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Below left: Alfred Darling’s 1899 Biokam, the fi rst home movie camera Right: Inner mechanism of the 35mm Kinemacolor cine camera by Moy & Bastie, 1910Screen starsFrom close-ups to special effects – the pioneers of early cinema weren’t from Hollywood, but the UK. They are celebrated in an exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Norman Miller reportsWhile Hollywood was still just another Los Angeles suburb, Britain had a fi lmmaking mecca pioneering key elements of cinema – and that place was Brighton & Hove. The story of how early fi lmmaking was nurtured by the English Channel is told in the exhibition Experimental Motion: the art of fi lm innovation at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which showcases key early fi lms with iconic early technology. Then, as now, Brighton & Hove was a place of pleasure-seeking, open-mindedness and creativity – perfect to embrace a new art form born when France’s Lumière brothers (Auguste and Louis) screened their fi rst fi lm footage in Paris in March 1895. The Lumières brought the new medium across the Channel for a screening in London in early 1896 – and within six months, the seeds of Brighton’s fi lm industry had been planted.Several things contributed to Brighton & Hove’s starring role in early cinema, as exhibition Curator Suzie Plumb explains. As a holiday getaway, it had a thriving photographic scene, providing not only photographers but also processing labs. Add good weather and a creative ambience, “and you also had a really fantastic natural set: the sea, the Downs and the city.” A key player in what became the Brighton School of fi lmmakers was local entertainment entrepreneur George Albert Smith. He was a man of diverse talents – combining highly dubious stage acts as a hypnotist and ‘psychic’ with magic lantern shows and a Fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society. Cinema captured Smith’s imagination, and his get-up-and-go spirit was perfect for developing the medium. Plumb explains: “Smith goes to London, sees the Lumière fi lm, then races back to Brighton thinking this is the next big thing... So he starts thinking about cameras – and goes to visit Alfred Darling, a local engineer who makes bits of buses and coffi n handles! Smith says ‘I want a camera’ – then Darling gets excited and starts playing around himself...”And with that began a string of cinematic leaps forward by the Brighton School. For instance, James Williamson’s 1901 fi lm Stop Thief! Is credited with cinema’s fi rst ever chase. “What was interesting was they began thinking of fi lm as a way to tell a story rather than just showing an event,” says Plumb. She contrasts the Brighton School with other fi lmmakers at the time, such as the early US directors who mimicked theatre – fi lming actors coming in from the wings and using written intertitles to aid narrative. “Smith got so many fi rsts under his belt,” says Plumb, before reeling off innovations: close-ups, editing for narrative, special effects. His pioneering 1899 fi lm The Kiss In The Tunnel is one example. In it he spliced three scenes – a steam train entering a tunnel, a man and a woman (played by Smith and his wife) sneaking a kiss in a carriage, then the train exiting the tunnel. Simple enough – but now deemed the fi rst use of editing for cinematic narrative. “With just those three shots Smith creates a new sense of continuity and action.” Darling’s technical contributions were vital too. “Smith might say ‘I really want to do a close-up shot’ – then Darling makes a camera to achieve that,” explains Plumb. Which is how audiences came to experience the fi rst close-ups in Smith’s 1900 short Grandma’s Reading Glasses. Smith’s 1903 fi lm Mary Jane’s Mishap, meanwhile, was credited by historian John Barnes – who, with brother William, collected many of the items26 NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2017 www.nadfas.org.ukFILM MUSEUM