Auguste Lumiere (1862-1954) and Louis Lumiere (1864-1948) were among the first pioneers of cinema. They were both very good at science at school, so they were sent to a technical school. They worked in their father’s photographic factory because they were interested in images. After they had seen Thomas Edison’s peephole Kinetoscope, they discovered some issues with it, and they thought it could be improved. The brothers saw it was too big and bulky, and only one person could view the films at a time. They designed their own device and called it a Cinematographe, which was a camera, projector and printer in one. Not only was it more convenient for presenting films, but it was also much lighter and easier to carry around. Now that it had been built, Louis was the first to experiment with it. He focused on capturing everyday events around him. The camera was on a tripod and fixed on one location. The Lumieres did the first public film screening in Paris on the 28th of December in 1895. They showed 10 short films which lasted only nearly 20 minutes in total.
Their Cinematographe: 
Maries Georges Jean Melies (1861-1938) was a professional magician and film maker. When he saw the Lumieres’ first public screening of films, he took an interest for film making and saw the possibilities of it. About a year later he was already making films. Unlike the Lumieres, Melies made fantasy films with special effects and illusions. He was able to successfully manipulate his techniques and create innovative stories. Many of his first films were parodies or remakes of the Lumieres’ films, but as he had a different approach to film making, they turned out a lot different. He discovered how he could take photographs to create stop-motion films to transform reality and create visual illusions.
Melies’s first known film and world’s first known movie remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zfxKXbLlQ
Birt Acres (1854-1918) was one of the first pioneers of cinema and a photographer. He was a British film maker and inventor, and he was the the first in England to successfully project a 35 mm film through a camera that he and Robert W. Paul created. Birt Acres became a photographer. He studied clouds and their movement in time-lapse. In 1894 Robert Paul, who was an instrument-maker and engineer, approached him because he was in need of a machine that would be compatible with Edison’s Kinetoscope and asked for a collaboration. They quickly made progress and successfully made the camera. They produced several silent films in 1895, such as The Arrest of the Pickpocket, The Derby, Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race, Shoeblack at Work in a London Street, but they stopped being partners because of disagreements over who invented the equipment.
Birt Acres’s camera: 
kristinedejus 