1874 Pierre Jules César Janssen - Passage artificiel de Venus sur le Soleil

This is currently the oldest title included on IMdB, although it doesn't really fit the common definitions of what a "movie" or "motion picture" actually is. Let's agree that this is one of the oldest photographic recordings that we can now watch as a movie. Duboscq's "Stéréoscope-fantascope ou Bïoscope" disc of 1852 is actually quite a bit older, AND originally intended to be watched as a 3D motion picture (see:    • 1852 Jules Duboscq - Stéréoscope-fantascop...  ) Because of the astronomic subject it seems extra remarkable that a photo sequence of the rare passage of Venus over the face of the sun would be one of the first chronophotographic sequences, years before Muybridge would publish his first sequences of ''The Horse in Motion'' (1878). Despite the problem that light-sensitive emulsions needed relatively long exposure times in 1874, it was relatively simple to create a proper sequence of the passage of venus: the action took much longer than a horse running past a camera. The full passage takes a little over 6 hours, so the photographic sequences made of the passage are basically time-lapse recordings! The presented video is based on a sequence that must have been recorded to test the technique with a model of the planet and a light source standing in for the sun. Of course this makes the subject seen in the picture less spectacular, but on the other hand it means that this recording is even older than the results that captured the actual passage on 9 December 1874. Unfortunately none of the many discs with footage of the real passage have yet been traced. The 1874 passage of Venus over the face of the sun was very popular with scientists. Many expeditions to the best viewing points in the world were organized; at least 62 parties would visit 80 locations. In preparation, much effort was made to find the best techniques to get objective and permanent records of the event. French inventor Janssen came up with the idea for a "revolver photographique". This huge camera system used a Maltese cross-type mechanism, very similar to the system that would later be used in some movie cameras and projectors. The revolver could take several dozens of exposures at regulated intervals on a Daguerreotype disc. Janssen went to Nagasaki (Japan), and on 9 December his crew made 47 photographs of the first contact of the transit. These were weak because of the hazy weather, but quite visible. Five English parties had also taken pictures with their own "Janssen revolvers" and reportedly had good to excellent results. Janssen later suggested that his apparatus might become suitable for the study of animal movements once photographic materials would allow the very brief exposures necessary. His work directly influenced Etienne-Jules Marey, who later managed to record animal movements with chronophotographic systems, including a photographic revolver. One of his photographic sequences is a portrait of Janssen, made in 1884. Janssen would later also appear in two very early Lumière films, recorded on 11-06-1895 for the Congres de Photographie in Lyon. When the film "M. Janssen causant avec M. Lagrange" was shown to the Congress the next day, Janssen and Lagrange were secretly behind the screen to re-voice their dialogue for the audience. It would take over 6 months after that until the first commercial public screening of the Lumière's cinématograph films on 28-12-1895 took place in Paris, traditionally marked as the birth date of the motion picture. Much more info: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//f...