New York, descente des voyageurs du pont de Brooklyn (1896) Online

For some reason the Lumieres' cameramen did some movies of the Brooklyn Bridge that defined laws of movement and composition at the dawn of cinema. Why the Brooklyn Bridge? It was less than ten years old at the time and considered a modern marvel, but the Lumieres shot a lot of other bridge scenes. The Brooklyn Bridge scenes stand out particularly -- perhaps it is civic pride on my part, so be forewarned.

Notice how the cameraman uses the flow of traffic to define a rectangle within the frame for the focus of activity -- people walking from left to right on the bridge, people walking from the middle of the frame down the stairs to the ground, then to the left.... and finally the street traffic on the left of the frame moving towards the top of the frame.

The Lumieres understood, as did few of their contemporary film makers, the rules of composition from their work in still photography. Their genius lay in using motion to define composition further.

New York, descente des voyageurs du pont de Brooklyn (1896)

When the Lumiere Brothers brought their cameras to America they spent a lot of time in and around New York City train stations. This one here has the camera placed on a street where we see people leaving the train station, walking down some stairs and through the streets. As I've said throughout many of these early films, there's obviously nothing ground-breaking here but if you're a fan of these type of actuality films then you're bound to enjoy this one. The cinematography is extremely good and I'd argue that you really get a great look at a simple moment in time. I'm sure the people walking around here never would have imagined that someone would be watching them well over a hundred years later.