Lumière Compilation

The French brothers Louis and Auguste Lumière, sons of a photographer and painter, are generally recognised as the founders of cinema. In their father's factory, which manufactured photographic plates, they quietly worked on their new invention that Louis had developed: the , a relatively light camera that could capture moving images. In 1895, during a private and later during a public screening, they surprised their audience with the first short film: . Louis in particular proceeded to make a whole series of films in quick succession, all of which were about one minute long, the length of a film reel at the time. Some of these, such as and were dramatised; most were short accounts of reality. It did not take long for the films to become a craze all over the world. had an overwhelming effect on the inexperienced spectator because the train seemed to be heading straight for the audience. A new technological and artistic era was born and before long, the Lumière brothers sent projectionists out to show films on every continent. Towards the end of 1897, the Lumière collection contained more than 750 films.