Considering the reactions to the Great Train Robbery (which had a "gimmick" shot often placed at the end which caused people to freak out), I can believe it.A number of very early films featured trains. They MOVE, which was the whole idea then, less now (sound).
I've seen one in which the locomotive is coming straight at the camera, and recall reading that audiences - who had never seen a film before - feared that the engine would leap from the screen and keep coming, panicked, and ran for the exits. Whether apocryphal or not...
The jitter or blank frames aren't a problem if they do the transfer correctly.I think this film has been "doctored" somewhat for display on Youtube. All of the early films I have seen displayed have the people moving faster than normal speed, because the film recording was always done at a film transfer speed that was much slower than the film playback speed. Showing the playback at "normal" speed of action required projectors with variable speed rates, which tended to cause the film play to "jitter" or display "blank" portions between the images.
In 1895 hand-cranked was the order of the day, for cameras (also wind-up) and projectors. So a smooth playback required somebody who could match the speed at which the film was shot, and keep it up for as long as the early reels lasted. Team Whooz got to see a hand-cranked "Steamboat Bill, Jr." (1928, Buster Keaton) at a museum, and it was majorly different in appearance from a standard electrically driven version.Showing the playback at "normal" speed of action required projectors with variable speed rates, which tended to cause the film play to "jitter" or display "blank" portions between the images.
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