The Invisible Fluid

The Invisible Fluid (1908)

Had the poor melancholy Dane, Hamlet, lived in this, the twentieth century, he would never have given voice to the remark, "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew!" No indeed! He would have procured some of the mysterious fluid compounded by an erudite scientist by which things animate and inanimate were rendered non est, for ten minutes at least, by simply spraying them with it. In an atomizer, he sends a quantity, accompanied by a letter, to his brother. In the hope of his putting it on the market. The brother regards it as a joke, and, while toying with the atomizer, accidentally sprays himself. Presto! he is gone, to the amazement of the messenger boy who has carried the package thither. The boy reads the letter, and at once sees the amount of fun he can get out of it, so he nips it.

Data di uscita
1908-06-16
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (3)
Durata
10 min
Generi
Fantascienza, Commedia
Regista
Wallace McCutcheon Sr.

Cast

Curiosità

  • Girato a: Grantwood

The Invisible Fluid is a 1908 American silent science fiction comedy film produced by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company of New York, directed by Wallace McCutcheon Sr., and starring Edward Dillon. The short's plot relies extensively on the filming and editing technique of substitution splicing, also known as "stop trick", a special effect that creates the illusion of various characters or objects suddenly vanishing on screen.

Production

According to company records cited in the 1985 reference D.W. Griffith and the Biograph Company, this science-fiction comedy was filmed on May 16, 1908, with principal photography—the outdoor scenes—being shot along streets and on parkland in Grantwood, New Jersey.

Company records also credit the filming of this short to Wilhelm ("Billy") Bitzer, who had begun working as a staff cinematographer for Biograph in 1896 and by 1908 was widely regarded "as the greatest camera man in the business". It is noteworthy that the actor portraying the "Mailman" in the opening scene of The Invisible Fluid is D.W. Griffith, who is wearing a postal uniform and carries a letter bag on his shoulder.

The story and cinematography of The Invisible Fluid rely extensively on the filming and editing technique of substitution splicing to create the illusion of characters in various scenes suddenly disappearing. Also known as the special effect of "stop trick", the technique is often confused today with the term "stop motion" as it applies to the creation of modern animated features.

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