0:00:32 > 0:00:37Brighton, officially the city of Brighton and Hove,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41was in the 1820s the main terminal for ferry travel to France.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Before the railways, it was the quickest route from London to Paris,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51which may explain its early attraction
0:00:51 > 0:00:55to a bohemian crowd of artists and free-thinkers.
0:00:56 > 0:01:03At the turn of the 20th century, they were joined by another group, pioneers in a brand new field.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08They invented something so fundamental that we use it all the time while making Coast.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10In fact, we used it just now,
0:01:10 > 0:01:12AND now,
0:01:12 > 0:01:13and now.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22These pioneers were Britain's early film-makers
0:01:22 > 0:01:29and they helped to create the modern movie, because they invented, among other things, the close-up.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37In the late 1890s, when Hollywood was little more than a citrus grove on the West Coast of America,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41the South Coast of England was a hotbed of movie-making.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Long hours of summer daylight made it ideal,
0:01:47 > 0:01:51but the very first films were pretty static by modern standards.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Simple records of daily life,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59these early films were known as "animated photographs".
0:01:59 > 0:02:05They captured events as they unfolded in one continuous un-edited shot.
0:02:07 > 0:02:14But George Albert Smith, a Brighton showman turned film-maker, had some new ideas.
0:02:14 > 0:02:20Frustrated by these single-shot films, he was about to transform this infant medium.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27Film historian Frank Gray is showing me how.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31What Smith did was to begin to imagine you could build a film sequence.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35Instead of conceiving of a single shot like the frame, you could move
0:02:35 > 0:02:39from that and you could look at what I'm seeing now of you,
0:02:39 > 0:02:44how you're looking at me, and also too the sense in which the sea,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48the sky, the shingle and then the kind of wider space in which we're in.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52'Just as we move OUR camera to get different shots,
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Smith did the same thing,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57'except he was the first to think of it.'
0:02:57 > 0:03:02And in this early film he shows another first, the close-up.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08So does this approach enable the director to trick the audience?
0:03:08 > 0:03:10All the time, film's always about trickery.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14You're working with a set of shots which create the illusion
0:03:14 > 0:03:19of a continuity of time and space, and I think that's why we love the medium.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21THUNDER RUMBLES
0:03:21 > 0:03:27Strange to think THIS is where the modern movie was created, around 1900.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30'It can't have been without its problems.'
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Moving the big hand-cranked cameras.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Working with actors instead of just recording life as it happened.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43To understand the challenges they faced, we're going to try making
0:03:43 > 0:03:48a movie, using only the equipment available to those early film-makers.
0:03:49 > 0:03:54Our drama will re-create this production from 1920, an adaptation
0:03:54 > 0:03:57of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor Of Casterbridge,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01made by the ambitious-sounding Progress Film Company.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06They were based in Shoreham, a few miles up the coast from Brighton.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10We're also using one of their original locations, an old fort.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Shoreham was a rather heady place in the 1920s.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18Glamorous London actors spent their summers here,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22a ready-made cast of luvvies for the Progress Film Company.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28'But what was it like to make films here?
0:04:28 > 0:04:34'Gillian Gregg's grandfather actually ran the Progress Studios and her mum was a child star.'
0:04:34 > 0:04:37- This is my mum. - And what age is she there?
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Only 16. She acted under the name of Mavis Claire.
0:04:40 > 0:04:45And it's The Mayor Of Casterbridge, so this is a still taken during the filming.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Now, if this scene here is being shot in a studio,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51where were those buildings in relation to where we are?
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Well, the best evidence I have of that is in this other album.
0:04:55 > 0:05:01This was the glasshouse where they did a lot of the filming because of all the natural light.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05The glasshouse was just down there on the shingle,
0:05:05 > 0:05:10and the studio rest and the bungalows were all along the shingle along here.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12So there was a Hollywood by the sea.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16- Yes, I think it was. - What did your mum talk about when you got her onto the subject?
0:05:16 > 0:05:19She talked a little bit about The Mayor Of Casterbridge, and they
0:05:19 > 0:05:23went over to Dorchester to meet Thomas Hardy who watched the set.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Really?! Thomas Hardy?
0:05:25 > 0:05:27- Yes, Thomas Hardy.- Fantastic.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31I wonder how he felt, seeing his book being adapted.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36I think he was pretty pleased with it, and about my mum he said, "Mavis Claire, she is my Elizabeth."
0:05:36 > 0:05:41- Really?- Yes.- So he named-checked her personally?- Yes.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Most of the Progress Company's features have been lost, but luckily
0:05:46 > 0:05:49The Mayor Of Casterbridge has survived.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55And as an added bonus, I've got Gillian's mum's copy
0:05:55 > 0:05:59of the original script, complete with director's notes. Look at that!
0:05:59 > 0:06:04Thomas Hardy handled this script, and now I'VE got it!
0:06:06 > 0:06:11But, for our film-making experiment, the first thing I need to get to grips with is the camera.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14This looks more like a piece of furniture than a camera, John.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16Yes, this goes back to the 1920s.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19'Early cinema enthusiast John Adderley is going to help me.'
0:06:19 > 0:06:25It's the gauge that Edison patented. For lining up, what you do is you pull it around to that position
0:06:25 > 0:06:31and you can see there's a viewing system, and you can actually look through the lens.
0:06:31 > 0:06:32And it's upside down.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37Yes, yes. And you can see that's all the gubbins in here.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Oh, it's...
0:06:39 > 0:06:42so gorgeous, though, look at it!
0:06:43 > 0:06:47We've assembled our cast of local actors,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50but there'll be no relaxing in the Winnebago for them.
0:06:50 > 0:06:56Just as in 1920, we've no electric lights, so we must make the most of the daylight.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59All we need now is a director.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01That would be me.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05OK, everyone, silence please.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07We're going to do a scene now.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09First positions, please.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11Mr Henchard, sitting down, thank you.
0:07:13 > 0:07:14That's good, keep going.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19'I have to get the cranking just right, a constant 16 frames a second,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23'otherwise the action will appear jerky, unlike the original.'
0:07:26 > 0:07:28We're burning daylight here, you know.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31And action!
0:07:33 > 0:07:38And if you're wondering about the bizarre make-up, so am I.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44The film was autochromatic, it wasn't sensitive to reds. It's more sensitive to blue, so blue comes out
0:07:44 > 0:07:51quite light, but red goes absolutely black. So that's why we put the blue on the lips, and around the eyes.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54So, in an autochromatic film, they were look a good deal more lifelike and realistic
0:07:54 > 0:07:56than they do to naked eye?
0:07:56 > 0:07:58Yes, yes, hopefully.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00We're moving the camera.
0:08:01 > 0:08:02Haven't got all day.
0:08:02 > 0:08:09'It's time to put George Smith's ideas into action, and get a new angle on the scene.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12'It's an involved process, setting up a new shot.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16'I can see why many early film-makers didn't move the camera at all.'
0:08:18 > 0:08:21- A bit faster.- And, action!
0:08:21 > 0:08:25'But on the plus side, as this is a silent movie, I don't have to be.'
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Susie, step into the gap...
0:08:28 > 0:08:30And cut!
0:08:30 > 0:08:33That was good, yeah. Yeah, cos you let it...
0:08:33 > 0:08:36That's the first time you've said that.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39HE SIGHS There we go, wrapped my first movie, great fun.
0:08:39 > 0:08:46'The most satisfying part was that it was hand-cranked, you got a real sense of the moment being recorded.'
0:08:46 > 0:08:48It's definitely the future for me.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54We've rushed the film to the labs for developing, and at the end
0:08:54 > 0:08:58of the day, like the early pioneers, we nervously check our rushes.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Only, the whole of Brighton seems to have been invited along.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Look at that close-up, look!
0:09:18 > 0:09:23The cranking seems to have worked as the action is smooth. The light's good, too.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28And that autochromatic film has made the blue make-up look almost natural.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33- ALL:- Aw!
0:09:33 > 0:09:37'80 years on from the original, it's still a crowd puller.'