Actuality film
[1] The line between "fact" and "fiction" was not as prominent in early cinema as it would become once documentaries became the predominant non-fiction filmmaking form.
The Lumière Brothers, in France, were the principal advocates for this genre and also coined the term—"Actualités"—and used it as a descriptor in the printed catalogs of their films.
The Edison and early Biograph motion picture cameras were bulky and could not be lifted or carried by a single person and required transport by way of a horse cart.
The Paul-Acres camera, registered in Britain in 1895, was likewise a smaller and more readily portable device than the Edison model, and Birt Acres filmed The Derby (1895) on it in May.
[6] He went on to make some of Britain's first films with Robert W. Paul with a 35mm movie camera, the Kineopticon, including Incident at Clovelly Cottage, The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race and Rough Sea at Dover.
Smith and Cecil Hepworth, who in 1899, began turning out 100 films a year, with his company becoming the largest on the British scene.
[11] His equipment used 70 mm wide film, and each frame was printed separately onto paper sheets for insertion into their viewing machine.
Louis Lumière personally approved every subject released and rejected about 500 films made for the company that did not meet his standards.
They were consciously building a document of the world around them in 50-second shots, and Lumière cameramen had the greatest reach worldwide of any motion picture company in the business, filming in Asia, Africa, and other hard-to-reach places.
More notable examples include Frederick S. Armitage and A. E. Weed's Down the Hudson (1903), and several films by G. W. Billy Bitzer, Interior N.Y.
This was especially common during the Spanish–American War;[17] although cameras were dispatched to the front in Cuba, the footage sent back was often disappointing, so it was more effective to find a setting in New Jersey and to restage the battle scenes with actors.
[citation needed] In 1904, American-born English filmmaker Charles Urban produced Everyday London, a 12-minute travelogue designed to provide views of England to Australians.
Although some actuality films continued to be made after 1910, the genre ceased to have much influence as public interest shifted toward newsreels and documentaries.
