precinema

Precinema refers to the period of film history preceding the invention of the cinema, roughly spanning from the 17th to the late 19th century. During this time, various forms of visual storytelling and entertainment emerged, laying the groundwork for the development of motion pictures.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, magic lantern shows became popular in Europe and North America. These presentations used hand-painted glass slides, often with candles or oil lamps to produce light, to display images and tell stories. Lanternists, or performers who showed these projections, were well-received entertainers in social gatherings and public performances.

In the 19th century, various attempts were made to create moving images. One notable example is the work of Eadweard Muybridge, a British photographer who took a series of photographs showing a horse in motion. In 1878, Muybridge's photographs were displayed in rapid succession in a lecture, creating the illusion of movement. This experiment, known as the "horse in motion" series, is considered an early precursor to the motion picture.

Other forms of precinema include the Zoetrope, an instrument patented in the 1830s that used a rotating cylinder with slits to display animated images, and the Stereoscope, which produced three-dimensional images using two photographs taken from different angles. These innovations, while not exactly cinema, showcased the growing interest in visual entertainment and laid the groundwork for the technological advancements that would lead to the invention of the motion picture camera in the 1890s.