1890s Part 1

Hello there fellow cinema travelers! Today we are venturing into the 1890s...where things aren't much better than the 1880s as far as cinematic quality. In this decade we get the first use of sound in film and we tiptoe into the world of minutes (such excitement)!!

First up is the last remaining frames of Wordsworth Donisthorpe's London's Trafalgar Square

Nothing to crazy...it's a lot like Le Prince's work (those crazy kids and their experimenting).

ONWARD! Next up is the first film filmed in the United States (so just now I really wish I lived in Finland...that alliteration would have been fantastic!...don't judge)

It doesn't surprise me that it was made in America. It was creepy, crappy, and I wanted to throw money at it to make it go away. The Monkeyshines films (there were 3) were the first attempt at camera work by the Edison company (he probably should have just sticked with light bulbs).

Next up is my main man William Dickson in Dickson's Greeting, the first publicly shown film. Filmed in Edison's Black Maria studios using the kinetograph it is certainly the highest quality of film we have seen to date. Let's take a gander.

Now we have another Dickson film. It's three blacksmith's starring in Blacksmith Scene...it's absolutely riveting.

A slight step down  as far as quality mainly because Dickson's Greeting was filmed in a studio and had lighting capabilities. Other than that not much else to report (I'm just itching to get to the last film for today because it's super fantabulous). 

So in Dickson's next experiment, Fred Ott's Sneeze, Fred Ott sneezes...I swear these guys are naming geniuses.

I wish I could smack them because they were doing so well as far as quality and then...this. I guess I'll forgive them because they're dead or whatever and I guess they made the technologies that started the film industry...damn overachievers.

Now this Dickson guy decides to get into some exploitation! I was wondering when we would see some blatant race material and here it is...The Buffalo Dance.

I'm sure these Sioux Indians got paid...hopefully. My favorite part is when the one guy keeps looking back at the camera to make sure he's doing what the boss wants...I have a feeling this took a few takes.

AND NOW! The moment you have all been waiting for...The first use of sound in film!! "Now wait just a minute I thought the first film with syncopated sound throughout was Don Juan by Warner Bros in 1925?" Well...yes that's true...but this is the first time that sound and film were recorded and put together as a presentation. Is it truly syncopated? Let's find out.

Now the quality is of course...not very good, and it's hard to see what the violinist is doing, but at the very end you can see him playing after the music has stopped...showing that this, of course, is not syncopated. It wasn't until Don Juan that sound became a viable option in cinema. That is not to say The Dickson Experimental Sound Film wasn't influential it just didn't stop silent films from being made.

That's it for today. Come back on Sunday to continue through the 1890s...we'll get to see horror, comedy, and the magical mystical minute!

Films Watched Today:

London's Trafalgar Square (Wordsworth Donisthorpe and W. C. Crofts 1890)

Monkeyshines (William Dickson and William Heise 1890)

Dickson Greeting (William Dickson 1891)

Blacksmith Scene (William Dickson 1893)

Fred Ott's Sneeze (William Dickson 1894)

Buffalo Dance (William Dickson 1894)

Dickson Experimental Sound Film (William Dickson 1895)

all information came from Wikipedia