(opening music)
Craig Benzine: It was time for George Melies. Boom.

(off-screen): Intro..Woooooo
(off-screen, singing, John and Katherine Green): Do-do-doo-do 

Benzine: (singing) Boo-doo-doo-do-do-da-doo.
(lengthy pause)
No?

(film projector sound, theme music)

Benzine: This powerful medium sits in a sweet pot of--(sticks out tongue)

(Katherine off-screen laughter)

John: Sweet pot.

Benzine: Sweet pot.  

As filmmakers started to experiment with narrative film, they began to establish a language through different editing techniques, and (forgetting words)... camera... movements.

I'm going to do that again.

The Lumiere brothers had lots of experience in business and engineering, manufacturing, and...(forgetting words)

(robot voice) Photography. (normal voice) Okay.

He thought of motion pictures as an add-on to phonographs which is... (messes up)

He thought of mo... (messes up)

We're going to get this guys. So everybody settle down. Everybody just calm down. We're going to get this. 

It's inescapable. Like, FBI (messes up) It's inescapable, like F (messes up) Oh. 

Not many films are shot at (messes up, babbles)

In 1894, a Canadian entrepreneur named Andrew Holland opened the first kinetoscope parlor in New York City, charging twenty-five cents...Pah!

(John laughing off-screen)

Benzine: Pah! Yeah. 

Then, holy (bleep) he reverse-engineered the animatograph, so it worked as its own camera too!

(laughter off-screen) 

Benzine: Yeah. 

Not many films are actually filmed on film these days. Anymore.

Even though Edison and Dickson originally hoped to synchronize the sound from the phonograph to images in the kinetoscope (big breath) they never quite figured out how to do it. 

Now at the very beginning of history before all of these innovations existed, films (babbles) started out as a collection of still images viewed one after another in rapid succession which creates the illusion of motion! 

One take wonder! 

The camera was hard to move and they all(messes up, babbles)...a single-viewer exhibition device that you would use to watch the kine-kame-ha(babbles), kinetograph films.

The idea was to create a coin-operated entertainment machine that produced images to go along with music or speech that played. from. a. I'm gonna do it again. 

And from that trick came an art form that's a blend of literature, drama, faf-hava-fruit, and music. 

John(off-screen): Faf-hava-fruit?

Benzine: Yeah, that's French.

If another frame appears within that fifth of a second, your brain won't register the black space between them. You'll just perceive that im-(babbles)

Before Edison and his lab had even built their viewing machine, he applied for two preliminary claims with the US patent office- one for the plans for the device.. one for his plans for his device... for the device, and one for.. for its name. 

You've probably experienced this concept at some point- a new technology comes out, and at first we're all marveling at what it can do. Ooooh I can, I got a camera in my pocket, it's a phone and a camera at the same time, wow!  

(babbles)

Edison, every. the. money. hog *laughs*

The guy that -vented. The guy with the chronophonographic gun which gives you some kind of idea of how they felt about working for a guy(babbles)

Defined in 1912 by the Checkborn(babbles) psychologist Max Wertheimer.
(offscreen): Perfect
Benzine: I nailed it, right?
(offscreen): Yeah


Benzine: The five phenomenon is an optical illusion that lets you see the(babbles) series of images in rapid su-kuh-kuh-sucession and *gibberish*
Moving on. *clears throat*


The idea was to create a coin-operated entertainment machine that produced images to go along with music or speech that played from a phono-phonograph. *huffs*


Adventurers were working all over Europe and the United blehh

But, that's not all! Once the film had been developed, the Lumiere device could reconfigure into a pro-projection machine as well. It does so many things, it's great. Love it. Perfect, let's move on.

*singing* When's the last time you heard a really good story?


Now, people have been telling stories since we've had language and they've been using pictures even anim(babbles)

You know, those figures of animals, trees, and humans painted on stone walls. *stutters, blows air*


Think of these as a bowl, or a deep cylinder, or just look at it, *laughs*(laughter from offscreen)


Nyep-Nyeps used a niamora nepscura. 

Scientists now believe it took a couple days of exposing the light for ah-hoo(babbles). Hey guys, how are you, how we doing? We good?


Who invented a way of taking pictures on paper, rather than metal or a glass plate(mumbles)

Murray invented what he called the chrotophotographic gun (laughter off screen). Chroto-

I only said half of the sen-the line. I probably should say the whole thing.

No, what did I do wrong?

One of those engineers was a young man named William, also known as W.K...L. Dickson (laughter off screen)

His assignment was to create something that would animate photographs, something Eddison would (babbles).

How do we feel this is going? Are we-are we doing all right?

Things like grammar, syntax, punctu-punctuation. So it makes sense that his films, as impressive and influential as they w-(babbles)

Per-per- per-form-a-tive spec-specticles. Moving on.

I think I sounded a little drunk.
(Let's try it again.)
Okay. I probably shouldn't be so drunk.

Where the novelty of film itself...is- the novelty itself of film is enough to keep people buying tickets. (coughs)
(Do that again.)
No, I think I...
(Really?)
I conveyed it. People know what I mean.
(Yeah, that's true.)

Not the Hellraiser puzzle!

Calm, everybody calm down. 
(I'm sorry.)
Just (deep breath). Gotta get ready. Gotta say this line. It's gonna be good. (cracks knuckles)

(clears throat) Well, the Lumiere brothers devel-
(No)
...(laughter)