What Was the First Movie Ever Made?

If you’re a movie fan, you’ve probably wondered, What’s the first movie ever made? This is a great question, and a somewhat complicated one.

In the late 1880’s various people began experimenting with photo, blending them together to give the illusion of a motion picture.  But the technology and difficulty to capture that sort of video made motion pictures rare.

Even so, here are a couple of the very first movies:

The Horse In Motion (1878)

This groundbreaking motion photography was accomplished using multiple cameras and assembling the individual pictures into a a single motion picture. it’s something that you could do today, using a few cameras that are set to go off at an exact moment. The movie was made to scientifically answer a popularly debated question during this era: Are all four of a horse’s hooves ever off the ground at the same time while the horse is galloping? The video proved that they indeed were and, more importantly, motion photography was born.

 

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)

The world’s earliest surviving motion-picture film, showing actual consecutive action is called Roundhay Garden Scene. It’s a short film directed by French inventor Louis Le Prince. While it’s just 2.11 seconds long, it is technically a movie. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the oldest surviving film in existence.

Arrival of a Train (1895)

This 50-second silent film shows the entry of a train pulled by a steam locomotive into a train station of the French coastal town of La Ciotat. It’s a single, unedited view illustrating an aspect of everyday life, and the film consists of one continuous real-time shot. There’s also a an urban legend associated with this movie that says when the film was first shown, the audience was so scared by the image of a life-sized train barreling toward them that people screamed and ran to the back of the room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk

147 Comments

  1. I like the horse one best too it is longer, and in the other one the man just walks across the yard.

    • Me too.

      What? says:

      I can’t understand the part “horse one best too it is longer”. Put in a period.

  2. you people should get a grip. It has some flaws but so what. Overall I think it was pretty good for technology back then.

  3. I think they did an AMAZING job for the first movies. I mean come on, u think that their gonna be making Family Guy and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse back then. No their not

  4. I’ve got a great idea, I’m going to make up the best movie ever, I’ll make it 2.11 seconds about a man walking over a yard.

    LOL

  5. Guys you shouldn’t think this is dumb and make fun of it! These were the first motion pictures ever these people were geniuses and they should be taken seriously! #havesome❤️

    • ya And if it weren’t for them you people wouldn’t have had ALL youre favorite Movies that you love today

  6. I think there was another movie created back then… ‘Twas a train, and people loved it cuz when the train came up at the screen, they thought it was going to run them over XD

  7. i think the theme of that garden scene is pretty stupid, but it’s great that they were encouraged to do what they do. Think about it: without them we wouldn’t have “iron man”, “2012”, “San Andreas”, “Indians vs aliens”, or “pacific rim”. Thanks to them

  8. We all think that if we were around in cavemen times we would have invented the wheel or discovered fire, but we forget that our brains had not yet evolved. So too with movies. It’s genius that pushes man on!

    • I diffinately agree. Mankind’s technology is growing and superb. What do you expect? Other galaxies lifeform are probably laughing at us. Because our minds a re not to sharp…

  9. 1902…Trip To The Moon…France…15 mins long. Not so much the short movie is funny, but the ideas man had about the moon back then.

  10. I think most of you need to grow up.
    Do YOU think YOU would have been able to make a film back then ?
    I THINK (NOT). Why do you think we have the technology we have now ?
    Because someone used their head and came up with something amazing. If it wasn’t for them back then, We wouldn’t have movies or TV show that we enjoy watching. What have YOU done for entertainment for the whole world to enjoy ?

  11. yes! finally someone got it right! the first movie was about the train guys!!! people were so scared when the train came to screen at first that they thought they were in danger and screamed! a woman even fainted. Thankyou though, person. you actually got it right.

    • I’m afraid you’re incorrect. The garden scene was the first true recording of a ‘motion picture’.
      The train may have been the first to be shown to an audience.

  12. Ooo look I have a great idea! I’m going to make the best movie in the universe,one that is 3 seconds long and is about a man walking in a circle.

  13. Hey folks.
    just going to say these are amazing. it shows how far weve come in less than 150 years. but the amount of tech they had back then it is absolutely amazing to watch.
    btw the man is not walking in a circle, the people are actually dancing in the garden.

  14. People don’t understand how important this was considering the lack of technology, Just because now a days everyone would mentally die with out it

  15. I’m sure these were some of the “first comments” concerning the “first movie.”

    Exactly the same, 130 years later.

  16. This is brilliant people it’s a part of history that got us where we are today I find it fascinating it’s riveting how can you not see the ingenuity and the genius in this

  17. Please stop saying, “It was only two seconds,” They were just experimenting, they had to take about 60 pictures to make that and it probably took a long time. The 2 hour movies we have today take about as much time as those 2 second movies took. They didn’t have as good as technology that we have today, I don’t want to start any arguments I’m just pointing out the obvious.

  18. GUYS! SPEED UP THE HORSE ONE TO 2x THE SPEED! IT WILL LOOK EVEN BETTER THAT WAY! Oh and by the way, fshrsthejyresbae to you to guys!

  19. I think those videos are tests to see if the they would work. I don’t think they were actually watched in movies theaters. Oh and by the way, the FIRST EVER movies that came out (not GIFs like the horse one) were about a train.

  20. I think technology is great. I mean really people? Complaining on experiments not good enough at first? Heck life firm in other galaxies are probably laughing at us because our minds are not sharp. Give it a break. :)?

  21. Appreciate what they made, because they didn’t have our technology. So what if it’s two seconds long, it was probably one of the best things that happened to people back then.

  22. Technology has come so far to think everything coming out now is an improvement on something we already have. For these to be the first movies just think how mind blowing it had to be for people back then to see something like these.

  23. A lot of people seem confused. The horse “movie” isn’t a movie in the sense that it was recorded on a camera that obtained images sequentially. The horse clip is the result of fifteen cameras being set off separately and the images, when put together in sequence, are conjoined in our minds via something called the “persistence of vision.” So it’s more like a flip-book, many pictures in motion, than a motion picture.

  24. For how much they had done in the past and coming up with something like this would be very hard to do more than just 2.11 seconds long. You do have to think about how much they had to go through just to get those 2.11 seconds. I don’t think the people knew they were being filmed and I dought they knew what films meaning was. You also have to understand that they had to use a camera to help them come up with this idea. I think if we had these kinds of people making something like this now just think about what they can do now or even make something was past what we are doing now. I believe we are slow right now coming up with something like this.

  25. This is a great movie you should watch it.
    Ok, Wait how long is it?
    Ummm… Its not that long
    How Long?
    2.11 Seconds
    No thats too long

  26. Your answers are wrong. The first true movie (film) created is “A Trip to the Moon” in 1902. Roundhay Garden Scene and Arrival of a Train are just videos and not considered a movie.

  27. “a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images” – definition of GIF. About as accurate description of this masterpiece as you can get.

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