Dickson Greeting

This is of course not the first film in history and presumably the Edison Manufacturing Company did dozens of test before actually shooting this and of course also shot "Monkeyshines, No. 1", 2 and 3 prior to this but it is the first film that was shown to a wide audience and press, at The National Federation of Women's Clubs, through a motion picture exhibition device the Kinetoscope, an invention of mostly William K.L. Dickson that let a strip of several images passing front of an illuminated lens behind a spinning wheel. Therefor this 3 second short plays an important part in movie history, as being the very first to be shown to an audience.

The motions are perfect, though because of the shooting speed it all seems to occur in slow motion. There are no jerky movements and also the images is surprisingly clear. The film was shot with a Kinetograph, another William K.L. Dickson invention. He therefor is also credited as the inventor of the motion picture camera. The color white is shiny and the less dark colors of Dickson's clothing distinct itself well from the pitch black background used to film this. You can clearly see Dickson's face and also the more detailed look of his hair.

Still I feel they could had done a bit more with the movement in this film. Show the audience some more of the possibilities of moving images. Instead now basically all Dickson does, is bring his hat from his one hand to the other, as a sort of wave toward the audience and he moves his head slightly, supposedly as a small nod toward the audience but that isn't all too clear to see.

In a way this movie is a great metaphor for William K.L. Dickson and Thomas A. Edison literal greeting and welcoming us to the world of film. It perhaps provides the movie with just as much impact and significance, as it did 116 years ago.

8/10

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It is wrong credited as a first movie filmed in United States. First movies filmed in US are Monkeyshines 1, Monkeyshines 2 and third part of Monkeyshines which is losted and you will not see it ever, unfortunately.

I read somewhere that is first film which is shown in public, and i think that this fact is true. Quality of this movie is lot better than quality of 2 parts of Monkeyshines and we have clear view on person standing in front of camera. We can clearly see his face and it is positive side of this movie. Negative side was a fact that we can't see anything interesting and it is pretty much boring.

A little more enjoyable then some of the other early film experiments I have viewed recently. Partly because of the quality of the image, partly because of the surreal vibe, (though its a few seconds of nothing really) and partly because you get to see the handsome face of the filmmaker himself.

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.

Dickson Greeting (1891)

**** (out of 4)

This Edison short was at one time believed to have been the first movie ever made in America but it turned out to be the second behind Edison's three versions of Monkeyshines. In this film, running eighteen seconds, we see a man facing the camera with a hat in one hand and moving that hat to the other hand. This might not sound like much today but this is a very important film in the history of movies because this is the film that showed people moving pictures were possible. The act of the man moving the hate is done six times with three separate shots. This film is also important as we get a visual image of Dickson who is a silent partner in creating this new technology. There's nothing here that's going to blow people away but from a historic viewpoint there aren't many films more important.