodUsername360 can I have some popcorn
Amber Shoffren no
I love movies
i love movies...
Havent gotten to watching any of the episodes yet, so i have no idea if theres anything on the jump cut? (Please? Its story is as fascinating as how high speed trains, AKA 15mph, would kill people through asphyxiation.)
Dude HE DOESNT BLINK
Eagle made it halfway through Ep.2 before being punched.
I'm reminded of the early history of video games. All of these innovations are laughably primitive by modern standards, yet they were enough to get people to come enjoy them for their sheer novelty. Film didn't get to grow as an art form until it grew out of that "gimmick" phase.
The more things change...
Everything starts off as a gimmick. maybe things we see as silly or useless today will be the next big thing
Crash Course doesn't need a rotating studio to film this. The reflection from Whizzy's bald head suffices.
"It's basically the Twitter of movies" so…Vine? missed opportunity there ;)
I thought after high school i couldn't use crash course for help with studying anymore... thank god i was wrong
Now the question is how is he going to make a tasteful joke about the first block buster Feature Film; Birth Of Nation, who legacy includes the feature film industry, and the Rebirth of the Klan.
Birth of a Nation is never easy to talk about. I think we've done a good job but I want to see what our audience thinks of it. It's still a few episodes away.
- Nick J.
I wish we had a timeline to absorb all of the information