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20/8/1892: Dancing the Berlin Jig
The German Skladanowsky brothers, Max and Emil are, much like Emile Reynaud, largely forgotten today, although they played a larger part in the development of motion pictures, and are justified in laying claim to the mantle of being the first film-makers to present their films to a paying audience. However, in 1892, the Skladanowskys were just a couple of modest showmen who, with their father, Carl, toured Germany and central Europe, presenting their Nebula Spectacle to an enthralled populace.
The Nebula Pictures were a spectacular show that fused multiple images and cacophonous sound to stupendous effect while depicting scenes of such natural catastrophic phenomena as earthquakes and firestorms. The success of these shows spurred the brothers on to experiment with film to create moving images that could be shown to the public.
To this end, Max – by far the more creative and mechanically adept of the brothers – devised a camera/projector system he called the Bioskop, which exposed – and subsequently projected – two alternating film strips at a speed of 16 frames-per-second. Skladanowsky’s camera used Eastman celluloid film with perforations punctured into it by hand.
On the 20th August 1892, on the rooftops of Berlin’s Pankow and Prenzlauer districts, 29-year-old Max managed to shoot forty-eight frames of film of his older brother, Emil, grinning as he performed a curious jig with arms outstretched and hat held aloft.
By all accounts, the Skladanowskys' invention was an unwieldy one that was both difficult to operate and less sophisticated than the single lens, single film cameras that were being invented elsewhere. [ADD]
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