We live in an incredible age where anyone with a smartphone has a miniature filmmaking studio in their pocket. The ability to create, edit, and distribute video has never been more readily available. And yet, if we want to gain a better appreciation of the tools at our disposal, it’s wise to look back at some of the first movies ever made (or at least the earliest films still available to us).
There is a bit of debate around this subject. Humans have simulated motion for centuries through optical illusions like the phenakistiscope, invented in the early 1830s. However, if we’re considering an image captured to film and run through a projector of some kind, then we have a couple of contenders. The first is Eadweard Muybridge’s “The Horse in Motion,” from 1878. Using an early version of a projector called a zoopraxiscope, the images appeared to move and proved that all four of a horse’s hooves are off the ground when it gallops.
You could also go with “Roundhay Garden Scene,” from 1888, the first-known celluloid film. Shot at 12 frames a second, French inventor Louis Le Prince’s movie is only 2.11 seconds long, but it does hold the record for oldest surviving film. That’s no small feat when you consider the highly flammable nature of nitrate and that 70 percent of feature-length silent films made in America have been lost.
When studying the first films ever made, don’t worry about taking them literally. This is not a cue that your next movie should be about a horse or a garden (although, if you’re a genius like Jordan Peele, you can use the Muybridge movie as a starting point for an action-horror film about the act of looking).
Instead, try to approach film experimentally. Neither of these movies were about narrative cinema but instead playing around with a new technology to see how it functioned. If you’re a novice—or even if you have some years of experience under your belt—make sure to play with your filmmaking tools and understand how they work. Don’t be afraid to switch between lenses or get deep into your editing software. While it’s important not to fall down a rabbit hole and make the technology into its own end, you should always keep up with advancements to see how they may serve your needs.
How to Come Up With Short Film Ideas We can look to these films for their lower-tech aspects, as well. Current devices such as smartphones help to make the filmmaking experience as frictionless as possible, but friction is where we can better learn our craft. We need some low-stakes bumps in the road, so that if and when a higher-stakes moment comes along, we have dealt with something similar. For example, let’s say you’re using an old 16mm black-and-white camera that doesn’t even tell you if you’re running the film through it correctly. What happens when you get to the end of the day and you realize you haven’t captured anything? What will you do then? Don’t be afraid to create a little bit of disaster for yourself. Filmmaking is problem-solving. Even these incredibly brief, early examples are trying to solve a problem of sorts, whether it’s “Does the horse get entirely off the ground?” or “Can we record motion as it happens?” Complacency is the enemy of creativity. Challenge yourself.
You can’t perfect your craft until you know its origins and developments. It’s nice to have an HD camera at your disposal on a daily basis, but never hesitate to familiarize yourself beyond your comfort zone. Someone who knows how to work with digital assets and celluloid is going to have a better skillset than a person who only knows how to capture video on their phone. There will be moments when it seems like what you’re doing is more labor intensive, but when it came to the first motion pictures, those filmmakers didn’t even know what they had until they started putting in the work. It’s great to look to the towering classics of cinema for inspiration, but understanding the earliest days of the art form is vital.