Roundhay Garden Scene
From ArticleWorld
Roundhay Garden Scene is credited as being the first film ever made it was created in 1888.
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Location
It was filmed on Oakwood Grange Road in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince.
Features
It shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince's son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley (Le Prince's mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley and Miss Harriet Hartley walking around and laughing within the frame’s relative view.
No exact date
Its precise date is not verifiable since Mrs. Whitley died in October 1888. But the year is. As of today, only parts of the photographic copies of the filmstrip on photo paper exist.
The film was recorded on celluloid photographic film. This was done through a Le Prince single-lens camera. While the original footage was probably shot at about 12 frames per second, the photographic copy is believed to be at the very least incomplete. This means that current reconstruction of the film runs for two seconds and utilizing 18 frames.
Conclusion
This film is deemed as the oldest and is incomplete. There have been means of repairing the film, yet that too was impossible for the material of the actual films has degraded to such an extent that only a small portion of the film can be recovered. This has been the case for many other films of this time, hence, why there are remastered.
Of the whole suspected film only a fraction of it still remains. This is a tragic situation and one that can’t be fixed since all that is left is a copy of the original and these are also in fairly bad shape. What is available has been preserved to the best of modern technology and modern techniques in preserving this material. Even if the originals were found it is highly unlikely that they could be salvaged after so many decades have passed.