Cinema of attraction

Undoing the norm of story-telling

Limited resources creativity, inventiveness

Maximizing every component of cinemaThe frame line: from passive demarcation of

space for attention to active useWhere to put the camera to maximize depth

of fieldPut on wheels (vehicles)

Undoing the norm of story-telling

Limited resources creativity, inventiveness

Sources of inspiration

staging a slice of life, pictorial rendering, capturing on celluloid actual human activities, a performance just for fun

More…

Undoing the norm of story-telling

Where to allow viewing:

Kinetoscope and other optical toolsOn a train (Hale’s Tours)In the fairgroundPart of a variety theatre (vaudeville show) program

– inserted between other types of performance spectacles

Café Exhibition of technology

The variety of optical tools/toys/apparatuses

Phenakistiscopedisc with images of successive phases of movement

Phenakistiscopea phenakistoscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge (1893) + simulated

mirror view of the same disc image

Zoopraxiscope1879 / British photographer Eadweard Muybridge

projecting a series of images in successive phase of movementobtained by multiple cameras

ChronophotographeFrench physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey /

continuous roll of film to produce a sequence of still images

ChronophotographeFrench physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey /

continuous roll of film to produce a sequence of still images

Man in the black suit with striping and points for chronophotography, 1883

E.J. Marey, Geometric Chronophotograph of the man in the black suit, 1883

Kinetoscopepatented 1888, completed 1892 / 18” x 27” 4 feet (high)

Kinetoscopepatented 1888, completed 1892 / 18” x 27” 4 feet (high)

Kinetoscope/ patented 1888, first public demonstration 1891, completed 1892 / 18” x 27” 4 feet (high)

Edison Kinetoscope Films 1894-1896

on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIkLok-BYIk