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I'm Bryony Dixon, and I'm the curator for silent film at the BFI National Archive. I'm one of a big team of curators. My specialism is in early and silent film.

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There are several key filmmakers responsible for the development of cinema in Britain in particular. The first name I think probably would be Robert Paul. He was an engineer.

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So he was inventing camera equipment and projection equipment. So he came very much from that background. Other key filmmakers came from slightly different backgrounds.

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There were people who were entertainers, for example. So George Albert Smith and James Williamson had both been entertainers. Lantern lecturers in particular.

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So they had already those skills of presenting images to an audience using projection equipment and screens. There were other people who were entrepreneurs. Like Charles Urban, for example, who came over from America.

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He had been selling encyclopaedias. He had been working for Maguire and Baucus, who were a company who were selling Edison's sound equipment, and later, film.

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And he set up business, really, to distribute film. But then also went into making film in order to ensure supply for the shows and for the audiences.

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So they really come from a whole variety of backgrounds. And in the very earliest days, the equipment was the thing that was being sold, if you like. It was the show.

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So it was all about an individual with his invention. So Robert Paul's theatrograph or Birt Acres' Kineopticon. And this was very much following in a tradition of Victorian novelties being launched.

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Victorian audiences were very used to this. There were novelties and inventions happening all the time and had been for some time. And so the filmmakers were working very much

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in that environment. Another thing to note is that these filmmakers were not, generally speaking, artists. There was an artistic tendency, particularly

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from those filmmakers like Birt Acres who were coming from a photographic background. So they were extending their repertoire of image-making from photographs to moving photographs.

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So generally speaking, apart from those cases, they were very commercial. They were there to make money. This is a business.

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They were there to promote their invention. And they were there to promote their film show. So you have, in the very, very earliest days, people like Robert Paul and G.A. Smith with their cameras

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and their projectors personally showing film in theatres and the larger city music halls. Or they might demonstrate them to photographic societies who were very keen on looking at early film,

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moving from the still image into the moving image. They might, because they were such a novelty, get a booking to go and demonstrate their film show and their equipment to, for example,

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royal family. The royal family always gets the pick of the novelties. And of course, filmmakers are very excited to show their films to the royal family.

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So Queen Victoria herself sees lots and lots of film shows from these filmmakers. Then different people get engaged in filmmaking from different avenues.

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So people who are already in the entertainment business. So the showmen, for example, who run all the big fairgrounds. When they see this novelty, they want it for their fairground. They're always on the lookout for new things

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to sell to people. So showmen, first of all, try to buy films from the filmmakers that are already around. And then after a while, they don't have enough,

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so they begin to commission films. So you begin to see that process of demand beginning to work on supply. And I think the filmmakers also begin to slightly differentiate

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the kinds of films they're making for the same commercial reasons. And so some people are more likely, like George Albert Smith, for example,

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who came from a background in magic in theatre doing a kind of spiritual spiritualism kind of show, he's more inclined to make films that are like trick films and films that have that kind of subject.

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W.K.L. Dixon, another key figure in early filmmaking who comes back from America-- he's actually British. He goes to America, he works with Edison. Finally decides to set up on his own

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and then comes back with the British Mutoscope and Biograph film company. And they begin to make these beautiful large format films. His tendency is to show films which we call actualities.

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So he's more likely to make films of celebrities, of great events, of things like the Boer War. So more factual films. So each filmmaker from different backgrounds

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brings with them something of their own background, whether that's a profession or just a kind of taste. And they're not all in London. We do tend to think that everybody's either on the South

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Coast or in London. But in fact, there are some filmmakers in other areas. We have Arthur Cheatham, for example, making early films in Wales.

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We have Bamforth and the Riley brothers making films up in the north of England. So they do come from all over. And the films from the very earliest days, from 1896,

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which is the first film show in London, they very soon begin to tour all over the UK through networks of music hall theatres and regular theatres, town halls, workingman's clubs, and of course,

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the great touring fairground shows. So in the very early days, filmmakers are focused just on their machinery. But very soon, the films begin to take on more importance.

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So the software rather than the hardware, if you like. And there are some individual filmmakers that begin to come forward with really interesting developments in the film.

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Robert Paul himself moves on from very early actualities to begin to make very interesting fictional narrative films. He's one of the first to use multishot filmmaking.

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James Williamson, working down on the South Coast in Hove. A very interesting character that had-- was not only from a technical background as a chemist, but was also--

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had done a lot of lantern shows and had a real gift for narrative film and filmmaking. So he adapted, if you like, his storytelling abilities from the lantern show to his filmmaking.

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And he will be responsible for some of the most important developments in the Victorian film. So by 1901, with films like Stop Thief! and particularly Fire!,

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he actually moves the grammar of film on to continuity editing, for example, and the multi-shot film and the chase film. This is reflected also in other filmmakers' work. Cecil Hepworth in particular also

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moves towards narrative filmmaking. And other filmmakers, such as Charles Urban goes the other way and begins to assemble films into large catalogues of films from all different producers

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as well as making films and commissioning films himself to provide really a huge range of films for the customer. As the film show becomes an established thing,

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filmmakers begin to make films for the market. So not just to demonstrate their equipment, but to develop the distribution of films to audiences in a more regular and strategic way.

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The very earliest films were shown in music halls as a rule. The Robert Paul very early show in February 1896 was shown in the Polytechnic Hall, which was in Regent Street.

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And he then repeated the show later in Olympia, which was a massive exhibition hall venue. He then took his film show to one of the great music halls on Leicester Square

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to the Alhambra. Simultaneously, the Lumiere brothers' show, the cinematograph, was on the other side of the square at the Empire.

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W.K.L. Dixon, when he arrived in 1897 the following year, took up a residency at the Palace Theatre of Varieties. So initially, the films were shown as part of a variety programme in the Great Music Hall.

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So now the music hall was the great mass entertainment of the Victorian era. And so the film show slotted in fairly naturally into a show that consisted of singers and acrobats

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and novelty acts and all different kinds of acts all compiled into an evening show. Films were also shown as demonstrations in the very early days.

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Photographic societies were very keen on showing these as demonstrations in the early days. And there were a whole variety of venues around the country-- church halls and fairgrounds and clubs of all kinds.

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Seaside shows, for example, during the summer. There were all kinds of places where people would set up a projector and show these things as a novelty.

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Of course, the venues had an effect on the films themselves and how they were shown. Mostly the show would be in a music hall, for example, on a roll down screen, which would just

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be rolled down when it was time for the show, which would last 10 or 20 minutes. And the showman or the person projecting the film might commentate on the film.

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So he might explain what the films were, what the films were, what the audience was looking at. So the audience, if you like, were the regular audience for whichever venue the film was showing at.

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And the environment in which those shown would be altered by whatever was going on at that time with those various components. So a music hall audience might be in a hall seated.

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They might be eating and drinking and chatting. But there was also an orchestra. So this is very important in the showing of film, is to have films to create some kind of dynamic

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as the films go on. In fairground shows, you might have a barker, somebody to drum up enthusiasm, and then you might have a commentator or lecturer in the hall.

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And you might also have a band, probably a smaller band. So the music was to do with the venue. There was no music set for the film show. That came much, much later on when

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the film show settled into a home of its own, what we call the cinema. So the ambience, the variety, how the film show went and interacted with its audience

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was very much a factor of the venue in which it was shown. So a fairground audience or a holiday audience might react completely different from a more middle class audience watching with musical accompaniment in more polite surroundings,

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let us say, in one of the large city centre music halls. So the Victorian film show was very much a imitation in miniature, if you like, of a music hall variety programme. So you would get a lot of very short films shown

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in sequence that could be on a whole variety of different subjects. So you get actualities, you might get some topical events, you might get some current sporting

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events that were going on. Sometimes even brought to you on the very day that they happened. They were very keen to do that.

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And there were little comedies and things that would ultimately become dramas. And this whole variety of stuff would be shown, as they say, in miniature in a 10 or 20 minute show.

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You would also get a mixture of films from all over the place. So very early on where you got the individual filmmaker showing you all of his films with his machine, very soon after this, you begin to get film shows where

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showmen, exhibitors if you like, are buying films from different filmmakers and then making up their own varied programmes. So you get characters like A.D.-- Arthur Duncan Thomas, a showman who

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mainly worked in the north of England, putting on really substantial shows. Longer running times, up to an hour, using films from different filmmakers.

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And these could be quite elaborate with their own music and set decor and what have you. So you began to get a mixture of films from different filmmakers and different companies and different countries.

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So from the very earliest times, you would get the Lumiere brothers' shows, for example. They showed literally all over the world from the second year of their operation.

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They were sending out operators to show films pretty much in every city on the globe. And after that, they began to sell films. You have Edison in America and a whole slew

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of American filmmakers who were exporting films all over the world, including Britain and the whole of Europe. And then you were getting the big French makers

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who were probably the most important for the British. So Lumieres, and ultimately Gaumont and then Pathe. So you've got companies that are operating in all over the world in big cities, which might have

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branches or franchises, if you like, in those different countries. So W.K.L. Dixon's company, the Biograph company, starts off in America.

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He comes over to Britain, sets up in London. And then he sets up different companies in Europe. And they share their content. So you get a film that's made by him in Britain

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going to New York to be played. You get American films coming back the other way being shown in London. Ultimately films shown or made in the Netherlands, in France,

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in Germany, in Italy. All sorts of different countries. So it's a very, very international business. All of these films are influencing

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each other all of the time, and developments are happening quite rapidly. People copy the good films. So where we would see copying a film as a very strange thing

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to do, plagiarism, in the very early days, this was quite normal. So if the Lumiere brothers had a lovely film of some children playing on a beach, for example, you

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would then find a British filmmaker making a film of children playing on a beach, because it went down well with the audience. So there is a high level of connectivity

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between the filmmakers all over the world. British filmmakers are important in terms of innovation and development of film. They have a huge influence on cinema

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in all of the other filmmaking countries. And the same is true the other way around. American filmmakers, French filmmakers have a massive influence on the British filmmakers.

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So there's a lot going on, and it's very international. Films in the Victorian era are very shaped by the current media that are around at the time. So there are all kinds of images and entertainments

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that influence the way that people make films and the subjects that they choose as filmmaking material for the audience. Filmmakers will tend to take films

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of what they see around them in the very earliest times. But very soon, they begin to expand the subjects of their films according to things that they imagine the audience would like to see.

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So if, for example, you look at a magic lantern catalogue from this era or stereoscope photo catalogues, these give you a very good idea of the range of subjects taken on by filmmakers.

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So for example, actualities, they like to show places and street scenes and people moving. So sense of movement, very important. But also, interesting locations.

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So they like to go to places that people will find familiar or want to see. So everything from the great squares of London, to the Egyptian Pyramids, and the skyscrapers of New York.

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They will show those kinds of things, things that people wouldn't be able to see in the course of their life unless they were very lucky or wealthy. And they tend to show little comic sketches, for example,

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based on, again, stereoscopes or cartoons in the illustrated papers. They show things like sports, for example. Ever popular.

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Great events. Royal pageantry-- very popular, as we see, with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. So there are all sorts of effects from current media

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on the subjects of filmmaking. Of course, filmmaking has its own specificities. It's very good at showing movement. Of course, that's what it is.

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So you would expect for some of those media to develop from, say, still photography. In the Victorian age, still photography is a massive industry.

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It's also got its artistic side. So you get filmmakers like Birt Acres making-- taking films of water and clouds. Pictures of seaways was immensely popular

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with early audiences, because that was the one thing that convinced them that these were real and they were not tricks. So they were used to being tricked

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with the transitions of things, like lantern slides and the 3D effects that you get from stereoscopic still images. But the movement of water and the natural world was the one thing that convinced them

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that film was showing a real genuine representation of reality. And that was the thing that they found really most exciting. So you get the development from one form, one media,

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into another, and then it's altered by the nature of film itself. So other things had an effect on the early film, the style and the content of early film.

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And another thing is the venue, again, has an influence. So music hall, in particular there will be a tendency for filmmakers to add to the music hall repertoire

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by filming music hall itself as a subject. So early film is full of music hall acts that are filmed. A great example is the film of 1901, The Deonzo Brothers. There couldn't be a better example of Victorian music

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hall. The strangest possible act. These were Canadian barrel jumpers. And they are filmed doing their act on a makeshift stage

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with a Theatre style painted backdrop. And you see them jumping blindfold into a series of barrels. A fantastic act.

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Tragically, the very final moment of the film is missing, the spectacular finale. But it's a really good example of how filmmakers wanted to imitate the spectacular act that you

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would see in the music hall. And this extends to singers. We have Kitty Mahone with an actual disc recording that's been synchronised.

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And all kinds of dancers, funny men doing all kinds of acts that you would see at the fairground or in the music hall. So film itself takes all of the references, everything that's

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going on in life, and absorbs it and shows it back to the audience. The films of the Victorian era can tell us a certain amount about what was going on at the time.

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And in terms of how much they can tell us about historical truths or profound truths about history, you really have to understand how they were made and why. So what it is that they show.

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Because they're part of an entertainment business, there will be a tendency to show things that are sensational and dramatic or particularly topical, particularly interesting.

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They won't tend to be comprehensive. So historians I think sometimes find early film a bit frustrating. They don't show the answers to questions

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that historians have quite often. So for example, filmmakers are very unlikely to go out and show us images of things that audiences in a Theatre entertainment environment

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would like to see. So they won't show us pictures of things that are unpleasant or miserable. So we have a whole load of baggage

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that we have inherited about what we think of the Victorian age, which has come from school, how we're taught. And we are all taught about what it's

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like to be a Victorian schoolchild. And we might have seen Oliver on the big screen. We've read our Dickens. So we've got this whole set of baggage

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about the Victorian era. So we think of foggy London and Jack the Ripper down every East End alleyway. And gaslights and poor little children with no shoes on

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and poverty and slums. And of course, we see absolutely nothing of this in the film records. What we see is happy, smiling people with shoes on and hats.

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Lots of hats. And generally speaking, having a nice time and doing normal things. So film is not necessarily very good at showing pure history.

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There is an exception, of course, with the Mitchell and Kenyon films, which do, because of the nature of the kind of film that the Mitchell and Kenyon were making, the local film--

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they are films of people coming out of factories or at the seaside or doing sports days or whatever-- these are quite candid views of Victorian society

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and away from the big capital. So in the industrial North, in particular. So in that sense, you do get a very good snapshot of what those kinds of societal groups

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looked like in the Victorian era. Otherwise, you get a snapshot of the 1890s. This is the 1890s. We're not talking about the 1840s.

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So Dickensian industrialised or industrialising Britain doesn't come across in these films at all. So although Victorian films can't necessarily show us a very comprehensive picture of society

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in these years, there is a great deal of information that it can show us. And this information is largely qualitative rather than quantitative.

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And so what it gives us is a kind of reality check. So all of those things that we assume we know about the era might be undercut by what we see in these images. And of course, the images do need some explaining,

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because there's no explanation that comes with the films. But sometimes we see things that we make assumptions about them because of our baggage of learning about the era. And they're not quite what they seem.

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And sometimes films are not what we expect. So for example, there is a film which is made just after Victoria has died with the new king, her son, Edward VII.

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He is in one of the Biograph films, and he is in full regalia, in military uniform, with a lot of other European chaps in full military regalia and women in very elaborate dresses and the whole thing.

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When you know and recognise some of the participants-- the tsar of Russia, the tsarina, the King of Greece, the King of Denmark-- you might mistake this for some kind of international summit.

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So these are big military leaders and royals and the crowned heads of Europe meeting. But actually what it is is it's the royals meeting for their summer holidays.

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So it's not what you expect at all. It's just like the royal family. It was so interconnected. All Victorians, children and grandchildren,

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were the crowned heads of Europe. So you need some sort of historical knowledge to go alongside your film knowledge. Again, with same filmmaker, W.K.L. Dixon,

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who shot many of the key films of the Boer War, people will expect war to look like war. So in all the illustrated newspapers of the day, you will get great cavalry charges, with the British army

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on one side and the baddies on the other, like a Western with cowboys and Indians. You might get hand-to-hand fighting with sabres and bayonets and ranks of soldiers with rifles.

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And of course, war doesn't actually look like war. And the other thing is that war taken with a camera definitely doesn't look like war. Because if you imagine standing upright

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on a flat plane in the middle of South Africa with an enormous box turning a handle, you would be the target for every Boer sniper around. You wouldn't last 10 minutes.

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So the films of the Boer War that Dixon took are, generally speaking, not of fighting in action. Although he does get some fighting in action, it doesn't always look like what you expect it to.

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So there is a lot of film that is true. It's a true representation of what you're seeing. But it's not always how you expect the world to look. So it's a complicated thing.

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It needs the historical context for it to make any sense. But it does really give you an appreciation and understanding of what people look like, how they behaved, the fact that Victorians are not all po-faced, miserable

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looking, because they're not actually posing for photographs. They're smiling. They're moving around.

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They look pretty much like normal people. You see Londoners going to work on the Underground and on the bus, just like we do today. So it brings them closer.

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They do look very ordinary. They behave in exactly the ways that we would behave. So they become more understandable. Children and animals in particular,

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who you should never work with, of course, in filmmaking. But they look exactly like kids and animals do today. They behave in exactly the same ways. So in some senses, these very simple candid films

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bring us closer to our Victorian ancestors. So I think why I particularly like these Victorian films is they bring us very close to people from 120 years ago.

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It also gives us a flavour of the confidence and dynamism of society at that time. It feels like a place with great energy and quite forward looking.

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So much of our lives in this country are coloured by the Victorian era. But it's an era of the distant past. So it's, I think, fantastic to be able to see that new,

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as it were. And it really gives us a very solid connection. I could watch little films, the Mitch and Kenyon films in particular, forever.

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They're fantastically entertaining and just whet your curiosity about all these individuals as they're just walking about. And the children who stare into the camera,

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it's a wonderful thing to almost make eye contact with somebody across a screen from 120 years ago.