The digital age has made a great impact on the way motion pictures are made, a fact that is especially evident when it comes to camera work. Filmmaking is currently in the midst of a growing and inevitable shift away from shooting onto film. One of the fading arguments for using traditional film cameras is that film has a look or feel that can't be duplicated digitally. While this is most certainly still the case when the imagery of large-format film is compared to consumer-grade and entry-level digital camera equipment, experienced cinematographers and camera operators who use high-end professional digital equipment are quickly eliminating the distinction.

Evolution of the Camera

The light bulb and phonograph may be Thomas Edison's most famous inventions, but he can also be credited with the creation of the world's first commercially successful motion picture camera, which he patented in 1891. Several earlier devices had been created that enabled the illusion of motion to be captured on film. The tongue-twisting Phenakistiscope and Zoo-praxiscope were capable of projecting images that produced the appearance of movement, but they relied on a series of still cameras to create their images.

During this same time, the Eastman Kodak company had designed and marketed consumer-oriented single-shot cameras that utilized rolls of film that could be hand-wound through relatively simple mechanisms. Edison's team of creative geniuses realized that the same concept could be applied to a motorized camera that would automatically wind and shoot multiple frames of film in rapid succession.

Black Maria

The result of Edison's effort was a motion picture camera that utilized rolls of film thirty-five millimeters (35mm) wide. The camera was given its own home in the world's first motion picture studio, unofficially dubbed the Black Maria (pronounced ma-rye-uh), which you learned about in Chapter 1. The studio was constructed to pivot on a single axis in the center so that the entire structure could be swiveled to face the sun, which provided the light required to shoot the scenes within.

The camera Edison's team developed was called the Kinetoscope, and the device on which films were viewed was the Kinetograph. The Kinetograph was a single-user mechanism that would trigger a worldwide amusement industry and encourage America's hunger for inexpensive entertainment. The cinema was born.