The Barber Shop

Plot

In this early cinematic short, we observe the daily activities inside a bustling barber shop. A customer enters the establishment, removes his coat, and settles into a chair to smoke while waiting for service. The barber's attendant engages the waiting customer by handing him a newspaper and pointing out an amusing joke, prompting both men to share a hearty laugh. Meanwhile, another customer receives a traditional shave and haircut in the barber's chair, showcasing the routine services of the period. The film captures a slice of everyday life, demonstrating both the social interactions and grooming practices of late 19th-century America.

Historical Background

The Barber Shop was created during a pivotal moment in technological and cultural history. In 1893, the United States was in the midst of the Gilded Age, experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization. Thomas Edison had recently perfected his Kinetograph camera and Kinetoscope viewing device, marking the birth of commercial motion pictures in America. This period saw tremendous innovation in entertainment technology, with the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago showcasing many new inventions. The film emerged just before the projected film revolution that would begin with the Lumière brothers' first public screening in Paris in 1895. At this time, motion pictures were seen as a novelty rather than an art form, and films like The Barber Shop were designed to showcase the technology while depicting familiar, everyday scenes that audiences would recognize and find amusing.

Making Of

The Barber Shop was produced during the very dawn of commercial cinema, when Thomas Edison's laboratory was experimenting with moving images as a potential business venture. The film was shot in Edison's innovative Black Maria studio, a tar-paper-covered building designed specifically for film production that could rotate on tracks to follow the sunlight throughout the day. William Heise, who operated the camera and likely directed the action, was one of Edison's key technicians who helped develop early filmmaking techniques. The actors were probably Edison laboratory employees who were recruited to perform simple, everyday activities that would be recognizable to audiences. The entire production process was rudimentary by modern standards - there was no editing, the film was shot in one continuous take, and the camera remained stationary throughout.

Visual Style

The cinematography of The Barber Shop represents the state of the art in 1893. The film was shot using Edison's Kinetograph camera, which was hand-cranked and used 35mm film with four perforations per frame. The camera was stationary throughout the shot, positioned to capture the entire interior of the barber shop set. The lighting came from natural sunlight, which was directed into the Black Maria studio through a removable roof panel. The framing was wide enough to include all the action, a necessity since camera movement and editing had not yet been developed. The image quality was relatively good for the period, with clear visibility of the actors and their actions.

Innovations

The Barber Shop showcased several important technical achievements for its time. It demonstrated the ability to capture clear, stable images of human activity using Edison's Kinetograph camera. The film successfully recorded multiple people interacting in a confined space, showing early mastery of composition within the camera's fixed frame. The lighting, achieved through the innovative design of the Black Maria studio, was sufficient to clearly show all the action. At 30 seconds, it was relatively long for early Edison films, demonstrating the capability to sustain audience attention beyond brief novelty shots. The film also represents an early achievement in capturing natural human behavior and interaction rather than staged performances.

Music

The Barber Shop was a silent film, as synchronized sound technology would not be developed for another three decades. When exhibited on the Kinetoscope, viewers would hear the mechanical whirring of the device but no accompanying music or sound effects. In some exhibition contexts, particularly when the film was later shown on early projectors, it might have been accompanied by live piano music or other musical accompaniment typical of the period, but no specific soundtrack was composed or intended for the film.

Memorable Scenes

• The moment when the attendant points out the joke in the newspaper to the waiting customer, prompting both men to break into laughter - this scene represents one of the earliest examples of visual comedy and shared humor in cinema history

What Critics Said

Contemporary critical reception of The Barber Shop was limited, as film criticism had not yet developed as a profession in 1893. The film was primarily reviewed in trade publications and Edison's own promotional materials, where it was praised for its clarity and amusing content. Edison's catalog described it as 'Very funny' and noted its entertainment value. Modern film historians and critics recognize The Barber Shop as an important early example of narrative cinema and social documentation. It is frequently cited in scholarly works about the birth of cinema as evidence of how quickly filmmakers developed the ability to tell simple stories and capture human interaction on film.

What Audiences Thought

The Barber Shop was viewed by audiences through Edison's Kinetoscope peep-show devices, which were installed in penny arcades and parlors across major American cities. Audiences of the 1890s were fascinated by the novelty of seeing moving images, and films depicting familiar scenes like a barber shop were particularly popular because they showed recognizable aspects of daily life brought to life through this new technology. The humor of the shared joke over the newspaper would have been easily understood and appreciated by contemporary viewers. The film was successful enough that Edison continued to produce similar short films showing everyday activities and humorous situations.

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