Roundhay Garden Scene
About Roundhay Garden Scene
In the garden at Oakwood Grange in Roundhay, Leeds, four people stay inside the camera's frame and walk in a circle. Adolphe Le Prince, Sarah Whitley, Joseph Whitley, and Annie Hartley laugh as they turn. Sarah steps backward as she turns. Joseph's coattails fly out. The shot lasts 2.11 seconds.
Cast & crew
More about Roundhay Garden Scene
Louis Le Prince shot it on October 14, 1888, with his single-lens camera, on Eastman paper-base film. The camera was patented in the United Kingdom on November 16, 1888. Adolphe Le Prince later said the camera ran at 12 frames per second. Later frame analysis puts the rate at 7 frames per second.
Themes
Background
It was made in a private garden in Leeds, before public projected cinema. It is treated as the oldest surviving film.
Making
In the 1930s the Science Museum in London made a glass-plate copy of 20 frames from the original negative. The negative was later lost. Those copied frames were printed onto 35mm film.
Look
Louis Le Prince operated the single-lens camera himself. The four people were asked to stay inside a small patch of garden.
Preservation
The original negative is lost. Twenty frames survive through a 1930s Science Museum glass-plate copy, later printed on 35mm.
Notes
- Annie Hartley is also credited as Harriet Hartley.
- Sarah Whitley, Le Prince's mother-in-law, died on October 24, 1888, ten days after the shooting.
- Joseph Whitley died on January 12, 1891. Annie Hartley died on March 31, 1898. Adolphe Le Prince died on August 20, 1901.
- The catalog also calls the camera the LPCCP Type-1 MkII.
- A Wikimedia file of the scene is labeled as playing at 7 frames per second.
Scenes
- Sarah Whitley turns and walks backward.
- Joseph Whitley's coattails swing out as he turns.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Roundhay_Garden_Scene)
- Wikimedia Commons (Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) 7fps.webm)
