Editing Louis Le Prince

{{short description|French inventor and Father of Cinematography (1841-1897)}}
{{for|the composer|Louis Le Prince (composer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Louis Le Prince
| image              = Louisleprincerestored.png
| caption            = Le Prince {{circa}} early 1860s
| birth_name         = Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1841|8|28|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Metz]], France
| disappeared_date   = {{Disappeared date|1890|9|16|df=y}}
| disappeared_place  = [[Dijon]], France
| status             = [[Presumption of death|Declared dead]] on 16&nbsp;September 1897 (aged 56)
| occupation         = [[Artist]], [[art teacher]], [[inventor]]
| spouse             = {{Marriage|Sarah Elizabeth Le Prince-Whitley|1869}}
| children           = Gabriella Marie (1870), [[Adolphe Le Prince|Louis Adolphe (1872)]], Henriette Aimee (1874), Joseph Albert Augustin (1875), Leon Fernand (1877)
}}

'''Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince''' (28 August 1841 – disappeared 16 September 1890, [[Presumption of death|declared dead]] 16 September 1897) was a French artist and the inventor of an early [[film|motion-picture]] camera, and director of ''[[Roundhay Garden Scene]]''. 

He was possibly the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence using a single lens camera and a strip of (paper) film.<ref name="bbceducation">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/local_heroes/biogs/biogleprince.shtml |title=BBC Education – Local Heroes Le Prince Biography |access-date=27 May 2008 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991128020048/http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/local_heroes/biogs/biogleprince.shtml |archive-date=28 November 1999 }}, BBC, archived on 28 November 1999</ref><ref name="body of evidence">{{cite journal | last = Howells | first = Richard | title = Louis Le Prince: the body of evidence | journal = Screen | volume = 47 | issue = 2 | pages = 179–200 | publisher = Oxford Journals | location = Oxford, UK | date =Summer 2006 | doi = 10.1093/screen/hjl015 }}</ref> He has been credited as the "Father of [[Cinematography]]",<ref>"The 'Father' Of Kinematography: Leeds Memorial Pioneer Work In England". ''The Manchester Guardian (1901–1959)'', Manchester, England 13 December 1930: 19.</ref> but his work did not influence the commercial development of cinema—owing largely to the events surrounding his 1890 disappearance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fischer |first1=Paul |title=The Man who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies |year=2022 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9781982114824}}</ref><ref name="NYT-2022014">{{cite news |last=Greenblatt |first=Leah |title=He Created the First Known Movie. Then He Vanished. In his new book, ''The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures'', Paul Fischer investigates the life – and mysterious disappearance – of Louis Le Prince. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/14/books/review/man-who-invented-motion-pictures-paul-fischer.html |date=14 April 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=17 April 2022 }}</ref>

A Frenchman who also worked in the United Kingdom and the United States, Le Prince's motion-picture experiments culminated in 1888 in [[Leeds]], England.<ref>{{cite news|title=Louis Le Prince, who shot the world's first film in Leeds|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-33198686|agency=BBC|date=24 August 2016}}</ref> In October of that year, he filmed moving-picture sequences of family members in ''[[Roundhay Garden Scene|Roundhay Garden]]'' and his son playing the [[accordion]], using his single-lens camera and [[Eastman Kodak|Eastman]]'s paper negative film.<ref name="nationalmediamuseum">{{cite web| url=http://www.meiermovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PioneersOfEarlyCinemaLouisLePrince.pdf| title=Pioneers of Early Cinema: 1, Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1841–1890?)| page=2| publisher=www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk| quote=he developed a single-lens camera which he used to make moving picture sequences at the Whitley family home in Roundhay and of Leeds Bridge in October 1888. ... it has been claimed that a photograph of a drowned man in the Paris police archives is that of Le Prince.| access-date=25 November 2012}}</ref> At some point in the following eighteen months he also made a film of [[Leeds Bridge]]. This work may have been slightly in advance of the inventions of contemporaneous moving-picture pioneers, such as the British inventors [[William Friese-Greene]] and [[Wordsworth Donisthorpe]], and was years in advance of that of [[Auguste and Louis Lumière]] and [[William Kennedy Dickson]] (who did the moving image work for [[Thomas Edison]]).

Le Prince was never able to perform a planned public demonstration of his camera in the US because he mysteriously vanished; he was last known to be boarding a train on 16 September 1890.<ref name="bbceducation"/> Multiple [[conspiracy theories]] have emerged about the reason for his disappearance, including: a murder set up by Edison, secret homosexuality, disappearance in order to start a new life, suicide because of heavy debts and failing experiments, and a murder by his brother over their mother's [[will and testament|will]]. No conclusive evidence exists for any of these theories. In 2004, a police archive in Paris was found to contain a photograph of a drowned man bearing a strong resemblance to Le Prince who was discovered in the [[Seine]] just after the time of his disappearance,<ref name="nationalmediamuseum"/> but it has been claimed that the body was too short to be Le Prince.<ref name="The tragedy of Louis Le Prince">{{Cite web |title=The tragedy of Louis Le Prince |url=http://www.acmi.net.au/stories-and-ideas/tragedy-louis-le-prince/ |access-date=20 June 2022 |website=www.acmi.net.au |language=en}}</ref>

In early 1890, Edison workers had begun experimenting with using a strip of [[celluloid]] film to capture moving images. The first public results of these experiments were shown in May 1891.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The Man Who Made Movies: W.K.L. Dickson|last=Spehr|first=Paul|publisher=John Libbey Publishing Ltd|year=2008|location=United Kingdom}}</ref> However, Le Prince's widow and son Adolphe were keen to advance Louis's cause as the inventor of [[cinematography]]. In 1898, Adolphe appeared as a witness for the [[defense (law)|defence]] in a court case brought by Edison against the [[Biograph Company|American Mutoscope Company]]. This suit claimed that Edison was the first and sole inventor of cinematography, and thus entitled to [[royalty payment|royalties]] for the use of the process. Adolphe was involved in the case but was not allowed to present his father's two cameras as evidence, although films shot with cameras built according to his father's [[patent]] were presented. Eventually the court ruled in favour of Edison. A year later that ruling was overturned,<ref name=":1" /> but Edison then reissued his patents and succeeded in controlling the US film industry for many years.<ref name=":1" />

==Early life and education==
Le Prince was born on 28 August 1841 in [[Metz]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archives.metz.fr/4DCGI/WEB_RegistreVisuImgAppelExterne/306028_1Exzxb447/ILUMP9999#|title=Archives Municipales de Metz – Visualiseur|access-date=9 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Aulas|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Pfend|first2=Jacques|date=1 December 2000|title=Louis Aimé Augustin Leprince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinéma|url=http://journals.openedition.org/1895/110#ftn4|journal=1895. Mille Huit Cent Quatre-vingt-quinze|issue=32|pages=Footnote 4|doi=10.4000/1895.110|issn=0769-0959|doi-access=free|language=fr}} The birth certificate mentions "born August on the 28th, 1841 at 5am. The common mistake of making him born in 1842 comes from an article of Ernest Kilburn Scott, mistake made since then in numerous articles, including the one by Simon Popple</ref> His family referred to him as "Augustin" and English-speaking friends would later call him "Gus".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Aulas|first1=Jean-Jacques|last2=Pfend|first2=Jacques|date=1 December 2000|title=Louis Aimé Augustin Leprince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinéma|url=http://journals.openedition.org/1895/110|journal=1895. Mille Huit Cent Quatre-vingt-quinze|issue=32|pages=9–74|doi=10.4000/1895.110|issn=0769-0959|doi-access=free|language=fr}}</ref> Le Prince's father was a major of artillery in the [[French Army]]<ref name="Herbert">{{cite web | last = Herbert | first = Stephen | title = Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince | work = Who's Who of Victorian Cinema | url = http://www.victorian-cinema.net/leprince.htm | access-date = 26 August 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721184745/http://www.victorian-cinema.net/leprince.htm | archive-date=21 July 2006}}</ref> and an officer of the [[Légion d'honneur]]. When growing up, he reportedly spent time in the studio of his father's friend, the pioneer of photography [[Louis Daguerre]],<ref name="Herbert"/> from whom Le Prince may have received some lessons on photography and chemistry before he was 10 years old. His education went on to include the study of painting in Paris and post-graduate chemistry at [[Leipzig University]],<ref name="Herbert"/> which provided him with the academic knowledge he was to utilise in the future.

==Career==
[[File:Louis Le Prince.jpg|thumb|right|Le Prince in the 1880s]]
{{blockquote|In conclusion, I would say that Mr. Le Prince was in many ways a very extraordinary man, apart from his inventive genius, which was undoubtedly great. He stood 6ft. 3in. or 4in. (190cm) in his stockings, well built in proportion, and he was most gentle and considerate and, though an inventor, of an extremely placid disposition which nothing appeared to ruffle.|source=Declaration of Frederic Mason (wood-worker and assistant of Le Prince, April 21, 1931, American consulate of Bradford, England)}}

Le Prince moved to [[Leeds]], England in 1866, after being invited to join [[John Robinson Whitley|John Whitley]],<ref name="bbceducation" /> a friend from college, in ''Whitley Partners'' of [[Hunslet]], a firm of brass founders making valves and components.<ref name="Naughton">[https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040302130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13071/20040303-0000/www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LE_PRINCE_BIO.html Adventures in CyberSound: Le Prince, Louis Aimé Augustin]{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, Dr Russell Naughton (using source: Michael Harvey, NMPFT Pioneers of Early Cinema: 1. Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://loveoakwood.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/National-Museum-of-Media-and-Film-Bradford-Louis-le-Prince.pdf|title=Pioneers of Early Cinema: Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (1841–1890?)|date=June 2011|website=[[National Science and Media Museum|National Media Museum]]}}</ref> In 1869 he married Sarah Elizabeth Whitley, John's sister<ref name="bbceducation" /> and a talented artist. When in Paris during their honeymoon, Le Prince repeatedly visited a magic show, fascinated by an illusion with moving transparent figures, presumably a dancing skeleton projection at the [[Théâtre Robert-Houdin]] with multiple reflections of mirrors focused on one point or a variation of [[Pepper's Ghost]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2022 |title=Louis Le Prince – New Thinking: Part 1. |url=https://theoptilogue.wordpress.com/2022/11/21/louis-le-prince-new-thinking-part-1/ |access-date=23 November 2022 |website=The Optilogue |language=en}}</ref>

Le Prince and his wife started a school of applied art, the Leeds Technical School of Art,<ref name=Tucker>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K6MxEAAAQBAJ|title=Peripatetic Frame: Images of Walking in Film|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]]|year=2020|author=Thomas Deane Tucker|page=18|isbn=9781474409308 }}</ref> and became well renowned for their work in fixing coloured photographs on to metal and pottery, leading to them being commissioned for portraits of [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] and the long-serving Prime Minister [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] produced in this way; these were included alongside other mementos of the time in a [[time capsule]]—manufactured by Whitley Partners of Hunslet—which was placed in the foundations of [[Cleopatra's Needle, London|Cleopatra's Needle]] on the embankment of the [[River Thames]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

In 1881, Le Prince went to the United States<ref name="Herbert" /> as an agent for Lincrusta Walton, staying in the country along with his family once his contract had ended.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} He became the manager for a small group of French artists who produced large [[panorama]]s, usually of famous battles, that were exhibited in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.<ref name="Herbert" /><ref name="Naughton" />

During this time he began experiments relating to the production of 'moving' photographs, designing a camera that utilised sixteen lenses,<ref name="Naughton" /> which was the first invention he patented. Although the camera was capable of 'capturing' motion, it wasn't a complete success because each lens photographed the subject from a slightly different viewpoint and thus the image would have jumped about, if he had been able to project it (which is unknown).

[[File:Leeds Bridge 01.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque on Leeds Bridge]]
After his return to Leeds in May 1887,<ref name="Naughton" /> Le Prince built a single-lens camera in mid-late 1888. An experimental model was developed in a workshop at 160 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds and used to shoot his motion-picture films. It was first used on 14 October 1888 to shoot what would become known as ''[[Roundhay Garden Scene]]'' and a sequence of his son Adolphe playing the accordion. Le Prince later used it to film road traffic and pedestrians crossing [[Leeds Bridge]]. The film was shot from Hicks the Ironmongers, now the British Waterways building on the south east side of the bridge<ref name="bbceducation" /> and marked with a commemorative [[Blue plaque]].

==Disappearance==
In September 1890, Le Prince was preparing for a trip to the United States, supposedly to publicly premiere his work and join his wife and children. Before this journey, he decided to return to France to visit his brother in [[Dijon]]. Then, on 16 September, he took a train to Paris but, having taken a later train than planned, his friends missed him in Paris. He was never seen again by his family or friends.<ref name="bbceducation"/> The last person to see Le Prince at the Dijon station was his brother.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=386852|title=The Shadow Traps|website=www.stitcher.com|language=en|access-date=4 November 2019}}</ref>  The French police, [[Scotland Yard]] and the family undertook exhaustive searches, but never found him. Le Prince was officially [[Declared death in absentia|declared dead]] in 1897.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJ8DHBay4_EC&pg=PA837|title=Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography|publisher=CRC Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-415-97235-2|editor=Hannavy, John|volume=1|page=837}}</ref> A number of mostly unsubstantiated theories have been proposed.

===Patent Wars assassination, "Equity 6928"===
Christopher Rawlence pursues the assassination theory, along with other theories, and discusses the Le Prince family's suspicions of Edison over patents (the Equity 6928) in his 1990 book and documentary ''The Missing Reel''.<ref>''The Missing Reel'', by Christopher Rawlence (Athenum Publishers, New York, 1990)</ref> Rawlence claims that at the time that he vanished, Le Prince was about to [[patent]] his 1889 projector in the UK and then leave Europe for his scheduled New York official exhibition. His widow assumed foul play though no concrete evidence has ever emerged and Rawlence prefers the suicide theory. 

In 1898, Le Prince's elder son Adolphe, who had assisted his father in many of his experiments, was called as a witness for the American Mutoscope Company in their [[litigation]] with Edison [Equity 6928]. By citing Le Prince's achievements, Mutoscope hoped to annul Edison's subsequent claims to have invented the moving-picture camera. Le Prince's widow Lizzie and Adolphe hoped that this would gain recognition for Le Prince's achievement, but when the case went against Mutoscope their hopes were dashed. Two years later, [[Adolphe Le Prince]] was found dead on Fire Island near New York.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.precinemahistory.net/1885.htm | title=The History of the Discovery of Cinematography | first=Paul | last=Burns}} – "After his disappearance, the Le Prince family led by his wife and son went to court against Edison in what became known as Equity 6928. The famous Patent Wars ensued and by 1908 Thomas Edison was regarded as sole inventor of motion pictures, in the US at least. However, in 1902, two years after Le Prince's son Adolphe had testified in the suit, he was found shot dead on Fire Island, New York."</ref>

===Disappearance ordered by the family===
In 1966, Jacques Deslandes proposed a theory in ''Histoire comparée du cinéma'' (The Comparative History of Cinema), claiming that Le Prince voluntarily disappeared due to financial reasons and "familial conveniences". Journalist Léo Sauvage quotes a note shown to him by Pierre Gras, director of the Dijon municipal library, in 1977, that claimed Le Prince died in [[Chicago]] in 1898, having moved there at the family's request because he was homosexual; but he rejects that assertion.<ref>Léo Sauvage, "Un épisode mystérieux de l'histoire du cinéma : La disparition de Le Prince", Historia, n° 430 bis, Sept. 1982, pp. 45–51: "une telle affirmation (...) est totalement dépourvue de vraisemblance".</ref> 
It is extremely likely that this wasn't at all true, as there is no evidence to suggest that Le Prince was gay.<ref>Dembowski (1995): {{lang|fr|"Pierre Gras, conservateur en chef de la Bibliothèque publique de Dijon, en 1977, montra à Léo Sauvage une note (il la cite dans son ouvrage), prise lors de la visite d'un historien connu (il a tu son nom) qui avait déclaré : – Le Prince est mort à Chicago en 1898, disparition volontaire exigée par la famille. Homosexualité. Disons clairement qu'il n'y a pas l'ombre d'une preuve à l'appui d'une telle assertion."}}</ref>

===Fratricide, murder for money===
In 1967, Jean Mitry proposed, in ''Histoire du cinéma'', that Le Prince was killed. Mitry notes that if Le Prince truly wanted to disappear, he could have done so at any time prior to that. Thus, he most likely never boarded the train in Dijon. He also wonders why, if his brother, who was confirmed as the last person to have seen Le Prince alive, knew Le Prince was suicidal, he didn't try to stop Le Prince, and why he didn't report Le Prince's mental state to the police before it was too late.<ref>Dembowski (1995): {{lang|fr|"S'il en était ainsi, pourquoi n'a-t-il rien fait pour l'empêcher de réaliser son funeste projet, pourquoi n'a-t-il pas averti la police à temps?"}}</ref>

===Suspected drowning===
A photograph of a drowned man pulled from the Seine in 1890, strongly resembling Le Prince, was discovered in 2003 during research in the Paris police archives.<ref name="Herbert" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=23 June 2015 |title=The mystery of Leeds's long-lost movie pioneer |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-first-film/louis-le-prince-inventor-true-story/ |url-status=dead |access-date=9 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311052450/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-first-film/louis-le-prince-inventor-true-story/ |archive-date=2021-03-11 |via=}}</ref> This led to the theory that he had failed to get his moving picture to work, had heavy debts, and thus chose to take his own life.<ref name=":2" /> It has been claimed that the body was too short to be Le Prince.<ref name="The tragedy of Louis Le Prince" />

==Patents and cameras==
On 10 January 1888, Le Prince was granted an American [[patent]] on a 16-lens device that he claimed could serve as both motion picture camera (which he termed "the receiver or photo-camera") and a projector (which he called "the deliverer or [[stereopticon]]").<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?PageNum=0&docid=00376247&IDKey=94442ED43DB9&HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D0376247.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F0376247%2526RS%3DPN%2F0376247|title=Method of and apparatus for producing animated pictures of natural scenery and life|date=10 January 1888|access-date=29 December 2017}}</ref> That same day he took out a near-identical provisional patent for the same devices in Great Britain, proposing "a system of preferably 3, 4, 8, 9, 16 or more lenses". Shortly before the final version was submitted he added a sentence which described a single-lens system, but this was neither fully explained nor illustrated, unlike the several pages of description of the multi-lens system,<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Patents Completed|journal=British Journal of Photography|volume=35|pages=793}}</ref> meaning the single-lens camera was not legally covered by patent.


This addendum was submitted on 10 October 1888<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Aulas & Pfend|first=Jean-Jacques & Jacques|date=1 December 2000|title=Louis Aimé Augustin Leprince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinéma|journal=1895. Revue de l'association française de recherche sur l'histoire du cinéma|volume=32}}</ref> and, on 14 October, Le Prince used his single-lens camera to film ''[[Roundhay Garden Scene]]''. During the period 1889–1890 he worked with the mechanic James Longley on various "deliverers" (projectors) with one, two, three and sixteen lenses. The images were to be separated, printed and mounted individually, sometimes on a flexible band, moved by metal eyelets. 

The single lens projector used individual pictures mounted in wooden frames.<ref name=":0" /> His assistant, James Longley, claimed the three-lens version was the most successful.<ref name=":0" /> Those close to Le Prince have testified to him projecting his first films in his workshop as tests, but they were never presented to anyone outside his immediate circle of family and associates and the nature of the projector is unknown.

In 1889, he took French-American dual citizenship in order to establish himself with his family in New York City and to follow up his research. However, he was never able to perform his planned public exhibition at the [[Morris–Jumel Mansion]] in Manhattan, in September 1890, due to his disappearance.<ref name=nyt-1990-09-16>{{Cite news|last=Myrent|first=Glenn|date=1990-09-16|title=100 Years Ago, the Father of Movies Disappeared|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/16/movies/100-years-ago-the-father-of-movies-disappeared.html|access-date=2023-11-04|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Later recognition==
{{more citations needed|section|date=October 2017}}<!--many paragraphs without citations-->

Even though Le Prince's achievement is remarkable, with only [[William Friese-Greene]] and [[Wordsworth Donisthorpe]] achieving anything comparable in the period 1888–1890, his work was largely forgotten until the 1920s, as he disappeared before the first public demonstration of the result of his work, having never shown his invention to any photographic society or scientific institution or the general public.

For the April 1894 commercial exploitation of his personal [[kinetoscope]] parlor, Thomas Edison is credited in the US as the inventor of cinema, while in France, the [[Lumière Brothers]] are hailed as inventors of the ''[[Cinématographe]]'' device and for the first commercial exhibition of motion-picture films, in Paris in 1895.

However, in Leeds, Le Prince is celebrated as a local hero. On 12 December 1930, the Lord Mayor of Leeds unveiled a bronze memorial tablet at 160 Woodhouse Lane, Le Prince's former workshop. In 2003, the [[University of Leeds]]'s Centre for Cinema, Photography and Television was named in his honour. Le Prince's workshop in Woodhouse Lane was until recently the site of the [[BBC]] in Leeds, and is now part of the [[Leeds Beckett University]] Broadcasting Place complex, where a blue plaque commemorates his work. (coordinates: {{coord|53|48|20.58|N|1|32|56.74|W|region:GB_type:landmark}}). Reconstructions of his film strips are shown in the cinema of the [[Armley Mills Industrial Museum]], Leeds.

In France, an appreciation society was created as L'Association des Amis de Le Prince (Association of Le Prince's Friends), which still exists in [[Lyon]].

In 1990, Christopher Rawlence wrote ''The Missing Reel, The Untold Story of the Lost inventor of Moving Pictures'' and produced the TV programme ''The Missing Reel'' (1989) for Channel Four, a dramatised feature on the life of Le Prince.

In 1992, the Japanese filmmaker [[Mamoru Oshii]] (''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'') directed ''[[Talking Head (film)|Talking Head]]'', an ''[[avant-garde]]'' feature film paying tribute to the cinematography history's tragic ending figures such as [[George Eastman]], [[Georges Méliès]] and Louis Le Prince who is credited as "the true inventor of ''eiga''", [[:jp:映画|映画]], Japanese for "motion picture film".

In 2013, a feature documentary, ''[[The First Film]]'' was produced, with new research material and documentation on the life of Le Prince and his patents. Produced and directed by Leeds-born David Nicholas Wilkinson with research by Irfan Shah, it was filmed in England, France and the United States by Guerilla Films.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://guerilla-group.com/tff/ |title=The First Film |website=Guerilla Group |language=en-GB |access-date=16 June 2018 |archive-date=16 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616180354/http://guerilla-group.com/tff/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  ''The First Film'' features several film historians to tell the story, including Michael Harvey, Irfan Shah, Stephen Herbert, Mark Rance, Daniel Martin, Jacques Pfend, Adrian Wootton, Tony North, Mick McCann, Tony Earnshaw, Carol S Ward, Liz Rymer, and twice Oscar-nominated cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts. 

Le Prince's great-great-granddaughter Laurie Snyder also makes an appearance. It had its world première in June 2015 at the Edinburgh Film Festival and opened in UK cinemas on 3 July 2015. The film also played in festivals in the US, Canada, Russia, Ireland and Belgium. On 8 September 2016 it played at the [[Morris-Jumel Mansion]] in New York, where 126 years earlier Le Prince planned to show his films.

In 2023, the Roundhay Garden Scene was shown and recreated for the grand finale of the 10th Annual Live [[On Cinema at the Cinema|On Cinema]] Oscar Special.<ref>{{cite web |title=10th Annual On Cinema Oscar Special |url=https://www.heinetwork.tv/episode/10th-annual-on-cinema-oscar-special/ |website=heinetwork.tv |publisher=On Cinema |access-date=14 March 2023}}</ref>

===Le Prince Cine Camera-Projector types===
<!--PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE CENTER ALIGN THIS TIME, THANKS...-->
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:0.2em auto"
|-
! Model !! Specs !! Design !! Manufacture !! Patents
|-
| 16-lens camera and projector<!-- Deleted image removed:  [[File:Le-prince-type-16-cine-camera-projector-1886.png|100px|Courtesy of the "National Museum of Photography, Film & Television", Bradford]]  -->|| Patent: "Method of and apparatus for producing animated pictures of natural scenery and life" (USA) and in all later foreign patents.<br />Designation: LePrince 16-lens camera/projector <br />Framerate: 16 frames per second (according to patent)<br />Medium: Glass plates and Eastman paper film || 1886, New York || Made in Paris, 1887 || US Patent No.&nbsp;376,247/217,809<br /><small>Issued</small><br />{{flagicon|USA}} Washington<br />2 November 1886<br /><small>Accepted</small><br />10 January 1888<br />FR Patent No.&nbsp;188,089<br /><small>Issued</small><br />{{flagicon|France}} Paris<br />11 January 1888<br /><small>Accepted</small><br />June 1890 (and BR patent 423 – see below)
|-
| Single-lens camera<!-- Deleted image removed:  [[File:Le-prince-cameraprojector-type1-mark2-1888.png|100px|alt=]]  -->|| Patent: Mentioned but not described or illustrated in "Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for Producing Animated Photographic Pictures"<br />Designation: Le Prince single-lens "receiver" (camera) Mk2<br />Framerate: 5–7 frames per second<br />Lenses: Viewfinder (upper) & Photograph (lower)<br />Film: sensitised paper film & gelatin stripping film (60mm)<br />Focus: lever (backward/forward) || Leeds, 1888 || Made in Leeds, 1888
* Frederic Mason (body and wooden parts)
* James William Longley (design and working parts) || BR patent no.&nbsp;423<br /><small>Issued</small><br />{{flagicon|UK}} London<br />10 January 1888<br /><small>Accepted</small><br />16 November 1888 [Mentioned but not described]
|-
| Single-lens projector [[File:Sketch of single-lens Le Prince projector by James Longley.jpeg|left|frameless|170x170px]] || Single-lens "deliverer" (projector). Each frame was printed on glass and mounted in a mahogany frame. These were moved before the lens in a continuous spiral. The heat of the lamp and the movement of the frames often caused the glass to break. Top framerate: 7fps. || Leeds, 1889 || Made in Leeds, 1889 || Never patented
|-
| Three-lens projector [[File:Sketch of three-lens Le Prince camera by James Longley.jpeg|frameless|200x200px]] || Three-lens "deliverer" (projector), used frames mounted individually in three flexible strips of Willesden paper with brass eyelets to move them. Projection presumably alternated 1-2-3 between the three strips/lenses and each strip moved when the light was cut off. || Leeds, 1889 or 1890 || Made in Leeds 1889 or 1890 || Never patented
|}

==Legacy==

===Remaining material and production===
[[File:Le-prince-type-1-cine-camera-projector-mk2-1888-interior.png|thumb|200px|Back view of Le Prince's [[#LePrince Cine Camera-Projector types|single-lens Cine Camera-Projector MkII]] opened (Science Museum, London, 1930).]]

Le Prince developed a single-lens camera in his workshop at 160 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, which was used to shoot his motion-picture films. Remaining surviving production consists of two scenes in the garden at Oakwood Grange (his wife's family home, in Roundhay) and another of Leeds Bridge.

Forty years later, Le Prince's daughter, Marie, gave the remaining apparatus to the  [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]], London (later transferred to the [[National Media Museum|National Museum of Photography, Film and Television]] (NMPFT), [[Bradford]], which opened in 1983 and is now the [[National Science and Media Museum]]). In May 1931, photographic plates were produced by workers of the Science Museum from paper print copies provided by Marie Le Prince.<ref name="body of evidence" /> 

In 1999, these were re-animated to produce digital versions. ''Roundhay Garden'' was alleged by the Le Prince family to have been shot at 12 frame/s and ''Leeds Bridge'' at 20 frame/s, although this is not borne out by the NMPFT versions (see below) or motion analysis, with both films being estimated at a consistent seven frames a second.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nmpft.org.uk/insight/onexhib_cin.asp |title= Cinematography|access-date= 16 April 2009|publisher= National Museum of Photography, Film and Television|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060711170505/http://www.nmpft.org.uk/insight/onexhib_cin.asp |archive-date=11 July 2006}}</ref>

All available versions of these sequences are derived from materials held by the National Science and Media Museum.

===''Man Walking Around a Corner'' (16-Lens Camera)===
{{main|Man Walking Around A Corner}}
<gallery>
File:Homme-au-coin-d-une-rue-man-walking-round-corner.png|Sequence of 12 complete frames + 4 partial frames, from National Science Museum, London ''circa'' 1931. (Courtesy NMPFT, Bradford) [https://web.archive.org/web/20080819174143/http://www.nmpft.org.uk/ NMPFT]. Filmed in Paris before 18.08.1887.
</gallery>
The only existing images from Le Prince's 16-lens camera are a sequence of 16 frames of a man walking around a corner. This appears to have been shot onto a single glass plate (which has since broken), rather than the twin strips of Eastman paper film envisaged in his patent. Jacques Pfend, a French cinema-historian and Le Prince specialist, confirms that these images were shot in Paris, at the corner of Rue Bochart-de-Saron (where Le Prince was living) and Avenue Trudaine. Le Prince sent 8 images of his mechanic running (which may be from this sequence) to his wife in New York City in a letter dated 18 August 1887,<ref>Letter dated 18 August 1887 in Louis Le Prince Collection at Leeds University Library</ref> which suggests it represented a significant camera test. Exposure is very irregular from lens to lens with some of the images almost completely bleached out, which Le Prince later on fixed.

===''Roundhay Garden Scene'' (Single-Lens Camera MkII)===
{{main|Roundhay Garden Scene}}
<gallery>
File:Leprince-roundhay-framescopy-1930-nmpft.png|''Roundhay'', 1888 original 20 frames by National Science Museum, London 1931 (Courtesy of NMPFT, Bradford).
File:Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) 7fps.webm|Animation of ''Roundhay'' frames, 7fps.
</gallery>
The 1931 National Science Museum copy of what remains of a sequence shot in ''Roundhay Garden'' features 20 frames. The frames appear to have been printed in reverse from the negative, but this is corrected in the video. The film's damaged edge results in distortion and deformation on the right side of the stabilised digital movie. The scene was shot in Le Prince's father-in-law's garden at Oakwood Grange, Roundhay on 14 October 1888. The NMPFT animation lasts two seconds at 24fps (frames per second), meaning the original footage is playing at 10fps. In this version, the action is speeded up – the original footage was probably shot at 7fps.

===''Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge'' (Single-Lens Camera MkII)===<!-- [[Leeds Bridge]] redirects here -->
[[File:Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge film.ogv|thumb|320px|Video clip, 2 seconds]]
Louis Le Prince filmed traffic crossing [[Leeds Bridge]] from Hicks the Ironmongers<ref name="bbceducation"/> at the following coordinates: {{coord|53|47|37.70|N|1|32|29.18|W|region:GB_type:landmark}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=EarthHistory&Number=267012|title=Google Earth Community: First Moving Pictures|access-date=9 May 2020}}{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Le-prince-leeds1888-1923copyNMPFT.png|6-frame sequence (118-120 & 122–124) of Leeds Bridge (National Science Museum, London 1923)
File:Le-prince-leeds1888-copy-NMPFT.png|20-frame sequence of Leeds Bridge (National Science Museum)(Courtesy NMPFT, Bradford)
</gallery>
The earliest copy belongs to the 1923 NMPFT inventory (frames 118–120 and 122–124), though this longer sequence comes from the 1931 inventory (frames 110–129). According to Adolphe Le Prince who assisted his father when this film was shot in late October 1888, it was taken at 20fps. However, the digitally stabilised sequence produced by the NMPFT lasts two seconds, meaning the footage is playing here at 10fps. As with the ''Roundhay Garden'' sequence, its appearance is sped up, suggesting the original footage was probably shot at 7fps. This would fit with what we know of the projection experiments, where James Longley reported a top speed of 7fps.<ref>Letter from James Longley to Louis le Prince 8 August 1889. "The best result that I got was 426 per minute" – From Le Prince Collection in Leeds University Library.</ref>

===''Accordion Player'' (Single-Lens Camera MkII)===
{{redirect|Accordion Player|people who play the instrument itself|Accordion}}
[[File:The Accordion 2 fps.ogv|frame|right|2 frames per second amateur remastering of all 19 frames; [//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/The_Accordion.ogv 10 frames per second version]]]
<gallery>
File:The accordion, Le Prince, captation gif.gif
File:Leprince-joueurdaccordeon-framescopy-1930-nmpft.png|Copy of original 19 frames (numbered 41–59) by National Science Museum, London 1931 (Courtesy of NMPFT, Bradford).
</gallery>
The last remaining film of Le Prince's single-lens camera is a sequence of frames of Adolphe Le Prince playing a [[diatonic button accordion]]. It was recorded on the steps of the house of Joseph Whitley, Louis's father-in-law.<ref name="body of evidence" /> The recording date may be the same as ''Roundhay Garden'' as the camera is in a similar position and Adolphe is dressed the same. The NMPFT has not remastered this film. An amateur animation of the first 17 frames is {{YouTube|jwQcY1-XM6U|here}}. The running speed appears to be 5-6fps.

==Filmography==
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%;"
! colspan=6 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film
|- align="center"
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Director
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Editor
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Producer
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Cinematographer
|-
| 1887
| [[Man Walking Around a Corner]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
|-
| rowspan="3"|1888
| [[Roundhay Garden Scene]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[Accordion Player]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%;"
! colspan=4 style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Archive footage
|- align="center"
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Year
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Title
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Role
! style="background: #CCCCCC;" | Notes
|-
| rowspan="2"|2015
| [[The First Film]]
| {{n/a}}
| Posthumous release
|-
| Mikhail Bondarev: Heck of a Great Man
| Special thanks (as Lui Le Prince)
| [[Short film|Short]], Posthumous release
|-
|}

==See also==
* [[List of people who disappeared mysteriously: pre-1910]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061109083356/http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/nmpft/insight/onexhib_cin.asp Insight Collections and Research Centre]
* ''[https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040302130000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/13071/20040303-0000/www.acmi.net.au/AIC/LE_PRINCE_JSMPTE.html The Career of Louis Aimée Augustin Le Prince]{{cbignore|bot=medic}}'' by E. Kilburn Scott (July 1931)
*La naissance du cinéma : cent sept ans et un crime..." by Irénée Dembowski (in ''Kino'' 1989, translated from Polish to French in ''Cahiers de l'AFIS, numéro 182, nov.–déc.'' by Michel Rouzé, quoted by ''Alliage numéro 22'' 1995)
* "Le Prince's Early Film Cameras", by Simon Popple (in ''Photographica World'', September 1993)
* "Le Prince and the Lumières", by Rod Varley (in ''Making of the Modern World'', Science Museum, UK, 1992)
* "Career of Louis Aimée Augustin Le Prince", by E. Kilburn Scott, (in ''Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers'', US, July 1931)
* "The Pioneer Work of Le Prince in Kinematography", by E. Kilburn Scott (in ''The Photographic Journal #63'', August 1923, pp.&nbsp;373–378)
* "Louis Aimée Augustin Le Prince" by Merritt Crawford (in ''Cinema, 1'' December 1930, pp.&nbsp;28–31)
* ''L'affaire Lumière. Du mythe à l'histoire, enquête sur les origines du cinéma'' by Léo Sauvage, 1985 {{ISBN|2-86244-045-0}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928123712/http://ingenious.org.uk/See/?target%3DSeeMedium%26ObjectID%3D%7BA1AB0C69%2D968B%2DA377%2DBDE7%2D3FA8C2EDB7A1%7D%26s%3DS1%26SearchString%3Dle%2520prince%26source%3DSearch%26viewby%3Dimages%26 Ingenious] Le Prince 16-lens camera
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061003171513/http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/2/179 "Louis Le Prince: the body of evidence"] by Richard Howells (in ''Screen'' vol.47 #2, Oxford University Press, 2006)
* "Le Prince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinema" by Jean-Jacques Aulas and Jacques Pfend (in ''Revue d'Histoire du Cinéma N°32'', December 2000, p.&nbsp;9) {{ISSN|0769-0959}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120205020340/http://reporter.leeds.ac.uk/490/s6.htm New research centre honours father of film]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100307144959/http://www.culturewars.org.uk/EF/ef2.htm ''Essential Films'', chapter 2, Culture Wars] by Ion Martea
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110716123155/http://essential-films.squarespace.com/home/roundhay-garden-scene-1888.html ''Roundhay Garden Scene'' (1888), ''Culture Wars''] by Ion Martea
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110716123815/http://essential-films.squarespace.com/home/traffic-crossing-leeds-bridge-1888.html Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge (1888), Culture Wars]'' by Ion Martea
* ''The Indispensable Murder Book'', edited by Joseph Henry Jackson (New York: The Book Society, 1951), pp.&nbsp;437–464, "The Red and White Girdle" by Christopher Morley.  This deals with the murder of Gouffe, and shows the intense study of that trunk murder in 1889–90.
* ''The facts concerning the life and death of LOUIS AIME AUGUSTIN LEPRINCE, pioneer of the moving pîcture and his family'', by Jacques Pfend (Sarreguemines/57200/France) 2014.{{ISBN|9782954244198}}.

==External links==
{{commons category|Louis Le Prince}}
* {{IMDb name|1284117}}
* {{IMDb title|0343112|Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge}}
* Jean-Jacques Aulas et Jacques Pfend, [http://1895.revues.org/110 Louis Aimé Augustin Leprince, inventeur et artiste, précurseur du cinéma]
* {{YouTube|F1i40rnpOsA|''Roundhay Garden Scene''}}
* {{YouTube|L7saH58usq4|''Leeds Bridge''}}
* {{YouTube|jwQcY1-XM6U|''Accordion Player'' by Louis Le Prince}} a rough video from the first 17 frames
* [http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/index.cfm?outfit=llp Louis Le Prince Centre for Cinema, Photography, and Television]. University of Leeds. Retrieved 2008-09-26
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060902184820/http://www.leedsfilm.com/2005/liff/page/llp ''The Legend of Louis Le Prince'']
* [http://www.leodis.net/ Leodis – a photographic archive of Leeds]. Leeds Library & Information Service. Allows search for key terms such as Louis Le Prince or Leeds Bridge or Bridge End or Hick Brothers or Auto Express (workshop site), etc.
* [http://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/ National Science and Media Museum, Bradford]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120701223227/http://www.leeds.gov.uk/armleymills/ ''Armley Mills''- Leeds Industrial Museum]
* [http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10279179 Le Prince single-lens camera 1888, Science & Society Picture Library]
* [http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1888.htm Chronomedia year 1888 (Terramedia)]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/films/film_locations.shtml Local films for local people] (BBC Bradford & West Yorkshire)
* [http://www.louisleprince.net louisleprince.net]
{{Authority control}}

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