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1、 E Eastman, George b. 1854; d. 1932 inventor, manufacturer, philanthropist, USA An amateur photographer in Rochester, Eastman began producing gelatin dry plates in 1880, and, four years later, paper roll film. He introduced the first commercial transparent roll of film stock (made of cellulose nitra
2、te) in 1889, making possible two years later the development of W.K.L.Dicksons motion picture camera, for Thomas A.Edison. After the “Kodak” brand was patented (1888), he established the Eastman Kodak Company in 1892, which soon became the leading manufacturer of motion picture stock worldwide, and
3、a driving force in photographys further development. Eastmans private home is now a museum and an archive holding a vast collection of early films. See also: celluloid; film developing, printing, and assembly Further reading Brayer, Elizabeth (1996) George Eastman, A Biography, Baltimore: Johns Hopk
4、ins University Press. PAOLO CHERCHI USAI Eastman Kodak Company Eastman Kodak Company, the worlds leading manufacturer of motion picture stock, was established by George Eastman in Rochester in 1892 and given the name “Kodak” after a 1888 patent for a still camera (an earlier company, founded in 1881
5、, dealt with a revolutionary process of dry-plate photography). The first transparent cellulose nitrate film stock commercially distributed (1889) helped W.K.L.Dickson in his experiments for Thomas A.Edison. Kodaks early method for manufacturing film was an improvement over those previously devised
6、by John Carbutt (Philadelphia) and the Celluloid Company (Newark). However, the company had problems with the chemistry of the process and Entries A-Z 283 virtually discontinued making cellulose film stock from late 1892 to mid-1895. Consequently, Dickson began acquiring film from the Blair Camera C
7、ompany (Boston) in April 1893. The Lumire brothers started their experiments with cellulose stock bought from European Blair Camera (London), where film was cut to 35 mm but not perforated (this was left to users), and eventually set up their own manufacturing plant in Lyon with the help of Victor P
8、lanchon. A similar strategy was adopted in Great Britain by Birt Acres; Blair Camera (until 1898) and Anthony in 1912, Gaumont commissioned a 35 mm “safety” film stock with panchromatic emulsion (sensitive to all the colors of the visible spectrum) for Chronochrome, its additive color process. Kodak
9、 itself designed a two-color subtractive process in 1916 (Kodachrome), but would not manufacture “safety” stock on a commercial scale until the invention of 16 mm for the non-theatrical market (1920). Eastmans business principles were reflected in the organization of his company: mass production at
10、low cost; a focus on the customer; extensive advertising; international distribution (several branches for manufacturing and sales soon were established all over the world). Integrating these principles was a flexible, dynamic approach to management which was highly innovative for its time. Fosterin
11、g growth through continuing research, treating employees in a self-respecting way (staff received dividends from company profits), and reinvesting income to build and extend the business were distinguishing features of Eastmans philosophy as an entrepreneur, thus making Kodak a benchmark in the hist
12、ory of corporate industry of the early 20th century. See also: celluloid; film developing, printing, and assembly; monopoly capitalism: USA Further reading Collins, Douglas (1990) The Story of Kodak, New York: Harry M.Abrams. Spehr, Paul C. (2000) “Unaltered to Date: Developing 35 mm Film,” in John
13、Fullerton and Astrid Sderbergh Widding (eds.) Moving Images: From Edison to the Webcam, 327, Sydney: John Libbey. Theisen, Earl (1967) “The History of Nitrocellulose as a Film Base,” Journal of the SMPE, 20 (March 1933), reproduced in Raymond Fielding (ed.) Technological History of Motion Pictures a
14、nd Television, 118119, Berkeley: University of California Press. PAOLO CHERCHI USAI Encyclopedia of early cinema 284 clair Founded in March 1907, clair reached a production level on par with Path-Frres and Gaumont before inexorably declining during World War I. The signatures on the founding documen
15、t of the Socit franaise des films “Lclair” included Ambroise- Franois Parnaland, an inventor who had begun his career in cinema in 1895, and Charles Jourjon, a lawyer and skilled businessman. During the following months, a factory and studios were built in pinay-sur-Seine and regular production bega
16、n. In the summer of 1908, Victorin Jasset was hired by clair to adapt the popular American dime novel series, Nick Carter, for the screen. Pierre Bressol played the detective and the series, which lasted for more than a year, met with a considerable success worldwide, establishing clairs reputation.
17、 Other series adaptations followed: Morgan le pirate (19091910), Le Vautour de la Sierra The Vulture of the Sierra (1910), and most notably Zigomar (19111913) and Prota (19131917), starring Alexandre Arquillire and Josette Andriot, respectively. Besides these popular films, clair created a subsidiar
18、y, ACAD (Association cinmatographique des auteurs dramatiques), in November 1909, in response to Film dArt and SCAGL. Supervised by mile Chautard, the films produced by ACAD covered every genre: historical films (La Dame de Montsoreau, 1913), social dramas (Gerval, le matre de forges Gerval, the Fac
19、tory Manager, 1912), etc. Maurice Tourneur also directed his first films for clair, tapping into the repertory of the Grands Boulevards theaters (Les Gaiets de lescadron The Squadron at Play, 1913) and of the Grand Guignol (Figures de cire Waxworks, 1914). In addition, Jean Mry and Lon Gillon manufa
20、ctured excellent cinematographic apparatuses under the supervision of technical director Georges Maurice. In 1912, clair stepped up its production and soon became a serious competitor to Path and Gaumont. In July the first installment of clair-Journal appeared, a weekly newsreel designed to counter
21、the hegemony of its rivals. At the same time, the Scientia series initiated an important production of scientific films directly inspired by the successes of Jean Comandon for Path. clairs famed comic series also began to appear, with title-characters such as Willy (19121914), played by young Willy
22、Sanders, and especially Gavroche (19121914), with Paul Bertho, and Casimir (19131914), with Lucien Bataille. Moreover, clair developed several subsidiaries abroad in order to increase the diffusion of its films and to diversify its production, with clair American clearly the most important. Beginnin
23、g as a sales office in late 1909, this subsidiary became a full- fledged production company with a studio and laboratories in Fort Lee (New Jersey) by 1911. Under the direction of tienne Arnaud, production steadily increased until March 1914, when a fire destroyed the Fort Lee premises. In the meant
24、ime, Emile Cohl, Chautard, and Tourneur had arrived in the USA to reinforce the local crew. The Fort Lee fire and the beginning of World War I sealed clairs fate. After struggling for six years, the company was declared bankrupt in 1920. See also: crime films; detective films Entries A-Z 285 Further
25、 reading Abel, Richard (ed.) (1993) “Lightning Images: The clair Film Company, 19071920,” Griffithiana, 47. Bousquet, Henri and Mannoni, Laurent (eds.) (1992) “clair 19071918,” 1895, 12. Le Roy, ric and Laurent Billia (eds.) (1995) clair. Un sicle de cinma pinay-sur-Seine, Paris: Calmann-Lvy. THIERR
26、Y LEFEBVRE clair American The French company clair established an American branch in 1911, with the construction of a state-of-the-art studio and laboratory complex in Fort Lee, New Jersey. While employing Americans in front of the camera, clairs front office and technical team in Fort Lee was at fi
27、rst primarily French, including Etienne Arnaud, Emile Chautard, Emile Cohl, and Benjamin Carr. clair briefly sent a production unit on location to Pawnee City, Oklahoma, in late 1912, and a year later established a second permanent studio in Tucson, Arizona. A devastating studio fire in Fort Lee on
28、19 March 1914 resulted in much of the staff moving to the World Film Corporation, and within a year clair sold its American operation. Further reading Higgins, Steven (1992) “American clair, 19111915,” Griffithiana, 44/45:89129. STEVEN HIGGINS Eclipse The socit gnrale des cinmatographes Eclipse, a p
29、ublic limited company with a capital of 600,000 francs, was founded by George Henri Rogers and Paul Joseph Roux in August 1906. Eclipse, which took over the Charles Urban Trading Companys Paris franchise in November that same year, owned a shop in the passage de lOpra and a small studio in Courbevoi
30、e. In July 1908, a new increase in capital (1,500,000 francs) made it possible for the company to launch Charles Urban and Albert Smiths kinemacolor films and to purchase a majority of shares in the Radios company, which had been created in 1907. By 1913, Eclipse was the fourth largest French film m
31、anufacturer, releasing 150 films per year, among them the Arizona Bill series, directed Encyclopedia of early cinema 286 by Gaston Rouds and starring Jo Hamman. Ten years later, after suffering financially during World War I, the company was purchased by Omnium EEG. See also: Desfontaines, Henri; Me
32、rcanton, Louis LAURENT MANNONI Edamasa Yoshiro b. 1888; d. 1944 cameraman/director, Japan Born in Hiroshima, Edamasa was hired by Yoshizawa Shoten in 1910 and learned the techniques of shooting motion picture film from Chiba Yoshizo. After working as a cameraman at Fukuhodo and Toyo Shokai, he moved
33、 to Tenkatsu in 1914, when the company was founded. He displayed particular skill in filming trick effects, and he was keenly interested in modernizing Japanese cinema. In 1919, he finally directed his first film, Ai no kyoku The Melody of Sorrow. In the 1920s and 1930s, he directed more than twenty
34、 films. HIROSHI KOMATSU Edison Home Kinetoscope Thomas Edisons 1912 Home Kinetoscope projector, promoted for domestic, school, YMCA, and club use, was designed to show Edison Company moving pictures. This projector used 22 mm safety film stock ingeniously featuring three rows of tiny pictures. No re
35、winding was necessary during a presentation: the first strip was shown by cranking the handle forward; the center strip (with images printed in reverse order), by simply cranking the handle backwards; the third strip, by turning the handle forward again. The projector could also show special slides.
36、 There was no camera for making amateur movies, however, and the system was short-lived. STEPHEN HERBERT Edison Kinetograph camera Thomas Edisons Kinetograph was the first commercially successful moving picture camera. Begun as a cylinder device, it was essentially completed by Edisons assistant, W.
37、K.L.Dickson, in the spring of 1892, but was not used for commercial production until Entries A-Z 287 1894. Designed to use strips of 35 mm celluloid film stock with four sprocket holes on each side of an image one inch wide, it set the international standard which the industry has used since 1896. E
38、dison delayed patenting the Kinetograph until 1897, but after it was accepted the patent was used to sue his major competitors. PAUL SPEHR Edison Manufacturing Owned by Thomas A.Edison and formed in December 1889, Edison Manufacturing was based in Orange, New Jersey. It was part of Edisons high tech
39、nology manufacturing complex: the Black Maria moving picture studio was located directly behind Edisons Laboratory. The company produced and marketed a variety of products including batteries, fans, and dental equipment. The inventor shifted his moving picture activities from his Laboratory accounts
40、 to Edison Manufacturing on 1 April 1894. The company sold both exhibition equipment (initially the peep-hole Kinetoscope, but later the projecting Kinetoscope) and film prints. Commercial filmmaking can be dated from Eugen Sandows appearance before the Edison Kinetograph (Edisons moving picture cam
41、era) on 6 March 1894. Although a handful of subjects shot in 1893 and early 1894 subsequently were offered for sale, Edison Manufacturing produced over 125 subjects for Kinetoscope exhibition between March 1894 and the end of 1895. Under William Gilmore, vice-president and general manager of Edison
42、Manufacturing, W.K.L.Dickson headed the Kinetograph Department while William Heise was chief cameraman. When Dickson departed in April 1895, eventually to join forces with American Mutoscope and Biograph (AM within the next few months, it opened in most US cities. Seventy-three Vitascopes eventually
43、 were manufactured, while more than eighty different moving picture subjects were shot in the spring and summer of 1896. Responding to the location shooting of both the Eidoloscope Company and the Lumire company, Edison developed a portable camera that was first used to shoot outdoor scenes of New Y
44、ork City on 11 May 1896. Encyclopedia of early cinema 288 Edison broke with Raff in fact, its challenge was so powerful that the inventor-businessman almost sold his moving picture interests to the company in 1900. Thus, when Edison Manufacturing was incorporated in early May 1900, Edisons film busi
45、ness was excluded from the process of incorporation. After AM by 1912 the company was releasing five reels of new subjects per week and its films were as highly regarded as those by any company except Biograph. In April 1911, the newly formed Thomas A.Edison, Inc. took over the commercial film busin
46、ess, and Edison invested considerable energy and money in two ventures that proved unsuccessful. The Edison Home Kinetoscope, launched in late 1911, sought to bring commercial movies into the home in a manner that looked toward the VCR revolution of the 1980s. The Kinetophone, which debuted in Febru
47、ary 1913, attempted to show synchronous sound films and enjoyed a brief fad. Meanwhile, Edison and the MPPC were sued for anti-trust violations and ultimately lost in the courts. These problems all proved distracting as Edison lagged behind in one crucial area of businessthe emergence of the multipl
48、e- reel/feature film. When faced with previous problems in the past, Edison had been able to play catch up; this time the scale of operations proved Figure 30 Edison cameramen, c. 1910. (Courtesy of the Robert S.Birchard Collection.) Encyclopedia of early cinema 290 too large, and competitors such a
49、s Famous Players Motion Picture Company were too well entrenched. After the onset of World War I, which resulted in the loss of foreign markets, Edisons film business was only breaking even. It stopped marketing projectors in 1915, and its filmmaking business began to lose money by 1917. On 30 March 1918, Thomas A.Edison, Inc. sold its film business to the Lincoln US patent wars Further reading Bowser, Eileen (1990) The Transformation of Cinema, 19071915, New York: