Roundhay Garden Scene

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Roundhay Garden Scene
Roundhay Garden Scene
Directed by	Louis Le Prince
Produced by	Louis Le Prince
Starring	Adolphe Le Prince Sarah Whitley Joseph Whitley Harriet Hartley
Music by	None
Cinematography	Louis Le Prince
Editing by	Louis Le Prince
Distributed by	Louis Le Prince
Release date(s)	Oct. 14, 1888
Running time	+2.6 secs (20fps) +4.33 secs (12fps)
Country	France - England
Language	Silent
Preceded by	Unknown
Followed by	Leeds Bridge
IMDb profile

Roundhay Garden Scene is an 1888 short film directed by French inventor Louis Le Prince. It was recorded at a groundbreaking 20 frames per second and is the earliest surviving film.^[1]

1 Overview
2 Remastered footage
3 The missing reel
4 References
5 Media links
6 External links

[edit] Overview

According to Le Prince's son, Adolphe, it was filmed on Oakwood Grange Road in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England on October 14, 1888. Le Prince's mother-in-law, Sarah Whitley, died ten days later.

It features Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley and Harriet Hartley walking around and laughing.

[edit] Remastered footage

1930 copy of 20 frames from the Roundhay garden scene

In 1930 the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television 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 Garden and Leeds scenes were shot at 20 fps, however the digital remastered version produced by the NMPFT uses 52 frames and is only two seconds long. The film runs at 24.64fps, the modern cinematographic frame rate.

[edit] The missing reel

This historical film is surrounded with tragedy and mystery. On October 24, 1888, only ten days after being shot on Roundhay Garden Scene, Sarah Whitley, featured actress, and Le Prince's mother-in-law, passed away in Leeds. On September 16, 1890, while about to patent his invention in London and to perform his first official public exhibition in New York, Louis Le Prince, director, mysteriously vanished in a train between Dijon and Paris. In 1902, two years after testifying in the Equity 6928 brief, Alphonse Le Prince, featured actor and elder son of the inventor, was found shot dead in New York.