There’s a lot of confusion as to what is the first motion picture ever.
Motion Picture: “A series of pictures projected on a screen in rapid succession with objects shown in successive positions slightly changed so as to produce the optical effect of a continuous picture in which the objects move.”
Merriam Webster Dictionary
A motion picture therefore has 3 parts:
1. A SERIES OF PICTURES
2. PROJECTED ON A SCREEN
3. CREATING THE ILLUSION OF A MOVING PICTURE
Zoetropes (spinning drums) and phenakistiscope (spinning discs) and Praxinoscopes had already produced a sort of pictorial animation, although the resultant moving image could not be projected. Conversely, magic lanterns had been projecting images ever since the 17th Century and had even begun to project photographs. But in this case truly lifelike motion had not been achieved.
In 384 – 322 BCE Aristotle views the crescent shape of an eclipsed sun with a camera Oscura. Again, projection, but not a series of pictures.
Photographic cameras appeared in the early 1800’s and by the mid-1800’s humans had discovered photography, projection and motion. And we were just about to put them together. Then, on 19 June, 1878, a guy called Edward Muybridge changed everything. He took a series of photographs of a horse, using 12 cameras.
More detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precursors_of_film#Modern_era
Muybridge invented his projection device, the Zoöpraxiscope, in summer 1879. This device built on a long global history of interest in image projection dating back to Plato, the Han dynasty and the Ancient Egyptians. However it also extended a strong 19th century interest in the phenomenon of vision itself, which had already resulted in the production of many new projection and moving image devices.
What Muybridge did, was to borrow the animated illusion of movement from moving image toys and combine this with the capacity for projection embodied in the magic lantern. He then adapted pictures from his motion photography and created a device which for the first time could project sequences of rapid movement informed by the camera onto a screen. To many theorists, the Zoöpraxiscope therefore represents a pivotal moment in the history of the moving image - a missing link between slide projection and cinema.
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