First Flickers

Duration: 9:00

Year Published: 1969

Creator: Films Incorporated

Complete Record: 10:00:00:00 A Films Incorporated Presentation. Early American film history. Hand cranked projector filmed from different angles. Footage of various old vintage film equipment. Flickering light square from a small projection. Light coming out of projector. Man winding hand cranked projector. Discusses the world’s first motion picture, the world’s first motion picture, “Fred Ott’s Sneeze.” Text appears, “Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a sneeze. Taken and copyrighted by W.K.L Dickson, Orange New Jersey, January 7th. 1894.” Narrator states that this is the first recorded motion picture. Close-up of film frames of man with mustache, Fred Ott. Hand winding projector. Film studied under magnifying glass. This explains lack of early film footage today. Film reels. Film library to copyright film. Firemen at station. Images of films. Flickering film of horse and carriage. The filmmaker. Stop-motion photography. Early cartoons. Historical films. Man in top hat drawing in front of white canvas as representation of early animation process in Edison production co. Early film footage set in a palace in George Melies’ “Kingdom of the Fairies.” Underwater narrative, shot through fish-eye for effect by Melies. Fantastical creatures. Panning shot of Pan-American exposition in Buffalo. NY lit at night-first night shot done by Edwin Porters. Night time photography. Series of night time exposures with the Edison camera. President McKinley photographed for his last speech. Reenactment of actual events including killer, Leon Frank Czolgosz killed in the electric chair . “Smashing at Saloon” shows people smashing bottles in saloon. Women on camera, water scene 1904 during Spanish-American war, Havannah Harbor. Ships at sea. Natural disaster in Baltimore fires in 1904. Firemen hosing down building on fire. Edwin Porter’s, “Great Train Robbery,” western film, men in room, one man is knocked out. Camera and projection equipment. Great robbery film frames. Another “Great Train Robbery” by Siegmund Lubin compared. Little girl discovers unconscious man. Sequence on train. People taken hostage outside train. Man beating up other man on top of train. People on horses riding through forest. Flickering projection light. Hands handling film. Man with glasses, Dr. John Kyfer, head of Motion Picture Association, talking about transition from paper to film. Films made out of paper print. Original version of “Rescued by Rover,” 1905 British movie on paper print. Woman steals baby out of buggy. Family upset. Collie DOG. DOG running down empty street. DOG exits house through door. DOG by water’s edge. DOG swimming in river. DOG jumps through window. DOG with master in house. licking him to get his attention. Man follows his DOG to waters edge then enters a little wooden boat and crosses river. DOG had rescued child drowning. D.W. Griffith film. Woman, Mary Pickford, and man, Max Senett, talking. Man is a salesman with mustache. 1909 Griffith film, three girls and woman in house at a table. Two women are scared. Women hear intruder and move table to protect themselves and prevent him from breaking in. Two men break in and rough up the girls but husband comes home and saves them. They all embrace. 1909 Griffith comedy with Max Senett. Two men in tops hats fooling around on the street. Horse and carriage, hustle and bustle and fight on the street. Horse and carriage driving backwards and crowd running after it. Names of films on paper labels. Paper print film collections.