Category: Film

Harry Potter and What To Leave Out from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1:02)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Harry Potter and What To Leave Out from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

So, when we come around to Harry Potter coming of age, that’s the same book that has all the elf stuff going on with Hermoine and she’s going to unionize the elves and all that stuff. That doesn’t appear in the movie at all. That has nothing to do with Harry Potter and his growing. So that storyline disappears. So, it’s and interesting choice. it’s a difficult choice. it’s why they then chose to split the last book in two, not just to make a lot more money, but because they did, but because they didn’t want to throw too much away and they had gained enough power and enough cache at that point that they could do that. It’s one of the more successful adaptations really of all time and in contrast little tiny things change like, for instance, you have to remember — you have to read the books again — when it’s time to get the gilly weed in the movie it gets given to him by Neville because we have to keep the Neville character alive. In the book, Dobby gives it to him, but Dobby is — we can’t waste time on him. Also, he costs money to put on-screen because he’s all fake, right? Little things like that along the way and generally fans weren’t too upset because they understood the reasons for it. 

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related posts:

  1. You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video]
  2. Adapting Harry Potter from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:35)
  3. Harry Potter and Theme from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:55)
  4. Introduction from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:05)
  5. Adapting The Sound of Music from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:13)

A History of Screenwriting – 13 in a series – Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894) – William K.L. Dickson

I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus.  As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era  who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order  to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch

Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894) – William K.L. Dickson

A History of Screenwriting - 13 in a series - Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894) - William K.L. Dickson

Annabelle (Whitford) Moore performs one of her popular dances. For this performance, her costume has a pair of wings attached to her back, to suggest a butterfly. As she dances, she uses her long, flowing skirts to create visual patterns.

IMDB

Learn more about Thomas Edison and Early Movies with these books and videos

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Related posts:

  1. A History of Screenwriting – 9 in a series – Men Boxing, William K. L. Dickson, William Heise – Edison Manufacturing Company, 1891
  2. A History of Screenwriting – 11 in a series – Caicedo (with Pole) (1894)
  3. A History of Screenwriting – 10 in a series – Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
  4. A History of Screenwriting – 12 in a series – Luis Martinetti Contortionist
  5. A History of Screenwriting – 7 in a series – Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)

Harry Potter and Theme from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:55)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Harry Potter and Theme from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

This is a huge thing to adapt and what I think is fascinating is This guy over here, Steve Kloves, he did 6 of the 7 Harry Potter movies. He actually quit after the 3rd movie. He’s like “Well I have to go focus on my own work” and his son said — his son was 10-years-old — “Dad, there’s no cachet in being the son of the guy who used to write the Harry Potter movies.” So he took on the next one and he did all the rest of them. He created a great friendship with J. K. Rowling to the point where they could talk often about things she hadn’t released yet. He was privy to new things coming up and books that had yet to be published and it was a very deep secret — you can’t tell anybody, blah, blah, blah. Really kind of fascinating, but to study the work they did — and one of the great things he said in several interviews — was that they had to look at these giant books and think of the theme. Which is what we teach people to do when their writing films. It’s all about theme. Start with a theme and any storyline that is tangential to that theme has to be thrown away. We can’t waste our time on that.

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related posts:

  1. Adapting Harry Potter from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:35)
  2. Introduction from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:05)
  3. Adapting The Sound of Music from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:13)
  4. Adapting The Sound of Music Part 2 from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:07)
  5. You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video]

A History of Screenwriting – 12 in a series – Luis Martinetti Contortionist

I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus.  As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era  who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order  to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch

Luis Martinetti Contortionist (W. K. L. Dickson, USA, 1894)

Luis Martinetti, Contortionist (1894) - William K.L. Dickson | Heise | Thomas Edison

Luis Martinetti, Contortionist is an 1894 short film produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company. The film, which runs 12.5 seconds, consists of a contortionist act performed by Luis Martinetti of the Martinetti Brothers trapeze act. Martinetti wears tiger-striped tights and performs contortionist poses on a pair of trapeze rings.[1]

The film was shot on October 11, 1894 at the Edison Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey.[2] The film is preserved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was released on the 2000 DVD box set Treasures from American Film Archives, which was compiled by the National Film Preservation Foundation.[3] — Wikipedia

Learn more about Thomas Edison and Early Movies with these books and videos

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Related posts:

  1. A History of Screenwriting – 6 in a series – Baby’s Meal – Repas de Bebe (1895) – LOUIS LUMIERE
  2. A History of Screenwriting – 11 in a series – Caicedo (with Pole) (1894)
  3. A History of Screenwriting – 10 in a series – Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
  4. A History of Screenwriting – 7 in a series – Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)
  5. A History of Screenwriting – 8 in a series – Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (Auguste and Louis Lumiére, France, 1896)

Adapting Harry Potter from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:35)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

Adapting Harry Potter from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

Of course, I mentioned that we would talk about Harry Potter briefly. We could be here for a whole hours, 2, 3, 6 talking about all the Harry Potter adaptations. What I think is important to notice is, as you know, the book in England was called “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” When it came to be published in America, they were afraid American children would look at the word philosopher and walk away, because that’s old and boring. That’s for old people. Of course, in America, what did we call it? The Sorcerer’s Stone, because a sorcerer is kind of cool — Mickey with hat — so we like sorcerers. We’re good. I mean that’s and adaptation made our publication people just to sell more books. 

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related posts:

  1. Adapting The Sound of Music from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:13)
  2. Adapting The Sound of Music Part 2 from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:07)
  3. Introduction from A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video] (1:05)
  4. You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! [Video]
  5. More on Adapting Argo from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:37)

Women’s History Month – 7 in a series – Ellen Craft

Women's History Month - 7 in a series - Ellen Craft

Ellen Craft was a fugitive slave made famous by the daring escape she and her husband William Craft (1824–1900) made in December 1848. Ellen, disguised as an infirm and sickly slaveholding gentleman, and her husband William, posing as a slave servant, traveled from the slaveholding state of Georgia to freedom in Philadelphia. So widely publicized was their escape that the Crafts became world- renowned spokespersons for abolitionism.

Read more in…

Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection Volume One: Precolonial North America To The Early Republic – Dr. Peg A. Lamphier And Dr. Rosanne Welch, Editors

Recommend this set to your local and university librarian

Related posts:

  1. Women’s History Month – 2 in a series – Anne Marbury Hutchinson
  2. Women’s History Month – 6 in a series – Martha Ballard
  3. Women’s History Month – 1 in a series – Pocahontas
  4. Women’s History Month – 4 in a series – Malinche
  5. Women’s History Month – 3 in a series – Phillis Wheatley

A History of Screenwriting – 11 in a series – Caicedo (with Pole) (1894)

I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus.  As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era  who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order  to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch

Caicedo (with Pole) (1894)

Caicedo (with Pole)

According to Edison film historian C. Musser, Venezuelan rope and slack wire walker Juan Caicedo performed in the U.S. during 1894 and again at the end of the century. From May 14 to Sept. 8, 1894, he appeared at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York City. 

From Raff & Gammon price list: The “King of the Wire” in his marvelous slack wire performance. $10.00.

OTHER TITLES
Title in Raff & Gammon price list: Caicedo 

Caicedo. No. 1 

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., [1894]

NOTES
Copyright: no reg. 

Performer: Juan A. Caicedo. 

Camera, William Heise. 

Filmed July 25, 1894, at the Edison Laboratory in West Orange, N.J. 

Received: 5-13-1994; viewing print; preservation; Hendricks (Gordon) Collection. 

SUBJECTS
Aerialists–United States.
Vaudeville–United States.
Wire rope–United States.
Venezuelans–United States.
Variety

RELATED NAMES
Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, production.
Heise, William, camera.
Caicedo, Juan A., performer.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 
Hendricks (Gordon) Collection (Library of Congress) 

DIGITAL ID
edmp.4021 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/edmp.4021

Learn more about Thomas Edison and Early Movies with these books and videos

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Related posts:

  1. A History of Screenwriting – 10 in a series – Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
  2. A History of Screenwriting – 6 in a series – Baby’s Meal – Repas de Bebe (1895) – LOUIS LUMIERE
  3. A History of Screenwriting – 4 in a series – Exiting the Factory (La Sortie des Usines a Lyon) 1895 – Louis Lumiere
  4. A History of Screenwriting – 7 in a series – Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)
  5. A History of Screenwriting – 8 in a series – Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (Auguste and Louis Lumiére, France, 1896)

Women’s History Month – 6 in a series – Martha Ballard

Women's History Month - 6 in a series - Martha Ballard

Martha Moore Ballard played a pivotal role in her community as a midwife and healer. Through her diary she has become a historically important female voice documenting social, economic, and religious change in rural postcolonial America. Few women could write in the 18th century, and fewer still participated in public life, resulting in poor documentation of women’s daily lives. Because women could not own property and seldom participated in legal matters, few details regarding individual women’s lives appear in historical documents. 

Read more in…

Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection Volume One: Precolonial North America To The Early Republic – Dr. Peg A. Lamphier And Dr. Rosanne Welch, Editors

Recommend this set to your local and university librarian

Related posts:

  1. Women’s History Month – 1 in a series – Pocahontas
  2. Women’s History Month – 4 in a series – Malinche
  3. Women’s History Month – 2 in a series – Anne Marbury Hutchinson
  4. Women’s History Month – 3 in a series – Phillis Wheatley
  5. Women’s History Month – 5 in a series – Bridget Bishop

More on Adapting The Hobbit from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:44)

You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library

Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Watch this entire presentation

More on Adapting The Hobbit from A History of the Art of Adaptation

 

Transcript:

Lots of true Tolkien fans – deeply angry that such a thing should happen and there should be focus on a character when other stuff was being thrown out. This is a choice for screenwriters and directors as they try to decide to bring something to film. The Hobbit had been made in animation several years earlier — 1977 — and it’s only 77 minutes long. So, would you rather have that version or the new version with an extra elf that doesn’t really exist. Now make up your mind. What I love about this is that made by Rankin-Bass the same company that gave us Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Who himself was an adaptation of a song. A song turned into a beloved Christmas story. So, you can adapt from anything.

About this talk

Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.

Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm

About Dr. Rosanne Welch

Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona.  In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University.  She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.

Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”

Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016

Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Web Site and Blog

Follow Dr. Welch on Twitter

Dr. Rosanne Welch on YouTube

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related posts:

  1. Final Thoughts On Adapting The Prince of Tides from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:40)
  2. The Mafia, Sex and Adapting The Godfather from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:47)
  3. Adapting Argo from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1:06)
  4. More on Adapting Argo from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (0:37)
  5. Adapting Tolkien from A History of the Art of Adaptation [Video] (1:02)

A History of Screenwriting – 10 in a series – Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)

I teach several classes for the Stephens College Low-Residency MFA in Screenwriting, including History of Screenwriting. In fact, I created the curriculum for that course from scratch and customized it to this particular MFA in that it covers ‘Screenwriting’ (not directors) and even more specifically, the class has a female-centric focus.  As part History of Screenwriting I, the first course in the four-class series, we focus on the early women screenwriters of the silent film era  who male historians have, for the most part, quietly forgotten in their books. In this series, I share with you some of the screenwriters and films that should be part of any screenwriters education. I believe that in order  to become a great screenwriter, you need to understand the deep history of screenwriting and the amazing people who created the career. — Dr. Rosanne Welch

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)

The earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, the Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze is a short film made by W. K. L. Dickson in January 1894 for advertising purposes. Often referred to as “Fred Ott’s Sneeze,” this is is one of the world’s earliest motion pictures and America’s best known early film production. The star is Fred Ott, an Edison employee known to his fellow workers in the laboratory for his comic sneezing and other gags. This item was received in the Library of Congress on January 9, 1894, as a copyright deposit from Dickson.

Two other Edison experimental films on the Library’s YouTube site – DICKSON GREETING (May 1891) and NEWARK ATHLETE (May or June 1891), predate The Sneeze. The Sneeze was submitted for copyright as 45 frames from the motion picture printed as positive prints on paper rather than as a reel of film. The prints were mounted on cardboard and submitted to the Copyright Office in this form. The video of the Sneeze on loc.gov and YouTube was later rephotographed and turned into a moving image from these mounted frames.

SUMMARY
Film made for publicity purposes, as a series of still photographs to accompany an article in Harper’s weekly.

OTHER TITLES
Sneeze 
Fred Ott’s sneeze 

CREATED/PUBLISHED
United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1894.

NOTES
Copyright: W. K. L. Dickson; 9Jan1894; 2887. 

Performer: Fred Ott. 

Camera, William Heise. 

Filmed ca. January 2-7, 1894, in Edison’s Black Maria studio. 

SUBJECTS
Sneezing.
Publicity.
Motion picture industry–Public relations–United States.
Actuality

RELATED NAMES
Dickson, W. K.-L. (William Kennedy-Laurie), 1860-1935, production.
Ott, Frederic P., performer.
Heise, William, camera.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc. 
Hendricks (Gordon) Collection (Library of Congress) 
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress) 

DIGITAL ID 
edmp.0026A http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/edmp.0026A

Learn more about Thomas Edison and Early Movies with these books and videos

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! 

Related posts:

  1. A History of Screenwriting – 9 in a series – Men Boxing, William K. L. Dickson, William Heise – Edison Manufacturing Company, 1891
  2. A History of Screenwriting – 4 in a series – Exiting the Factory (La Sortie des Usines a Lyon) 1895 – Louis Lumiere
  3. A History of Screenwriting – 7 in a series – Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers, 1895)
  4. A History of Screenwriting – 8 in a series – Leaving Jerusalem by Railway (Auguste and Louis Lumiére, France, 1896)
  5. A History of Screenwriting – 2 in a series – The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906)