Lumieres’ 46-second film Workers Leaving a Factory

     The film is a record of workers leaving the Lumière Brothers' factory in 1895. The film captures the everyday life of some of the first industrial workers, as they leave the factory and head home or wherever they had planned on going after work. Since the film has no dialogue, music or sound relies solely on the power of the image to tell the story. The workers are scattering out of the factory but visually, it looks like a rehearsed scene. 

    Besides the obvious simplicity of the 46-second shot, there are some notable film techniques that stood out to me. This shot embodied the definition of realism. The fact that it was one take shows the realism that this film represented. Additionally, this film could have been an inspiration for later filmmakers to use realism in their films. The film also panned from side to side. I thought this was a good choice because it was a simple technique, and it was effective at allowing us to observe the factory workers move.

    This speaks to me personally by showing how in tune humans are even in 1895. More than that, this clip shows that even though the workers are all traveling on different paths, they are all part of the same community. I think this clip captured the power of industry holds over our everyday lives. Finally, the 'Lumiere's Workers' clip was short and simple, saying a lot without speaking at all.

[Workers Leaving the Lumiere Factory, 1895]