Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
Featured Nonfiction
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Fred Ott, Edison's assistant, pinches snuff & sneezes in history's 1st copyrighted film.
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894), also known as "Fred Ott's Sneeze," is among the earliest surviving copyrighted motion pictures. While seemingly simple, this work by William K.L. Dickson for the Edison Manufacturing Company embodies the spirit of experimentation that defined early filmmaking.
Dickson and his team were pioneering a new art form. Here, they capture a fleeting moment – a man (Fred Ott, an Edison employee) takes snuff and lets out a sneeze. The film's brevity reflects the technical limitations of the time.
Yet, this very constraint forced filmmakers to explore the core elements of moving images: capturing a sequence of frames that, when projected rapidly, creates the illusion of motion.
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze wasn't intended for widespread public viewing. Instead, it served as a demonstration of the Kinetoscope, a device that allowed individual viewers to peep through a hole and witness a short film loop.
This focus on the novelty of the moving image itself exemplifies the experimental nature of early cinema. Though short-lived, films like this paved the way for the narrative storytelling and diverse genres we associate with cinema today.
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