From 'Camera Obsecura' to the modern cinema

By Amal Hewavissenti

The device of 'Camera Obsecura' registered a memorable landmark in the gradual evolution of the camera and motion pictures. However, the story of the development of films from the earliest 'cameras' and dramatic devices is interesting. But where does this story begin?

As man's artistic intellect developed, he began to observe different movements of his shadow - a trend which gave birth to the concept of 'shadow drama'. His imagination perceived that varied movements of his own shadow could convey and illustrate distinctive concepts, ideas and emotions in a particular imaginary scene.

The shadow drama was a form of art which created different figures, movements and ideas by means of shadows cast on a wall or an improvised screen. Thus shadow drama was a significant achievement in the art of visual communication. The shadow drama which originated and developed as a folk art in China became more popular in most Asian countries and Arabian merchants took it to European countries. Professional artistes in shadow drama in England, France and Belgium showed that this form of art became immensely popular.

'Dark room'

Leonardo da Vinci, an eminent painter and a scientist created sketches which featured a special device popularly called 'Camera Obsecura' (a Latin word meaning 'the dark room'). In 'Camera Obsecura', a beam of light and a shadow are made to enter a dark room through a tiny hole and this process creates a shadowy image on the wall of the 'dark room'. A number of experts on this field carried out researches in improving the quality of the images created inside Camera Obsecura (the dark room).

Even though Leonardo da Vinci spelled out the value of this wonderful invention, it attracted little attention at the time. However, consequent on Davinci's revelation about the portable box-like dark room, considerable research began to be conducted on the effective use of Camera Obsecura. The simple theory of camera Obsecura was a small box with an open side that was covered with a transparent cloth.

The box was sealed with black paper both inside and outside simply to exclude every possibility of light entering the box. In this manner, the beam of light would enter the box through the tiny hole on the side just opposite the side covered with the transparent cloth and would fall on the screen (the transparent cloth).

Camera Obsecura which was really a fundamental product for the modern cinema camera, inevitably had the disadvantage of vagueness of images produced on the screen. In whatever way, the researches carried out on the Camera Obsecura provided the basic theories for the sophisticated cameras subsequently manufactured.

A breakthrough

Giovanne Batista Dela Porta, an Italian scientist instigated an important development in this camera by fixing a lens to the tiny hole and thereby improving the quality of image made on the screen. For this experiment, he used a replica of Da Vinci's camera "Jinhall". However, the camera at this phase was widely used by painters, architects and astronauts such as Johannesse Kepler who used it for astronomical explorations.

The first proper camera which was roughly a wooden box with a lens on the front was built by Joseph Niepce, a Frenchman somewhere in 1826. He could produce a photograph by means of heliography. In 1830, another Frenchman Louis Daguerre invented the world's first practical camera where the image fell on a plate thickly coated with a chemical. In sunlight, the light part of the picture became dark while the darker areas were left lighter creating a form of negative picture. In 1888, American George Eastman introduced the first Kodak Camera which used a highly flexible roll - an incident which made photography an art. George Eastman revolutionised the art and industry of photography because his camera (Kodak) was a highly convenient tool and he introduced the film strip. (The basis for modern cinema camera).

A massive step forward in the production of cinema camera was the animation of stills. In his studio Black Maria, Thomas Alva Edison carried out successful experiments to produce a camera to video a scene by means of the film strip previously produced by George Eastman. Edison was a renowned scientist who made multiple inventions and carried out research regarding cinema.

The year 1887 marked a significant breakthrough in the history of cinema camera. Through laborious experiments, Thomas Alwa Edison succeeded in producing the motion camera and the projector which presented a particular scene cinematically. The period between 1880-1925 produced silent films which were characterised by the absence of sounds and dialogues. Edison introduced cinema as a powerful and popular medium of entertainment for people. He trained cinema artists in Black Maria, his studio and even embarked on a large scale business to sell cinema projectors. Lumiere brothers (Augustus and Louis) who were top class businessmen in France at the time had displayed a keen enthusiasm on Edison's achievements in cinema and produced a few films by means of the motion camera and the projector.

Lumiere brothers deserve the credit of expanding cinema throughout the world and their films attracted massive public attention by dint of the natural elements and scenes present in them.

George Mailiye and Edwin S. Porter flourished as the magicians in the art of silent films at the outset of the twentieth century. George Mailiye invented the cartoon film and his famous film "A trip to the moon" was produced in 1902 by using the most sophisticated cinema technology at that time. Both of them were trainee artists in Edison's studio.

Later, D.W. Griffith a Frenchman, brought about important transformations in the silent film. The salient feature of his films was that he represented life in true colours by taking his camera outside the studio and capturing real life situations. His film "Ramona and Bethulia" shows that he had deeply experimented with the use of cinema camera and techniques of editing. Modern films called a halt to the silent films in 1930s and became the most widespread and popular medium of entertainment throughout the world. No media has ever been successful in eclipsing the popularity and the quality of cinema as a technological entertainment media.

Those who created the shadow dramas and the camera Obsecura readily deserve the credit of shaping cinema into what it is today.