Unseen cinema. 1, The mechanized eye. Episode 8, The ghost train / by creators unknown for American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, production company.

Series:

Academic Video Online

Language:

No linguistic content

Subjects (All):

Railroad trains.

Experimental films--United States.

Experimental films.

Motion pictures--United States.

Motion pictures.

Genre:

Short films.

Silent films.

Experimental films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 minute)

Other Title:

Mechanized eye : experiments in technique and form

Place of Publication:

[United States] : Filmmakers Showcase, 1903.

Language Note:

Silent with musical accompaniment.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

THE MECHANIZED EYE is part of the film retrospective UNSEEN CINEMA that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema. The spectral image was created by printing in negative a film of a train approaching the camera, the "Empire State Express" (1896, production no. 81), and enhancing the effect by inserting the negative image of the sun and clouds from another film into a blank corner. The reverse polarity composite appears to be a "full moon" in a night sky. The big (68mm) camera could not be stopped and backed up to do in the camera double exposures. So they tried a variety of ways to create them. "The Ghost Train" was made in the company's lab in Hoboken, NJ. The company's production log book dates this as Jan. 5, 1901, and F.S. Armitage as cameraman. I speculate that "Empire State Express" was probably seen by more people worldwide than any film made during the 19th Century. Dickson and Bitzer (in training) filmed NY Central's Empire State Express running at world record speed of 60 mph at Palatine, NY, not far from Canastota where Harry Marvin had his machine shop making cameras, projectors and mutoscopes. The film was on the program when the Biograph was introduced at Hammerstein's Olympia Theatre, Oct. 12, 1896. It was a huge hit and was always on program when the Biograph opened at other variety houses in US and abroad. Often encored by running backwards. They continued to program it well into the 20th Century. - PAUL SPEHR. Frederick S. Armitage, an innovative cameraman-director for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. ( c.1899-1905) and the Edison Company (1909- ?) made an early attempt to combine film and sound, "A Gay Old Boy", 1899, and several prototype "special effects" films featuring innovative cinematography and printing techniques. - BRUCE POSNER. William Kennedy Laurie Dickson, best known as Edison's assistant in developing the Kinetoscope and Kinetograph, was an important and influential filmmaker. Perhaps Dickson was the only filmmaker to make films with a camera and a film format (35mm and 65mm) of his design, in a film studio (Black Maria) that he also designed. He established film production for Edison (1891-1895), American Mutoscope (1896-1897), and British Mutoscope (1897-1903). Working as the director and with assistants such as Heise and Bitzer, he produced more than five hundred films, many of them among the most memorable of the era. - PAUL SPEHR. Gottfried Wilhelm "Billy" Bitzer was a veteran with a dozen years experience before joining forces with D.W. Griffith. He started with the American Mutoscope Company shortly after it was formed in 1896. Learning the craft from Dickson, Bitzer was the company's principle cameramen until 1913 when he followed Griffith to independent production. - PAUL SPEHR. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (1895-1917), the principal competitor to the Edison Manufacturing Company, was established to produce films for their peepshow machine, the Mutoscope. They found that films projected in their large 68mm film format were more popular, they and showed them exclusively on their own machines at Keith-Albee's and prominent family oriented variety theaters. In 1897, Biograph formed affiliated branches in England and several European countries. After 1903, they sold films, of which D.W. Griffith directed hundreds between 1908 and 1913. -PAUL SPEHR. 35mm 1.33:1 black & white silent with music 18fps 41 seconds. Production: American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.

Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed June 29, 2020).

"Experiments in technique and form".

OCLC:

1191032472

Publisher Number:

ASP5053213/marc