Fun in a Bakery Shop
About Fun in a Bakery Shop
A baker works dough, sees a rat, and throws a handful that sticks. With his back turned, the lump is pummeled into a face, then another. Stop-motion turns the loaves into masks. Two other bakers grab him and shove his head into a barrel of flour.
Cast & crew
More about Fun in a Bakery Shop
Edwin S. Porter directed. Edison released it on 3 April 1902. The faces are stop-motion: the dough is changed between frames while the baker’s back is to the camera. The filmography says the bakery story is only the excuse for showing a fast sculptor’s work.
Themes
Making
Porter hides the animation in a turned back. The audience sees a lump become a mask without a visible pair of hands doing the modeling in real time.
Look
The stop-motion is a locked view of the barrel. The baker faces away so the dough can be replaced between frames.
Technique
Stop-motion changes the dough into successive faces, an early Edison use of the trick for a comedy prop rather than a vanishing act.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The rat is the reason the first lump of dough leaves his hands.
- The second face appears the same way, by stopping the camera.
- The finish is not a sculpture. The other bakers flour him.
- A Commons copy circulates.
Scenes
- The thrown dough sticks and, with his back turned, becomes a face.
- A second mask follows.
- Two bakers plant his head in the flour.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902).webm)
