Article of the Week - Roundhay Garden Scene

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Roundhay Garden Scene
The world's earliest surviving film, from
1888, is just 2 seconds in duration

Roundhay Garden Scene is an 1888 short film directed by inventor Louis Le Prince. It was recorded at 12 frames per second, runs for 2.11 seconds and is the oldest surviving film.

According to Le Prince's son, Adolphe, it was filmed at Oakwood Grange, the home of Joseph and Sarah Whitley, in Roundhay, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom on October 14, 1888.

It features Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley and Harriet Hartley in the garden, walking around and laughing. Note that Sarah is walking backwards as she turns around, and that Joseph's coat tails are flying as he also is turning.

In 1930 the National Science Museum (NSM), London, produced photographic copies of remaining parts from the 1888 filmstrip. This sequence was recorded on an 1885 Eastman Kodak paper base photographic film through Le Prince's single-lens combi camera-projector. Le Prince's son, Adolphe, stated that the Roundhay Garden movie was shot at 12 frames/s (and the second movie, Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge, at 20 frames/s), however the later digital remastered version of Roundhay Garden produced by the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT), Bradford, comprises 52 frames and is only 2.11 seconds long, as the film runs at 24.64 frames/s, the modern cinematographic frame-rate. The National Science Museum copy has 20 frames, giving a run time of 1.66 seconds at 12 frames/s.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Roundhay Garden Scene"