The Enchanted Drawing
About The Enchanted Drawing
J. Stuart Blackton stands at an easel and sketches a face. He draws a wine bottle and a glass, lifts them off the paper, and drinks. He offers the drawn face a drink and the mouth breaks into a smile. A hat and a cigar leave the sheet and return to it, and the face scowls or grins as the objects come and go.
Cast & crew
More about The Enchanted Drawing
Blackton directed and performs. Albert E. Smith, his Vitagraph partner, is credited as cinematographer and co-producer. Edison Manufacturing Company produced and distributed the film. The stop is a substitution splice: the camera halts, a real bottle or hat replaces the drawing, and the camera starts again.
Themes
Background
Shot in 1900 on a Brooklyn rooftop, when American films were still trick subjects sold through the Edison catalogue.
Look
Albert E. Smith photographed Blackton at the easel on the Vitagraph roof in Brooklyn, stopping the camera each time an object had to jump from paper into his hand.
Technique
Stop-camera substitution makes the bottle, glass, hat, and cigar appear to peel off the drawing.
Notes
- Blackton's stage act was the lightning sketch, a fast drawing in front of a vaudeville audience. The film puts that act in front of the camera.
- The Library of Congress groups it with proto-animation: the face does not move by redrawing every frame, but by swaps between takes.
Scenes
- Blackton drinks from a bottle he has just lifted out of the sketch, then lets the drawn face taste it and smile.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheEnchantedDrawing1900)
