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Early
film cameras were small, able to film only a few minutes
of action at a time, and relied upon a lot of available
light to impress a viewable image onto the film. The
first truly popular moving picture camera was the cinematograph,
a hand-held motion picture camera invented by the Lumiere
brothers in 1895. The primary “invention”
of the Lumiere brothers was in making the mechanics
of filmmaking economical and fairly convenient. The
Lumiere cinematograph allowed filmmakers to capture
images during the day, develop film in the afternoon,
then when the filmmaker turned the device around and
illuminated it with a gas light or a small electric
bulb, he could project the moving images he had captured
just a few hours before.
To promote their new devices,
the Lumiere brothers established a collection of franchise
agents who took on the task of making hundreds of the
first films, and showing the results as widely and as
frequently as possible. Lumiere’s nascent filmmakers
traveled throughout Europe, then eventually over most
of the globe, capturing moving images as they went.
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