It's a carriage ride down the famous Parisian avenue.
That makes it a panoramic view under the then-current definition. A camera would be place on a ship, railroad or truck and move along, shooting whatever came into view. Usually, under the direction of this film maker, James White, this meant the railroad tracks or the backs of people's head. Movement was more or less linear.
Looking at this movie for the first time in a couple of decades, I noticed something I hadn't before. Perhaps it wasn't in the copy I saw earlier, or perhaps I didn't realize its significance. When the movie starts, the camera looks at the Arc de Triomphe. Then the camera swivels (I imagine the truck or carriage it was mounted on, turned) and takes off down the avenue. That swivel is the essence of the modern definition of a pan(oramic) shot; the camera swivels, rather than moves. The latter is called, unsurprisingly, a moving shot these days.
This is the earliest shot of this type I am aware of, and I am gobsmacked. Did James White actually come up with something new?
That makes it a panoramic view under the then-current definition. A camera would be place on a ship, railroad or truck and move along, shooting whatever came into view. Usually, under the direction of this film maker, James White, this meant the railroad tracks or the backs of people's head. Movement was more or less linear.
Looking at this movie for the first time in a couple of decades, I noticed something I hadn't before. Perhaps it wasn't in the copy I saw earlier, or perhaps I didn't realize its significance. When the movie starts, the camera looks at the Arc de Triomphe. Then the camera swivels (I imagine the truck or carriage it was mounted on, turned) and takes off down the avenue. That swivel is the essence of the modern definition of a pan(oramic) shot; the camera swivels, rather than moves. The latter is called, unsurprisingly, a moving shot these days.
This is the earliest shot of this type I am aware of, and I am gobsmacked. Did James White actually come up with something new?
