The birth of film cannot be traced to any one particular event or discovery in history. The text does say however, that “the first seeds were planted as early as 1646. A German Jesuit named Athanasius Kircher was hard at work devising an instrument he called Magia Catoptrica“. (1) The translation for Magia Catoptrica is “the Magic Lantern” which makes pretty good sense to me. It is thought that the idea had previously been “invented”, but it had never made it from paper to a working model.
Some may say that this invention is the birth of film, but I would have to disagree. The birth of film may have started with this invention, but there are other aspects that were included in the birth of film. Once film was available as a medium it was opened artists up to an entirely different way of creating that was extremely revolutionary.
The first films were generally series photography, which simply means that they were several still frames that were run together quickly. Even though these films were pictures run together, they were quite creative. The first series photography films really opened the whole medium up to the world which led to even more innovation.
