It's more like two and a half minutes. Against the backdrop of the big canvas tent of the Forepaugh and Sells Bros. combined four-ring circus (whee!), the big elephants, the fancy horses and the traveling calliope parade. Then we get to see some fancy riding.
At the start of the 20th Century, the biggest entertainment industry was the circus, and this short subject piggybacks off that premise. The movie itself holds a few bits of technical interest.
It is clearly two shorter movies stuck together. At this stage of film making, the length of a picture was determined by the amount of film the camera held and that was usually about a minute. Editing did not arise solely out of a desire to find an appropriate grammar for this budding art form; it was a necessity in order to make longer pictures when the subject demanded it or seemed interesting enough to hold the audience's attention. Sticking two lengths of film together led to a basic understanding of cinematic time, James Williamson in Great Britain already understood this. However, for several years, it was a straightforward progression. Then the idea of cross-cutting arose, borrowed from literary and stagecraft techniques.
At this point it's still at its basic stage. The circus parades, then later, after the cut, comes the fancy riding. Other techniques would wait.
At the start of the 20th Century, the biggest entertainment industry was the circus, and this short subject piggybacks off that premise. The movie itself holds a few bits of technical interest.
It is clearly two shorter movies stuck together. At this stage of film making, the length of a picture was determined by the amount of film the camera held and that was usually about a minute. Editing did not arise solely out of a desire to find an appropriate grammar for this budding art form; it was a necessity in order to make longer pictures when the subject demanded it or seemed interesting enough to hold the audience's attention. Sticking two lengths of film together led to a basic understanding of cinematic time, James Williamson in Great Britain already understood this. However, for several years, it was a straightforward progression. Then the idea of cross-cutting arose, borrowed from literary and stagecraft techniques.
At this point it's still at its basic stage. The circus parades, then later, after the cut, comes the fancy riding. Other techniques would wait.
