<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/?attachment_id=3563" rel="attachment wp-att-3563"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3563" alt="Lumiere Factory" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Lumiere.jpg" width="254" height="200" /></a>
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/SortiedesOuvriersdel1895-01.jpg</p>
“Break at the Lumiere Factory” is a short black and white film created by the Lumiere brothers in 1895. The Lumiere brothers worked at the factory and “were inspired by Edison's work that they created their own combo movie camera and projector.” The film shows workers coming out of the factory during their lunch break in France. This short film is said to be the start of early Cinema.<!--more-->

In this time period there was the Panic and depression going on all over the world, and workers were going on strike for better wages. Felix Faure was the president during this time and “metropolitan France was the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany.” The Lumiere brothers were inspired by Edison’s work but wanted to improve it, they had both been sent to technical school by their father who owned a factory of his own. When they came back, “He presented his son Louis with a piece of Kinescope film, given to him by one of Edison’s concessionaires and said, "This is what you have to make, because Edison sells this at crazy prices and the concessionaires are trying to make films here in France to have them cheaper". The brothers worked on improving this and eventually made it smaller in size and lighter in weight.

Although it is argued that this was not the first film created, it was definitely the most popular. There was not any type of film going on at this time and people did not have the technology and entertainment we have today, and working those long boring hours you can imagine how happy workers were to be out for break!

According to the History of Film, the first public run was done in the brothers’ basement to a scientific conference and it was said to have caused a sensation. The people loved this new form of entertainment! The very first movie theatre was built and tickets were sold to see an assortment of short films they made. In an account to reactions of this, “their film sequence of a train pulling into the station reportedly had audiences screaming and ducking for cover as they believed that the train itself was about to plow into the theater” That just shows how new this was to the people, but they still came back for more! “The Lumière Brothers were quick to patent the Cinematograph outside of their native France, applying for an English Patent on April 18th 1895.” This was the start of Cinema.

“Ironically as we look back in retrospect in comparison to what film has developed into today, the Lumiere Brothers believed it to be a medium without a future” however that is definitely not the case as we all know. In schools all around the world, students are learning about this great work and how is has impacted our lives. I have found recent video versions on YouTube being posted just within the past year.

After watching the short film and researching the work, I was impressed at how these brothers created something like this and how greatly it has impacted so much of our lives today. Personally I gained an appreciation for film and how it came about. I liked seeing the way men women dressed, how they interacted with each other. I think it is awesome to be able to look back and have a real insight to life and people back then as opposed to actors, and props, and costumes.

If you wanted to see something similar to this type of work, you can take a look at Georges Melies, who was known as the first “Cinemagician” his earliest films were remakes of the Lumiere brothers but later he went on to create his own. The most popular in my opinion is “Cendrillon” aka Cinderella in 1899. This film was black and white like that of its time but it told a story. He got the idea from the play Cinderella but was the first to make it into a short film. This was different from “Break at the Factory” because it was the first short film with scenes.

This short film is most important because it is the first official first film and was the start of our cinema that we still use today. This should definitely be preserved for years to come so that no matter how far along in technology we get, we can always look back at life in the 1900’s and appreciate these great works of our forefathers.

Work Cited

The History of Film written by Tim Dirks. Film History before 1920 Part 2
Georges Méliès Trick Films 1899, by Scott Ashlin
"Lumière, Louis Jean and Auguste." World Encyclopedia. 2005.Encyclopedia.com. 29 Oct. 2013 .
http://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro2.html
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html
http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/lumiere.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Faur%C3%A9