A troupe of gypsies takes a traveler along with them on their day trip.A troupe of gypsies takes a traveler along with them on their day trip.A troupe of gypsies takes a traveler along with them on their day trip.
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The Subjective Camera
The Internet Movie Database shows this early Hepworth documentary as seven minutes. The version released by Mark Roth on dvd in 2004 timed in at over 10 minutes. I played it at seven minutes with no loss. Call it one reel and set your cranking speed at what you will, as the projectionist did more than a century ago, and your audience likely will not be displeased.
I found it most interesting not for its kindly view towards the gypsies of England, nor its restful and tinted views of the wooded back lanes along which they traveled, but for its subjective camera and its clear narrator. It begins with titles announcing that the narrator found some gypsies in his garden, like toadstools in a fairy ring, and asked them for a day's ride with them... which they agreed to on being paid. There follows a closeup of an old woman smiling and taking something, presumably money, from the camera. Later, the caravan stops at a public house for beers, leaving the narrator in the caravan.... but come out to offer the camera a beer.
I doubt this is the earliest use of a subjective camera in cinema; you can make a case that Williamon's THE BIG SWALLOW is an earlier example. As an attempt to put the audience on site in a documentary, it's still a remarkable idea.
I found it most interesting not for its kindly view towards the gypsies of England, nor its restful and tinted views of the wooded back lanes along which they traveled, but for its subjective camera and its clear narrator. It begins with titles announcing that the narrator found some gypsies in his garden, like toadstools in a fairy ring, and asked them for a day's ride with them... which they agreed to on being paid. There follows a closeup of an old woman smiling and taking something, presumably money, from the camera. Later, the caravan stops at a public house for beers, leaving the narrator in the caravan.... but come out to offer the camera a beer.
I doubt this is the earliest use of a subjective camera in cinema; you can make a case that Williamon's THE BIG SWALLOW is an earlier example. As an attempt to put the audience on site in a documentary, it's still a remarkable idea.
helpful•10
- boblipton
- Aug 23, 2018
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- Runtime7 minutes
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