Buffalo Running

Buffalo Running (1883)

Eadweard Muybridge's BUFFALO RUNNING lasts just twelve-seconds but it's an early example of what would eventually become filmmaking. The "director" used cameras to capture animals in motion and here we see a large buffalo running (as the title clearly states).

You know, viewing this film today you really can't help but get chills because this is one of the earliest examples of someone actually trying to make a moving picture. There's no question that this is a historically very important film and when you view it today you can't help but feel that. Sure, there's not much going on but in 1883 this here was a major break-through and helped get cinema moving into the right direction.

There isn't much to be said about Eadweard Muybridge's "Buffalo Running" aka in some circles as "Buffalo Galloping, except that this one of the earliest film experiences ever created with Muybridge using of a camera set that captured the motion of animals such as a horse, or in this short's case, a buffalo. A 12-second experiment showing how immense and how beautiful a buffalo can be, to most people back then the very first time they ever saw a buffalo. This early true study of motion gets the praise for all the fore-mentioned reasons, the technique used to bring the buffalo to "life" on the screen and for the test of time - filmed in the 1880's and still present for everyone to see. 8/10

I don't want to get all technical and sound like a nerd, but this is a bison, not a buffalo.

This is another Eadweard Muybridge project. They're individual photographs of the running of a buffalo shot in rapid succession much like he'd done four years earlier with "Sallie Gardner at a Gallop." This was Muybridge trying to perfect his craft before a single camera could capture motion. I don't know enough about Muybridge to know if he was doing this as an art form or for technical or scientific reasons. The galloping horse was to prove that a horse had all four hooves off the ground while at full gallop, so why the buffalo stills.

It's pretty powerful to see the earliest works of cinema, especially those that are as simplistically beautiful as those of Eadweard Muybridge, who arguably made the first films...ever! "Buffalo Running" is among his various efforts, and it's title is quite self explanatory. It shows a buffalo running...and that's it. What makes this film unique is its age and style, while it may be the first film ever, the camera angle chosen to capture the buffalo's movements is quite unique, if unintentionally so, and the vibe I get from the film is one that is extremely surreal. This surrealism derives largely from the age of the images, and how the worn out look almost seems intentional and even creepy to an extent. Observing old films from the future gives them a whole new meaning, a meaning that was originally entirely unintentional, but is fascinating nonetheless.

Eadweard Muybridge was an early English photographer that was important for his very early motion studies, which would later lead to the first true motion pictures. Admittedly, his "movies" were simply a lot of photographs put together to create the illusion of movement, so it's inaccurate to say he 'invented' the medium. But his works, although technically not films, are fine examples of some of the earliest attempts at motion pictures even though they lack the proper qualifications.

Muybridge created both studies of animal and human locomotion, not so much in an attempt to create the first films but in order to study the movement of people and animals. "Buffalo Running" is an interesting example of one of these studies. It lasts for about three seconds technically, but could be played endlessly without the slightest cut in movement, and the title as always summarizes the action. Furthermore, despite not really qualifying as a film, the manner in which it was shot gives it the appearance of a true, live clip. If I didn't know it was a lot of photos I wouldn't have guessed, and the artistic beauty and movements of the titular animal are captured to perfection. Historically interesting as an early example of the slowly-developing medium, and nice for what it is.