Events in 1874 in animation.
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but puppets with movable joints or plasticine figures are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature are used in model animation. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as pixilation. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called cutout animation.
The year 1908 in film involved some significant events.
Vital Achille Raoul Barré was a Canadian cartoonist, animator of the silent film era, and painter. Initially known as a political cartoonist, he originated the French Canadian comic strip, then crossed over into animated film and started his own studio, a pioneering effort. As a painter, he is considered an Impressionist, evoking atmosphere and light with visible, choppy strokes of paint, whose paintings are in the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
Grandma's Reading Glass is a 1900 British silent trick film, directed by George Albert Smith, featuring a young boy who borrows a huge magnifying glass to focus on various objects. The film was shot to demonstrate the new technique of close-up. According to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, it "was one of the first films to cut between medium shot and point-of-view close-up." It was destroyed in a fire at Warwick Trading Company's studio facility in 1912 and was long thought lost. The film was discovered in 1960 in the collection of Danish court photographer and film pioneer Peter Elfelt.
Arthur Melbourne Cooper was a British photographer and early filmmaker best known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation. He produced over three hundred films between 1896 and 1915, of which an estimated 36 were all or in part animated. These include Dreams of Toyland (1908) and according to some sources Dolly’s Toys (1901), as well as Matches: An Appeal, which Dutch independent researcher Tjitte de Vries has claimed may have been the first animated film to be shown in public.
Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frères and has been compared to Georges Méliès, due to his frequent camera tricks and optical illusions. He is regarded as the most significant Spanish silent film director in an international context.
Hôtel électrique is a 1908 silent French comedy-fantasy trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón and produced by Pathé Frères. The short appears to be inspired by the 1907 American short film The Haunted Hotel.
Julienne Alexandrine Mathieu was one of the earliest French silent film actresses who appeared mostly in French silents between 1905 and 1909. She appeared in the silent film Hôtel électrique released in 1908, one of the first films to incorporate stop animation. She was the wife of the director Segundo de Chomón. Her contribution to his work was not only her participation in the cast, but also in the script and the special effects.
Events in 1961 in animation.
The Humpty Dumpty Circus is a lost short stop-motion trick film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, the Anglo-American founders of Vitagraph Studios. There are no known surviving copies.
Passage de Vénus is a series of photographs of the transit of the planet Venus across the Sun on 9 December 1874. They were purportedly taken in Japan by the French astronomer Jules Janssen and Brazilian engineer Francisco Antônio de Almeida using Janssen's 'photographic revolver'.
The Janssen revolver was invented by the French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen in 1874. It was the instrument that originated chronophotography, a branch of photography based on capturing movement from a sequence of images. To create the apparatus Pierre Janssen was inspired by the revolving cylinder of Samuel Colt's revolver.
Slippery Jim is an 8 minute 1909 French silent trick film directed by Segundo de Chomón and produced by Pathe-Freres. The film heavily utilizes stop-motion to aide in its visual comedy. It bares similarities to other films by Chomón, such as Diabolical Pickpocket produced in 1908 and The Invisible Thief also produced in 1909. The films share a thief capable of supernatural abilities while escaping the law.
The Enchanted Toymaker is a 1904 British short film, directed and animated by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper. Its running time was 3 minutes and 10 seconds. It combined live-action and stop-motion animation.
Events in 1904 in animation.
Dolly’s Toys was a 1901 British trick film, directed by Arthur Melbourne-Cooper. It may have used stop-motion animation, or a variant of the stop-action technique previously used by Walter R. Booth. Cooper would start producing animated films in 1904, starting with The Enchanted Toymaker.
Events in 1899 in animation.
Events in 1871 in animation.
Events in 1868 in animation.