Robert Paul is a largely forgotten name today, but he was a major pioneer of British cinema, and was quick to grasp the commercial potential of cinema in ways that better known pioneers such as William Friese-Greene were not. He was more of a mechanic than a filmmaker making, with Birt Acres, his own camera on which to shoot films in 1895, and also Britain's first projector, the Animatograph, with which to screen them in 1896. Early in the 20th century he had a custom-made studio built in Muswell Hill.
Royal Train is a short piece of film shot from a static camera which captures the arrival of the royal train into a station where it is greeted by a crowd held back by a row of policemen. Not a lot happens – we don't even get to see anyone alighting from the train. It's fair to say this isn't one of Paul's more interesting films.
Royal Train is a short piece of film shot from a static camera which captures the arrival of the royal train into a station where it is greeted by a crowd held back by a row of policemen. Not a lot happens – we don't even get to see anyone alighting from the train. It's fair to say this isn't one of Paul's more interesting films.