J.S Lumiere Brothers

Lumiere brothers.

The lumiere brothers are the earliest film-makers in history. Born in France they both started out working for their father at his photographic firm. They had their first private screening of projected motion pictures in 1895. Each film of theirs was 17 metres long and runs around 50 seconds when through a projector. They started looking at colour photography in 1903, the autochrome lumiere was launched in 1907.

The films they made were extremely short, sometimes ranging from 38 seconds to 49 seconds. When the brothers had a public debut at the Grand Café they showed ten of their films.

As you can see in the above clip, the Lumiere Brothers used music to describe what's going on in the film, adding to the characters gestures. In the clip above you can hear upbeat and light music being played, this obviously indicates that nothing bad is happening in the clip or the music would change to more of a slow and jumpy sound. This effect is good as it gives the audience a clear indication as to what is going on.

Surprisingly, the Lumiere brothers declined to sell their camera to other film makers such as Georges Melies, this upset film makers. The brothers instead decided to turn their attention to colour photography. In 1903 they created a colour photography process called Auto chrome Lumiere and launched it 4 years later in 07. This meant that throughout the 20th century, their company was thought to be a major producer of photographic products in Europe.