This film is part of Free

Workers Leaving a Factory in Droylsden (1901)

Workers in Edwardian Lancashire become ghostly thanks to an odd camera effect.

Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent

Overview

Mitchell and Kenyon used excellent photographers, but accidents will happen. The effect of shooting at the wrong shutter speed here has a strange consequence we associate with modern special effects: a figure in the foreground remains still as the background world whizzes around them. As a result, the children outside this Lancashire factory seem substantial while the adults are mere shadows.

Subjects