Professional film
Standard film camera Kino B by the firm Heinrich Ernemann, Dresden. Wooden hand-cranked 35-mm-camera from 1910 with film cassettes inside.
The museum gives a broad overview of film technology and its rapid development. This ranges from the wooden constructions of around 1900 to modern light-metal cameras, from the hand-cranked standard lens camera to turret-head cameras able to zoom in from wide-angle shots to close-up, with film drive provided by an electric motor.
The 35-mm film introduced by Edison with double-sided four-hole perforation became the standard film material for the professional producer. In 1908 André Debrie's firm introduced its 'Parvo' series of robust, compact cameras, and set standards for the camera tech-nology of the future. In the 1940s the firm Arnold & Richter developed its Arriflex camera system, which has remained the standard for precision and handling in camera technology to this day.
An ´Arriflex´ 300 35-mm studio camera by the firm Arnold & Richter, Munich, from the 1950s. The camera is encased in a heavy sound-proof housing so as to minimise camera noise during synchronised sound filming.
A film-set diorama (Flash-Animation), a cutting room and a number of large-capacity cameras and projectors show the increasing professionalism of film technology and offer a view 'behind the scenes of the Dream Factory'. There is an impressive model of the independent film production centre at Babelsberg.
Films on the lives and work of the Berlin pioneers Max Skladanowsky and Oskar Messter and also excerpts from production techniques of 1946 give an impression of the film industry of the past.