Early Silent Film Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

He actually left the camera in the same place and moved the moon closer to it! In 1902, when this film was made, moving camera hadn't really come around yet. This is really a marvelous, film, though, for showcasing the magical uses Melies put film to. Early on, he figured out how to make subject 'disappear' by stopping the camera while they just stepped out of frame.

This was basically an extension of his prior career as a stage magician.

Answer: paraffin oil

I didn't really know of paraffin oil. I've only known of paraffin as a thick waxy substance, that can be used to make fire starters (ah, the good old days of Girl Scouts!). In Smith's 1903 film, Mary Jane, as played by Smith's wife, first inadvertently gives herself a soot mustache, which she rather seems to enjoy. Then she proceeds to blow herself up (and, presumably, the home).

Answer: True

I believe this was one of the earliest films to use this technology. It is present in two scenes. The first is when the telegraph operator is tied up and the train is seen coming into the station through the window. Then later when the train conductor is attacked in the train car, the scenery seen through the open door is added using double exposure. Double exposure or double printing is basically a rudimentary way of combining different shots (before the advent of 'blue screen'), wherein the area is blacked out in the first shot, then exposed again to imprint the projected action.

Answer: a baby

Made in 1904, the film showed the influence of the directors' American contemporaries. The directors set up the action to reverse itself and then repeat itself as Rover finds the kidnapped baby, returns to fetch the father, and leads the father to the child. Amusingly, as Rover leads his master across a river, the father uses a luckily positioned boat so that the directors could maintain the same framing, instead of the more practical bridge seen just at the edge of the frame.

Answer: The Lonely Villa

'That Fatal Sneeze' (1907) was directed by Fitzhamon. It showed a man victimized by some sneezing powder, whose powerful sneezes shook up the surroundings and eventually made the man himself disappear. 'The Life of an American Fireman' (1903) was directed by Porter.

It follows a group of firemen as they are called to the rescue, save a family and fight the fire consuming their home. 'The Sprinkler Sprinkled' (1895) was directed by the Lumiere brothers. It was a comedic piece that showed a trickster stepping on a waterer's hose until the waterer looked into the hose's spout to identify the problem, when the trickster let up, causing water to spray the waterer's face. 'The Lonely Villa' was a sort of action film directed by Griffith in 1909.

It shows a mother and children stuck in their house as it is being burglarized, and the husband rushing home to the rescue.