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from British Film Directors
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
Summary
Birt ACRES
Birt Acres was one of the key figures in the early development of cinema in Britain. His inventions were central in introducing the basic apparatus of cinema, from cameras and projectors to film stock itself. He was also a cameraman and director of considerable significance, whose films are landmarks in establishing a tradition for film-making in Britain.
Acres was born on 23 July 1854 in Richmond, Virginia, of English parents. When he came to Britain in the 1880s he was already an accomplished stills photographer (he was later to become a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society) and had considerable expertise in the whole process of making photographic prints. In 1892 he became the manager of Elliott and Sons Ltd of Barnet, a firm renowned for the manufacture of photographic plates. During the early 1890s he patented a number of photographic inventions culminating in 1896 with Britain's first fully functioning cinematograph camera, the Kineopticon.
In late 1894 Acres had started to work with another pioneer, Robert William Paul. By June 1895 they had manufactured their own camera and produced about a dozen short films together, with Acres usually acting as cameraman. These films recorded such actuality subjects as the Henley Royal Regatta, the Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race and the Derby, as well as famously capturing Rough Sea at Dover. These films may well qualify Acres as the first news reportage cameraman in Britain.
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- British Film DirectorsA Critical Guide, pp. 13 - 23Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2007