Physical Characteristics of Early Films As Aids to Identification : New Expanded Edition / Harold Brown ; edited by Camille Blot-Wellens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, G. Harold, 1919-2008, author.

Contributor:

Blot-Wellens, Camille, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion picture film.

Motion picture producers and directors.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 pages)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Brussels, Belgium : FIAF, [2020]

Summary:

"Any archivists who have held a piece of film in their hands, wondering how to go about identifying it, recognize the true value of film preservationist Harold Brown's work. In 1967 Brown delivered a pioneering lecture on the identification of early films at the annual Congress of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in East Berlin. In 1990, FIAF published Brown's 'Physical Characteristics of Early Films as Aids to Identification', an updated version and a continuation of his 1967 lecture. This publication has long been archivists' trusted companion, constituting a concentrated encyclopedia on all the information that can be discovered or verified through aspects of the film other than the actual projected image - such as perforation shapes; embossed and punched marks; stock manufacturers' and producers' edge marks; frame characteristics; title styles; and production serial numbers. It also included essays on key individual production companies of the silent era. Over the last 30 years, this manual has been an invaluable reference for film archivists and scholars. However, as Brown himself acknowledged in the 1990 edition, the manual was far from definitive. Camille Blot-Wellens, the editor of this new, expanded edition of Brown's 1990 book, belongs to the new generation of researchers who have used Physical Characteristics extensively in their work and have gathered considerable new information on the subject. This new edition is the result of a project she initiated in 2014 with FIAF's support. Brown's original text is now augmented with new original research on key film manufacturers and producers by Camille Blot-Wellens and other leading archivists and researchers in the field."--Publisher's description

Contents:

Cover

Title

Copyright

Table of contents

Foreword

Harold Brown, a True Pioneer of Film Preservation

Editor's Notes on the New Edition

Genesis

Methodology

Notes on the Present Edition

Chronology

Structure

Illustrations

Acknowledgements

PART I

Physical Characteristics of Early Films as Aids to Identification

1. Preface to the 1990 Edition

2. Introduction to the 1990 Edition

3. Perforation Shapes

4. Embossed and Punched Marks

5. Producers' Edge Marks

5.2 Lumiere

5.4 Pathe

5.5 Gaumont

5.6 Cines

5.7 Vitagraph

5.8 Selig

5.9 Pasquali

5.10 Warwick

5.11 Ambrosio

5.12 Sascha

5.13 Messter

5.14 Éclair

5.15 Urban

5.16 Lux

5.17 Motion Picture Patents Company

5.18 Post-War Edge Marks

6. Stock Manufacturers' Edge Marks

6.2 Eastman Kodak

6.3 Agfa

6.4 Selo

6.5 Brifco

6.6 Gevaert

6.7 Pathe

6.8 Lignose

6.9 Goerz Tenax

7. Frame Characteristics and Features of Margins

7.2 Melies

7.3 Paul

7.4 Edison

7.5 Pathe (Early Films with Small Perforations)

7.6 Lumiere

7.7 Warwick

7.8 Hepworth

7.9 Vitagraph

7.10 Selig

7.11 Pasquali

7.12 Gaumont

7.13 Cines

7.14 Thanhouser

7.15 Pathe (Films of 1905 Onward)

7.16 Lubin

7.17 Kalem

7.18 Essanay

7.19 Ambrosio

7.20 Itala

7.21 American Biograph Company

7.22 Lux

8. Title Styles

8.3 Hepworth (1907-1913)

8.4 Gaumont (1906-1914)

8.5 Cines (1909-1914)

8.6 Vitagraph (1906-1919)

8.7 Thanhouser (1910-1915)

8.8 Selig (1908-1915)

8.9 Éclair (1908-1915)

9. Production Serial Numbers

10. Letters, etc

11. Trademarks in Scenes

11.2 Melies

11.3 Hepworth

11.4 Pathe

11.5 Gaumont

11.6 Vitagraph

11.7 Thanhouser

11.8 Kalem

11.9 Éclair

12. Essay Thanhouser

13. Essay Hepworth

Appendices: Film Lists

1. Gaumont (1906-1914)

2. Cines (1909-1914)

3. Éclair (1908-1915)

4. Selig Polyscope (1908-1915)

5. Thanhouser (1910-1915)

Title Styles

Illustrations in Colour (* = new to this edition)

Hepworth

Gaumont

Cines

Vitagraph

Thanhouser

Selig

Éclair

*American Standard (Éclair)

*Scientia (Éclair)

Pasquali

*Ambrosio

*Eclipse

*Edison

*Le Lion

*Lubin

*Lux

*Messter

*Mirror Films

*Nordisk Films Kompagni

*Pathe Freres

*Robert W. Paul

*Warwick Trading Co

*Welt-Kinematograph

PART II

Lumiere

History (1892-1905)

General Characteristics

Perforations

Inscriptions on the Film Reel

Frame Characteristics

Logotype

Original Cans

Bibliography

Identifying a Georges Melies

Fiction Films

Trademarks

Non-Fiction Films

Frame-lines and Frame Characteristics

Perforation Shapes

Splices

Attributing a Film to Melies Is One Thing, Finding a Title and a Date Is

Shooting Date

Parnaland and Éclair

Camille Blot-Wellens and Pierrette Lemoigne Parnaland (1895-1907)

Notes:

Some Historical References.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780906973639

0906973635

OCLC:

1244622288