1910 A Trip To Mars - Thomas Edison

This film was produced by Thomas Edison for his Home Kinetoscope in 1910, Many have confused this film with Melies "A Trip To The Moon" and claimed that it is a pirated version of Melies work. But nothing could be more wrong - it is totally original and represents The First American Science fiction movie. We scanned 10,000 frames from the original print in our collection and reconstructed it. We also added a period sound track. As far as we can determine we hold the only existing copy,

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Cinematic
• gem
• first
• American
• science
• fiction
• film

[treksintime]

although the surviving film is in good condition - it is in the Edison Home kinetoscope format - a totally unique format created by Edison for his failed home rental system. This consisted of three separate film tracks on a 35mm strip. This resulted in and an image even smaller than modern 8mm. Also this film had been uploaded as mpeg 1 - the original video is somewhat better and could probably be improved a good deal more.

[treksintime]

Entirely two different things - like comparing steak and potatoes to French souffle.

How one regards these two fims , probably depend to a large degree on ones personal taste.

[treksintime]

Entirely two different things - like comparing steak and potatoes to French souffle.

How one regards these two fims , probably depend to a large degree on ones personal taste.

[treksintime]

Dear Pritchard, I am scratching my head over your "fact" from the "historical record" that Edison rippped off the content of this film from "A Trip To The Moon".Have you looked at both films?.If you are referring to the idea

of interplantetary travel  then I would have to acknowlege that melies was the

first ripper.

[treksintime]

I hardly see how this film has anything even remotely to do with "A Trip To The Moon" by either Meilies or Lumire. And talk about ripping off - how about the whole concept and devlopement of the technology itself without which know one  would have ever heard of Meilies or Luimre

[RowdyPumper]

@harpo103

Yet also very often artists don't borrow from one another but instead discover that their audiences declare connections where none, in truth, are meant.

In this case, the imagination and sense of play evident in the Melies film makes it for me the more enjoyable and artistic of the two. The Edison movie reminds me of a technically fascinated mind whipping up a prototype of little narrative or visual skill solely as a proof of concept in preparation for commercial venture.

[sunsdomain]

is the original (surviving) footage this blurry?

[Gorgosaure]

@Dragdamar But Edison decided not to pay I guess what we would call royalties.” Scorsese replied: “That's right. So what happened, the film was I think the famous one, 'A Trip to the Moon.' They [Thomas Edison and his associates] were just taking the films and making dupes of them. So that was one of the reasons why he [Georges Méliès] was finished financially, ultimately.”

[Gorgosaure]

@Dragdamar In an interview of Martin Scorsese by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, Scorsese said, “He lost basically most of his financing when the bigger companies came in. What happened here. . . at that time there was a lot going on with copyright and not copyright and that sort of thing.” Stewart said, “There is a story that Edison had taken one of his films, brought it to America and showed it and it became enormously popular in America.

[Gorgosaure]

@Dragdamar Méliès had intended to release the film in the United States to profit from it. Thomas Edison's film technicians, however, secretly made copies of it and distributed it throughout the country. While the film was still hugely successful, Méliès eventually went bankrupt. This was due to the eventual view which was held towards his films that the special effects were overshadowing the plot.

[Fennoscandie]

everyone was hopped-up on mushrooms back then.

[WatsonPritchard]

And only someone with far too much time on their hands would care. Edison was known for his thievery . . look it up. Unless you happen to think it's a total coincidence that Edison put out a film called "A Trip To Mars" after the success of Melies' "A Trip To The Moon."

However if that's your fantasy, by all means have at it . . your ignorance of the facts makes no difference to me at all.

[Dragdamar]

@WatsonPritchard Only an ignorant fool could not see the differences in style and technique between the two films. Or someone with no real historic knowledge.

[harpo103]

Artists always "borrow" from one another.

One inspiration leads to another!