The Derby (1895 film)

The Derby is an 1895 British short black-and-white silent documentary film, produced and directed by Birt Acres for exhibition on Robert W. Paul's Kinetoscopes, featuring the end of the 29 May 1895 Epsom Derby viewed from a raised position close to the finishing line with the main stand in the distance. A photograph of Acres filming the movie has survived, which shows that the camera used in the production was relatively portable.[1] The film was long considered lost but footage discovered in the Ray Henville collection in 1995 has been identified by the BFI as being from this film.[2]

Synopsis

A stationary camera looks diagonally across a racetrack toward the infield showing the horses as they pass. Once the horses have passed the camera it is clear that the race has come to an end and there is a close finish between three horses. Once the race is over police officers run onto the field. The camera also displays various members of the audience moving around.

Current status

Often muddled with the 1896 Derby, shot by Robert Paul, the 1895 film is now freely available to viewers in the UK in a digital restoration on the BFI Player[3]. New research has revealed that the Acres and Paul films, including this one, were shot far slower than the forty frames per second required by the Kinetoscope. They were actually filmed at around sixteen frames per second, which would later be established as the standard speed in the silent era[4].

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References
  1. "Birt Acres". Who's Who of Victorian Cinema. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
  2. "Lost and found no. 4 – The Henville collection". The Bioscope. 9 March 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  3. "Watch The Derby 1895". BFI Player. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  4. "Whatever Happened at Clovelly Cottage?" The story of Britain's first 35mm film, retrieved 23 December 2019
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