Watch Dickson Greeting For Free

So much average

Powerful

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While the modern world may not think much of this short film featuring William K. L. Dickson moving his hat from one hand to the other, it has a big spot in cinematic history. For one thing, the famous man Thomas Edison used his Kinetograph to film it. Also, later in the 1900s films were being made in which the plot involved the camera itself, and the person filming with it. (A good example of this can be found in James Williamson's "The Big Swallow" and Cecil Hepworth's "How it feels to be Run Over.") I believe this film was the first to have that idea that the camera and the cameraman could be part of the action.In this case, Mr. Dickson does a gesture with his hat for the camera. While he doesn't seem to notice the camera, that idea is still there: when it was presented to audiences, they would feel as though they were being greeted. Thus, instead of watching the action, they would also be part of it.8/10 rating: 7 stars for how much I liked it, 1 for its cinematic value.

W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise made this very short film. In it, Dickson stands in front of the camera. He moves his hat from one hand to another. It is famous for being the first film presented to the public, when it was shown to the National Federation of Women's Club, at the behest of Mrs. Edison.This film was much smoother and clearer than the previous output of Heise and Dickson. Dickson's movement that we see is a shorter piece of the longer film that was displayed in 1891.I gave the film 2 out of 10, but it has a strong value as a visual of the film pioneer W.K.L. Dickson.

This one shows us the one of the most important figures in early American cinematography. William K.L. Dickson greets the audience that has come to take a look at that wonderful magical new thing called film. I personally find this one less interesting than his Newark athlete from the same year, maybe also because it's considerably shorter and less spectacular. Basically he's just pulling a hat.It's another fine example, however, how much he has improved his craft since working on his maiden project Monkeyshines. The people who he's recording are now clearly visible and not just anonymous ghostlike contours.

As simple and brief as it is, this mini-feature is one of the most important steps in the development of moving pictures. In its time, it was an enormous step forward from previous experiments (at least from those of which records still exist), and it shows a complete success in getting past some of the difficulties with the Edison Company's earlier "Monkeyshines" experiments.The footage simply shows Edison's associate W.K.L. Dickson, performing a jaunty motion of greeting, which is then repeated more than once. The image is very clear, with only a slight suggestion of minor distortion around the edges. The illusion of motion is smooth and completely convincing. It has also survived in good condition, which is fortunate given its significance.It is also appropriate that such a significant step forward would preserve the image of Dickson, who was so instrumental in developing the new technology. While the exact amount of credit rightfully due to Edison, Dickson, and other individuals can now no longer be determined accurately, it seems apparent from all accounts that Dickson probably deserves as much credit as anyone in the early development of motion pictures.