Louis Lumires Contribution to Filmmaking History

The world of cinema owes its existence to French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumire.
These two, dubbed the earliest filmmakers in history, invented the Cinmatographe and
the Autochrome color photography process. This June, the motion picture industry will
celebrate the 65
th
anniversary of Louis death.

Early Start
Louis was born on October 5, 1864 in Besancon, France. He was two years younger
than Auguste. They were sons of Antoine Lumire, a well known portrait painter. The
brothers both excelled in science subjects and were sent to La Martiniere, the largest
technical school in Lyon, France.

Auguste and Louis worked for Antoine in his photographic firm. The business
manufactured and supplied photographic equipment. While Auguste worked as the
manager, the younger Lumire brother worked as the physicist.

Louis began experimenting with his fathers photographic equipment. During his
experiments, he discovered a process which assisted in the development of
photography. At the age of seventeen, he developed a new dry plate process which
became known as the Etiquette Bleue process. It gave their business a much-needed
boost, and soon enough, a factory was built to manufacture the plates.

During one of his trips to Paris, Antoine saw an Edison Kinetoscope which gave him an
idea to work on developing a motion picture system. He took a piece of the Kinetoscope
film when he went back home and urged Louis to make one as he saw that the films
sold at outrageous prices.

Louis envisioned something different. He came up with the idea of a projected image
that could be shared by an audience the same way they view a play. With Augustes
help, Louis designed the Cinmatographe, a combined camera, projector and printer.
The first model was constructed by their friend, engineer Charles Moisson. Patented on
February 13, 1895, the Cinmatographe was much smaller that Edisons, was
lightweight and was hand cranked. The portable machine allowed the capture of motion
at almost any location.

Film Screenings
The Cinmatographe was first presented to the public on March 22, 1895. It was during
the first public screening of the movie La Sortie des Usines Lumire at the Socit
d'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale in Paris. Nine months later, on December 22,
the brothers held the first motion picture exhibition for a paying audience wherein they
presented a twenty-minute program of ten short films. It was held in a rented room at
the Grand Caf on Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. Legend says that when a clip of a
train advancing toward the camera was played, men screamed, women fainted and
majority of the audience ran toward the back of the auditorium.

Not Just a Business Venture
To the Lumire brothers, motion pictures were more than just a business venture. They
embarked on its production to satisfy their curiosity. In 1901, when other technologies
superseded the Cinmatographe, Auguste and Louis left the business of producing
motion pictures. They ventured instead in the photography business and introduced the
Autochrome system of color photography. Auguste withdrew from the business nine
years later, but Louis went on to introduce a stereoscopic photography system and a
three-dimensional motion picture system. Before his death on June 6, 1948 and through
an interview for French television, Louis gave a formal account of the origins of
Cinmatographe


References
Louis Lumire [http://www.nndb.com/people/388/000212749/]

Louis Jean Lumire; Whos Who of Victorian Cinema [http://www.victorian-
cinema.net/louislumiere]

Lumire Brothers [http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html]