Film Icons

D.W. Griffiths

David Lleyelyn Griffiths was an American film director born in 1985. He was born methodist in Kentucky and directed over 450 short films, recited for 534. He worked for American Mutoscope and Biogrph Co. and is known for creating flashbacks, iris shots and and also crosscutting. His most successful film was 'The Birth Of a Nation', 1915, however he received a lot of criticism due to strong racism in the film. White actors were covered in black makeup to pose as violent African Americans. He was described as the 'Father of film technique' and produced and directed the first ever Hollywood film. He was voted to be the 15th greatest director. In 1909, he was producing 2 or 3 films a week and retired in 1931. He died in 1948.

George Melies

George Melies was a professional magician born in 1891 in France. He accidentally discovered that he could use stop-motion photography as a special effect. He was the first to use fading in and out and also the dissolve effect and split screen to create the first real narrative films. This was advanced technolgoy for the day. He has made over 500 films with his most famous being 'A Trip to the Moon'.

Sergei Eisenstein

Sergei was born in Russia in 1898 as a son to an architect. After joining the army in 1917, a few years later he joined up with Moscow Proletkult Theatre as a set designer, going on to being a director. The director for the theatre was a big infulence for Sergei and he likes the idea of the sequence of events and how they affect people's emotions. Although making only 7 films, his work was quite abstract and different to 'common' films.
 

The Lumière Brothers

The Lumière Brothers were sons of a well known painter. They were both very smart, particularly in science and were sent to a technical school. Their father abandoned art and began a new business manufacturing photographic equipment. Whilst experimenting he discovered a new 'dry plate'. It became known as the 'Etiquette Bleue' process and gave his father’s business a welcome boost, and a factory was built soon after to manufacture the plates. By 1894 the Lumières were producing around 15,000,000 plates a year.