For the first three years in the motion picture industry, Thomas A. Edison devoted himself entirely on altering and testing his Kinetoscope invention, the film camera used to shoot the very first movies made in America. Movies such as "Men Boxing", "Dickson Greeting" and "Newark Athlete" have all been remembered as such, being widely available on the Internet and on a DVD set of Edison shorts. From the blurry Monkeyshines trilogy to the crisp quality of the 1891 movies, Edison finally found the solution to capture movement on celluloid.
However, what is oddly enough not remembered as well in cinematic history are Edison's 1892 shorts, in which "Fencing" is included. Many of these later experiments have either been lost, little seen, or sadly forgotten. Indeed, from the two 1892 Edison movies available online, it appears they have either not aged well or were poorly made in first place. "Fencing" is an example of this. From the very stationary, cleaned-up footage from one year before, the footage that makes up this literally second-long piece is blurry, shakey and actually a step down from those previous shorts. Either Edison was trying to improve his invention ever better than before and ended up making it worse, or they built a second camera with cheaper parts which proved to be not as well constructed.
Yet, this is still a little-remembered historical landmark for one reason: it is the first remake I've seen in the history of movies. Considering the fact almost no one was really inventing like Edison was at the time, one would think the first remake came years later, but if you were to think that you'd be mistaken. Frenchman Etienne-Jules Marey, who was experimenting with his chronophotographic gun invention around the same time, had already previously did a shot of fencers in motion the year before (in "Two Fencers" of 1891). That film is a little longer than this one, survives in a more crisp and viewable condition, and even shows more skill from the fencers. There is no possible way Edison could really have seen that film beforehand, since he had occupied his time the year before experimenting with the Kinetoscope, yet the subject matter remains exactly the same. So it must have been by some strange coincidence that he chose the exact same subject to shoot.
However, what is oddly enough not remembered as well in cinematic history are Edison's 1892 shorts, in which "Fencing" is included. Many of these later experiments have either been lost, little seen, or sadly forgotten. Indeed, from the two 1892 Edison movies available online, it appears they have either not aged well or were poorly made in first place. "Fencing" is an example of this. From the very stationary, cleaned-up footage from one year before, the footage that makes up this literally second-long piece is blurry, shakey and actually a step down from those previous shorts. Either Edison was trying to improve his invention ever better than before and ended up making it worse, or they built a second camera with cheaper parts which proved to be not as well constructed.
Yet, this is still a little-remembered historical landmark for one reason: it is the first remake I've seen in the history of movies. Considering the fact almost no one was really inventing like Edison was at the time, one would think the first remake came years later, but if you were to think that you'd be mistaken. Frenchman Etienne-Jules Marey, who was experimenting with his chronophotographic gun invention around the same time, had already previously did a shot of fencers in motion the year before (in "Two Fencers" of 1891). That film is a little longer than this one, survives in a more crisp and viewable condition, and even shows more skill from the fencers. There is no possible way Edison could really have seen that film beforehand, since he had occupied his time the year before experimenting with the Kinetoscope, yet the subject matter remains exactly the same. So it must have been by some strange coincidence that he chose the exact same subject to shoot.