Aberdeen University Quatercentenary Celebrations

Aberdeen
1906
Silent
32m

Edward VII and Queen Alexandra open new buildings at Marischal College, Aberdeen

Aberdeen University celebrated its 400th anniversary on 27 September 1906 - a year late, to coincide with the opening of new college buildings. Delegates came from universities across the world, and the King and Queen were on hand. At over 30 minutes in its surviving form, it's likely that, at the time, this was the longest film yet shown in Britain. It's certainly a thorough record of the day - even if the copious shots of processions and dignitaries can be a little wearing.

Some confusion exists over the film's origins - it has been credited to RW Paul and the Aberdeen based company Walker & Co., but may have been a combination of the two. Note: this film was previously mistitled as Aberdeen University Quarter Centenary Celebrations.

Robert Paul: Giant of Early Film

The most prolific filmmaker of the pioneer period of British film

The multi-talented Robert Paul (1869-1943) was the first British filmmaker to project film for a paying audience, in 1896. A contemporary of the Lumiere brothers, Paul had been producing film, in partnership with Birt Acres, for his own brand of Kinetoscope viewer since April 1895. Shortly after, he began producing for his Theatrograph and Animatographe machines, enjoying a long run at the Alhambra in Leicester Square. As an engineer, Paul made a number of significant innovations - such as an intermittent mechanism for efficiently projecting film. But he also made key innovations in film language, such as the first two-shot fiction film, Come Along Do! (1898). To cap it all, he was a shrewd businessman, with an instinctive grasp of audience tastes.