J. Stuart Blackton (Pioneer)

 

James Stuart Blackton was born on January 5^th, 1875 in Sheffield, England and died on August 13^th, 1941 in Los Angeles, California. J. Stuart Blackton was an Anglo-American film producer and director of the silent era. The silent era is when there was no sound for films and clips, so they would mostly use mimes for films. J. Stuart Blackton was also seen as a pioneer of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1807. Vitagraph Studios was a US motion picture studio and by 1907 it was the most productive company. Blackton was the first to make films that consisted of stop motion and drawn animation, this allowed him to take upon the name ‘The Father of American Animation’.

In 1906 Blackton released a short silent animated cartoon ‘Humorous Phases of Funny Faces’. This is seen to be the first animated film recorded on standard picture film. This would be another reason why people saw Blackton as a pioneer for animation.

In the scene above it shows a male and female, which are animated hand drawn scenes that appear on a chalkboard. In this scene the man starts to stare at the women and then he starts to smoke a cigar and the smoke fills the whole chalkboard, after this is created Blackton rubs out the board and starts a new short story. In the beginning, Blackton decided to show his hands when he started to draw the man but for the women the drawings just appeared. The images are then moved by themselves which aided by stop motion.

Blackton left Vitagraph Studios in 1917. In 1921 he came to England, where he directed three lavish costume dramas in Prismacolor (brand of professional artist). ‘The Glorious Adventure’ (1922) and ‘The Virgin Queen’ (1923)

However, though, Blackton was seen as the ‘Father of American Animation’ the Warner Bros took over Vitagraph studious in 1926. He then retired but in 1929 there was a crash which led to him losing all his money, this forced him back to work. Blackton ended his days working for the Anglo American film company. He was then killed in a car accident.

In my opinion I would say that the pioneer James Stuart Blackton played the most important role in animation. The reason why I think that Blackton played the most important role is because if he didn’t start working on animation, then the people who were inspired by his work and carried it on would have not had the determination to enter the animation world. The people that were inspired by Blackton’s work were Emile Cohl which then inspired Winsor Mcay and then led to a man called Goldwin. This can be seen as the domino effect, so the reason why Blackton was most important is because he can be seen as the first domino creating a reaction. If he didn’t starts producing then the others may have not followed.  

 

The Development of Animation

Zoetrope:

The Zoetrope was invented in the 19th century, this was invented by William George Horner. The first Zoetrope was introduced in England in 1834. It is also known as the wheel of life because when you put a strip of drawings in a circular drum and spin it at a certain pace it would look like the drawings are actually moving and turns it into a short animation clip. The persistence of vision creates an illusion of movement whereby a series of images turn into one picture. 

Phenakistoscope:

The Phenakistoscope was invented by a Belgian physicist called Joseph Plateau in 1832. The Phenakistoscope is also known as the "spindle viewer". This would give the illusion of movement and it is also regarded as the firsts forms of moving media. (also can be compared to as a GIF)

Flip Books:

This was created by John Barnes Linnett. Flip books were the first form of animation to employ a linear sequence of images rather than circular. They were created in 1868, they are normally considered as a toy or novelty for children. However, they were also used for adult purposes such as pornography.

Praxinoscope:
This is another animation device. The Praxinoscope was invented in France in 1877 by a man named Charles-Emile Reynaud. It used a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface of a spinning cylinder.


Paleolithic:
The Paleolithic era was known to be where they found the first Stop Motion Animation. Even though, the cave paintings were not able to move or give off the illusion of movement they still established the cave paintings as the first ever Stop Motion.


Thaumatrope:
This was invented in 1825 by a man called Dr John Ayrton in Paris. The Thaumatrope was the first optical toy that created the illusion of movement. The name that they gave this toy was the magic turn which consisted 2 pieces of paper and the quick flashes is interpreted as one continuous image.