Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
Directed by	J. Stuart Blackton
Produced by	J. Stuart Blackton
Starring	J. Stuart Blackton
Distributed by	Vitagraph Company of America
Release date	April 6, 1906(1906-04-06)
Running time	3 minutes
Country	United States
Language	silent

Humorous Phases of Funny Facesis a 1906shortsilentanimated cartoondirected byJames Stuart Blacktonand generally regarded by film historians as the first animated film recorded onstandard picture film.

Content

In the cartoon, animated hand-drawn scenes appear on a chalkboard, including a clown playing with a hat and a dog jumping through a hoop. In the beginning, though, the cartoonist's hands are included, too, as he draws the first several lines on the chalkboard in standard live action. From there, the stop-motion technique is used to show what appears to be drawings completing—and then moving—by themselves with no artist on screen.

Techniques

A single frame from the animation, showing the use ofcut-outtechnique

Stop-motionas well ascutout animationare used, just asEdwin Portermoved his letters inHow Jones Lost His Roll,andThe Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog.However, there is a very short section of the film where things are made to appear to move by altering the drawings themselves from frame to frame.

The film moves at 20 frames per second.

See also

• Fantasmagorie
• The Enchanted Drawing
• History of animation

External links

• Humorous Phases of Funny FacesatIMDb
• Humorous Phases of Funny Facesis available for free viewing and download at theInternet Archive
• Humorous Phases of Funny Facesat theLibrary of Congress
• Humorous Phases of Funny FacesonYouTube