.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
James Williamson (1855-1933) was a film producer, director, showman, inventor and manufacturer. He was born in Pathhead, Scotland, and raised in Edinburgh until 1868, and then in London where he was apprenticed to a chemist.
From 1877 Williamson lived in Eastry, Kent, where he married and practised pharmacy until 1886, before relocating to Hove. Here he resumed the chemist's trade and sold photographic supplies. He took up lantern photography as a hobby, and practiced showmanship at local functions. His first exposure to cinematography was through a circle of friends and neighbours which included the photographer and inventor William Friese Greene, pioneer cinematographers G.A. Smith and Esmé Collings, and machinist and engineer Alfred Darling. These associations would prove influential for him.
Williamson's first experiments in cinematography date from 1894, his first viable films from 1897. But it was only in 1898 that he went into the film business seriously, using a camera he invented with Darling's help. In October 1898 he issued a brief catalogue of films, followed a year later by a longer catalogue. His views on the proper use of the new medium were emphatic, personal and prohetic. Williamson was one of the chief pioneers of the film narrative, beginning with fictitious news items such as Attack on a China Mission in January 1901, in which which he cut from one shot to another for dramatic effect, creating a primitive form of 'race against time'.
Williamson recruited actors from his own familly and appeared in many of his own films. His output of films was never large compared with other film makers, probably because he was involved in serveral activities at once. Williamson continued to produce films until 1908 when he closed his commercial operation. In 1913 he revived his newsreel service, which failed in the early months of the First World War. Both his film processing plant in Barnet and his equipment works at Willesden, North London, were already in operation. Williamson made his already famous motion picture cameras here, and also a variety of specialist cameras including a gun camera which photographed the air battles of the two world wars.
From 1877 Williamson lived in Eastry, Kent, where he married and practised pharmacy until 1886, before relocating to Hove. Here he resumed the chemist's trade and sold photographic supplies. He took up lantern photography as a hobby, and practiced showmanship at local functions. His first exposure to cinematography was through a circle of friends and neighbours which included the photographer and inventor William Friese Greene, pioneer cinematographers G.A. Smith and Esmé Collings, and machinist and engineer Alfred Darling. These associations would prove influential for him.
Williamson's first experiments in cinematography date from 1894, his first viable films from 1897. But it was only in 1898 that he went into the film business seriously, using a camera he invented with Darling's help. In October 1898 he issued a brief catalogue of films, followed a year later by a longer catalogue. His views on the proper use of the new medium were emphatic, personal and prohetic. Williamson was one of the chief pioneers of the film narrative, beginning with fictitious news items such as Attack on a China Mission in January 1901, in which which he cut from one shot to another for dramatic effect, creating a primitive form of 'race against time'.
Williamson recruited actors from his own familly and appeared in many of his own films. His output of films was never large compared with other film makers, probably because he was involved in serveral activities at once. Williamson continued to produce films until 1908 when he closed his commercial operation. In 1913 he revived his newsreel service, which failed in the early months of the First World War. Both his film processing plant in Barnet and his equipment works at Willesden, North London, were already in operation. Williamson made his already famous motion picture cameras here, and also a variety of specialist cameras including a gun camera which photographed the air battles of the two world wars.