Footpads

1896
Silent
1m

A simple special effect enlivens an early crime film

The backdrop of this short fiction - one of the earliest British crime films - represents Ludgate Circus, with its obelisk and flashing electric advertising hoardings. The effect is produced by punching holes on the backlit backdrop and moving a dark card to block out the lights as the action takes place in the foreground. This clever device was adopted from magic lantern slides.

This film has traditionally been attributed to Robert Paul as it was acquired by the BFI National Archive alongside other films by the company, but no documentary evidence has yet been found to support this.

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.