Editing Stop motion (section)

===1895–1928: The silent film era===
It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of all [[silent film]]s are lost.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lost-films.eu/index/whylf|title=Lost Films|website=www.lost-films.eu|access-date=2020-01-31}}</ref> Extant contemporary movie catalogs, reviews and other documentation can provide some details on lost films, but this kind of written documentation is also incomplete and often insufficient to properly date all extant films or even identify them if original titles are missing. Possible stop-motion in lost films is even harder to trace. The principles of animation and other special effects were mostly kept a secret, not only to prevent use of such techniques by competitors, but also to keep audiences interested in the mystery of the magic tricks.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carou|first=Alain|date=2007-12-01|title=Les inventions animées, Émile Cohl au prisme d'une histoire culturelle des techniques|url=http://journals.openedition.org/1895/2423|journal=1895. Mille Huit Cent Quatre-vingt-quinze|volume=53 |language=fr|issue=53|pages=140–153|doi=10.4000/1895.2423|issn=0769-0959|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Stop-motion is closely related to the [[stop trick]], in which the camera is temporarily stopped during the recording of a scene to create a change before filming is continued (or for which the cause of the change is edited out of the film). In the resulting film, the change will be sudden and a logical cause of the change will be mysteriously absent or replaced with a fake cause that is suggested in the scene. The oldest known example is used for the beheading in [[Edison Manufacturing Company]]'s 1895 film ''[[The Execution of Mary Stuart]]''. The technique of stop-motion can be interpreted as repeatedly applying the stop trick. In 1917, clay animation pioneer [[Helena Smith-Dayton]] referred to the principle behind her work as "stop action",<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2012-06-15|journal=Romeo and Juliet|doi=10.5040/9781580819015.01|title=Romeo and Juliet }}</ref> a synonym of "stop-motion".

French [[trick film]] pioneer [[Georges Méliès]] claimed to have invented the stop-trick and popularized it by using it in many of his short films. He reportedly used stop-motion animation in 1899 to produce moving letterforms.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhOdBQAAQBAJ&q=M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s%20animated%20title&pg=PA4|title=Transforming Type: New Directions in Kinetic Typography|last=Brownie|first=Barbara|date=2014-12-18|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-85785-533-6|language=en}}</ref>

====Segundo de Chomón====
[[File:Julienne Mathieu having her hair brushed.gif|thumb|[[Julienne Mathieu]] in a stop-motion/pixilation scene from ''[[El hotel eléctrico|Hôtel électrique]]'' (1908)]]
Spanish filmmaker [[Segundo de Chomón]] (1871–1929) made many trick films in France for [[Pathé]]. He has often been compared to Georges Méliès as he also made many fantasy films with stop tricks and other illusions (helped by his wife, [[Julienne Mathieu]]). 

''Le théâtre de Bob'' (April 1906)<ref>{{Citation |title=Le Petit Bourguignon |date=1906-04-17 |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/le-petit-bourguignon/17-avril-1906/2203/3383517/3?from=/search#allTerms=%2522Le%2520th%25C3%25A9%25C3%25A2tre%2520de%2520Bob%2522&sort=date-asc&publishedBounds=from&indexedBounds=from&page=1&searchIn=all&total=235&index=15 |access-date=2025-02-15 |language=fr}}</ref> features stop-motion with dolls and objects to represent a fictional automated theatre owned by Bob, played by a live-action child actor. The film used to be credited to Chomón, but he didn't come to Paris (to work for [[Pathé]]) until later. Direction and special effects have been attributed to Gaston Velle.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Le Théâtre de Bob (Gaston Velle, 1906) à voir en ligne sur HENRI, la plateforme des collections films de la Cinémathèque française |url=https://www.cinematheque.fr/henri/film/134620-le-theatre-de-bob-gaston-velle-1906/ |access-date=2025-02-15 |website=www.cinematheque.fr |language=fr}}</ref>

[[File:La Maison ensorcelée (1907).webm|thumb|''La Maison ensorcelée'' (1906 or 1907)]]
De Chomón's ''[[The House of Ghosts|La maison ensorcelée]]'' (December 1907,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Retronews |url=https://www.retronews.fr/reader/408a43c1-f5d5-49fc-a27b-684236897be8/3?search_text=%22ensorcel%C3%A9e%22 |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=www.retronews.fr}}</ref> or 1906<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449308/releaseinfo/#akas |title=The House of Ghosts (Short 1906) - Release info - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2025-02-23 |via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>) features stop-motion-animated cuttlery and food, among other special effects that depict paranormal activity.

[[File:The Sculptor's Nightmare (Wallace McCutcheon, 1908).webm|thumb|thumbtime=2|''The Sculptor's Nightmare'' (1908)]]
De Chomón's ''Sculpteur moderne'' was released on 31 January 1908<ref>{{Citation|title=Modern Sculptors (1908) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140537/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> and features heaps of clay molding itself into detailed sculptures that are capable of minor movements. The final sculpture depicts an old woman and walks around before it's picked up, squashed and molded back into a sitting old lady.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x55zbu|title=El escultor moderno - Vídeo Dailymotion|website=Dailymotion|date=22 April 2008 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref>

====Edwin S. Porter and Wallace McCutcheon Sr.====
American film pioneer [[Edwin S. Porter]] filmed a single-shot "lightning sculpting" film with a baker molding faces from a patch of dough in ''[[Fun in a Bakery Shop]]'' (1902), considered as foreshadowing of clay animation.

In 1905, Porter showed animated letters and very simple cutout animation of two hands in the [[intertitle]]s in ''[[How Jones Lost His Roll]]''.<ref>{{cite AV media |date=2010-09-17 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wt4V6j1EsI |title=HOW JONES LOST HIS ROLL (1905) |publisher=[[UCLA]] |via=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2021-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104045632/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wt4V6j1EsI&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2019-11-04 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Porter experimented with a small bit of crude stop-motion animation in his trick film ''[[Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (film)|Dream of a Rarebit Fiend]]'' (1906).

''[[The 'Teddy' Bears (1907 film)|The "Teddy" Bears]]'' (2 March 1907), made in collaboration with [[Wallace McCutcheon Sr.]],<ref>{{Citation|title=The 'Teddy' Bears (1907) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140772/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> mainly shows people in bear costumes, but the short film also features a short stop-motion segment with small teddy bears.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-S-Porter|title=Edwin S. Porter {{!}} American director|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-07-25}}</ref>

On 15 February 1908, Porter released the trick film ''A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream'' that featured clay molding itself into three complete busts.<ref>{{Citation|title=A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream (1908) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1864244/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> No copy of the film has yet been located. It was soon followed by the similar extant film ''The Sculptor's Nightmare'' (6 May 1908) by Wallace McCutcheon Sr.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Sculptor's Nightmare (1908) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000756/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref>

====J. Stuart Blackton====
[[J. Stuart Blackton]]'s ''[[The Haunted Hotel]]'' (23 February 1907)<ref>{{Citation|title=The Haunted Hotel (1907) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0000553/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> featured a combination of live-action with practical [[special effect]]s and stop-motion animation of several objects, a puppet and a model of the haunted hotel. It was the first stop-motion film to receive wide scale appreciation. Especially a large close-up view of a table being set by itself baffled viewers; there were no visible wires or other noticeable well-known tricks.<ref>{{cite book|last=Crafton|first=Donald|title=Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898–1928|page=11|year=1993|publisher=University of Chicago Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaeJFVTedysC|isbn=9780226116679}}</ref> This inspired other filmmakers, including French animator [[Émile Cohl]]<ref name=Cohl>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBUABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128|title=Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film|first=Donald|last=Crafton|date=July 14, 2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9781400860715}}</ref> and Segundo de Chomón. De Chomón would release the similar ''[[The House of Ghosts]]'' (''La maison ensorcelée'') and ''[[Hôtel électrique]]'' in 1908, with the latter also containing some very early pixelation.

''[[The Humpty Dumpty Circus]]'' (1908, considered lost) by Blackton and his British-American Vitagraph partner [[Albert E. Smith (producer)|Albert E. Smith]] showed an animated performance of figures from a popular wooden toy set.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hb0sep&view=1up&seq=185|title=The Moving picture world. v.3 (1908:July-Dec.).|website=HathiTrust}}</ref> Smith would later claim that this was "the first stop-motion picture in America". The inspiration would have come from seeing how puffs of smoke behaved in the interrupted recordings for a stop trick film they were making. Smith would have suggested to get a patent for the technique, but Blackton thought it wasn't that important.<ref>Albert E. SMith ''Two Reels and a Crank'' (1952)</ref> Smith's recollections are not considered to be very reliable.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-2THyVl7ysC&q=%22two+reels+and+a+crank%22+smith&pg=PA22|title=Film Before Griffith|first=John L.|last=Fell|date=April 10, 1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520047587|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCYkCQAAQBAJ&q=%22two+reels+and+a+crank%22+smith+exaggeration&pg=PA208|title=The American Newsreel: A Complete History, 1911-1967, 2d ed.|first=Raymond|last=Fielding|date=May 7, 2015|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476607948|via=Google Books}}</ref>

====Émile Cohl====
[[File:Japon_de_fantaisie_(1909).webm|thumb|Émile Cohl's ''Japon de fantaisie'' (1907)]]
Blackton's ''[[The Haunted Hotel]]'' made a big impression in Paris, where it was released as ''L'hôtel hanté: fantasmagorie épouvantable''. When [[Gaumont Film Company|Gaumont]] bought a copy to further distribute the film, it was carefully studied by some of their filmmakers to find out how it was made. Reportedly it was newcomer [[Émile Cohl]] who unraveled the mystery.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Crafton|first=Donald|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBUABAAAQBAJ&q=%22emile%20cohl%22&pg=PP1|title=Emile Cohl, Caricature, and Film|date=2014-07-14|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-6071-5|language=en}}</ref> Not long after, Cohl released his first film, ''Japon de fantaisie'' (June 1907),<ref>{{Citation|title=Japanese Magic (1907) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1003468/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> featuring his own imaginative use of the stop-motion technique.
It was followed by the revolutionary hand-drawn ''[[Fantasmagorie (film)|Fantasmagorie]]'' (17 August 1908) and many more animated films by Cohl.

Other notable stop-motion films by Cohl include ''Les allumettes animées (Animated Matches)'' (1908),<ref>{{Citation|title=Animated Matches (1908) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139826/reference|access-date=2020-02-20}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> and ''Mobilier fidèle'' (1910, in collaboration with [[Romeo Bosetti]]).<ref>{{Citation|title=The Automatic Moving Company (1910) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486978/reference|access-date=2020-02-21}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> ''Mobilier fidèle'' is often confused with Bosetti's object animation tour de force ''Le garde-meubles automatique (The Automatic Moving Company)'' (1912).<ref>{{cite AV media |date=2010-09-27 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ndb1EgZzwc |title=THE REAL Emile Cohl's 'Le Mobilier Fidèle' |publisher=Alpha Crocy |via=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2021-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508145602/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ndb1EgZzwc |archive-date=2021-05-08 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media |date=2013-09-25 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM8RjF5V-eU | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211102/KM8RjF5V-eU| archive-date=2021-11-02 | url-status=live|title=The Automatic Moving Company (Romeo Bossetti, 1912) |publisher=Sebastian Ortiz |via=[[YouTube]] |access-date=2021-08-10}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Both films feature furniture moving by itself.

====Arthur Melbourne-Cooper====
Of the more than 300 short films produced between 1896 and 1915 by British film pioneer [[Arthur Melbourne-Cooper]], an estimated 36 contained forms of animation. Based on later reports by Melbourne-Cooper and by his daughter Audrey Wadowska, some believe that Cooper's ''Matches: an Appeal'' was produced in 1899 and therefore the first stop-motion animation. The extant black-and-white film shows a [[matchstick]] figure writing an appeal to donate a [[Guinea (coin)|Guinea]] for which [[Bryant & May]] would supply soldiers with sufficient matches. No archival records are known that could proof that the film was indeed created in 1899 during the beginning of the [[Second Boer War]]. Others place it at 1914, during the beginning of [[World War I]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/215258|title=East Anglian Film Archive: Matches Appeal, 1899|website=www.eafa.org.uk|access-date=2019-07-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6nWBD_raPKoC&pg=PA281|title="They Thought it was a Marvel": Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (1874-1961) : Pioneer of Puppet Animation|last1=Vries|first1=Tjitte de|last2=Mul|first2=Ati|date=2009|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=9789085550167|language=en}}</ref> Cooper created more ''Animated Matches'' scenes in the same setting. These are believed to also have been produced in 1899,<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/2088|title=East Anglian Film Archive: Animated Matches Playing Cricket, 1899|website=www.eafa.org.uk}}</ref> while a release date of 1908 has also been given.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1254199/reference|title=Animated Matches (1908) - IMDb|via=www.imdb.com}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> The 1908 ''Animated Matches'' film by Émile Cohl may have caused more confusion about the release dates of Cooper's matchstick animations. It also raises the question whether Cohl may have been inspired by Melbourne-Cooper or vice versa.

Melbourne-Cooper's lost films ''[[Dolly’s Toys]]'' (1901) and ''[[The Enchanted Toymaker]]'' (1904) may have included stop-motion animation.<ref name=Cohl/> ''Dreams of Toyland'' (1908) features a scene with many animated toys that lasts approximately three and a half minutes.

====Alexander Shiryaev====
As a means to plan his performances, ballet dancer and choreographer [[Alexander Shiryaev]] started making approximately 20- to 25-centimeter-tall puppets out of [[papier-mâché]] on poseable wire frames. He then sketched all the sequential movements on paper. When he arranged these vertically on a long strip, it was possible to give a presentation of the complete dance with a home cinema projector. Later on, he bought a movie camera and between 1906 and 1909 he made many short films, including puppet animations. As a dancer and choreographer, Shiryaev had a special talent to create motion in his animated films. According to animator [[Peter Lord]] his work was decades ahead of its time. Part of Shiryaev's animation work is featured in Viktor Bocharov's documentary ''Alexander Shiryaev: A Belated Premiere'' (2003).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Lord|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Lord|date=2008-11-14|title=Peter Lord on Alexander Shiryaev, animation's great lost pioneer|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/nov/14/animation-ballet|access-date=2020-07-26|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref>Viktor Bocharov, ''Alexander Shiryaev: Belated Premiere'' (2003) documentary</ref>

====Ladislas Starevich (Russian period)====
Polish-Russian [[Ladislas Starevich]] (1882–1965), started his film career around 1909 in [[Kaunas]] filming live insects. He wanted to document [[rut (mammalian reproduction)|rut]]ting [[stag beetle]]s, but the creatures wouldn't cooperate or would even die under the bright lamps needed for filming. He solved the problem by using wire for the limbs of dried beetles and then animating them in stop-motion. The resulting short film, presumably 1 minute long,<ref>{{Citation|title=Lucanus Cervus (1910) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140341/reference|access-date=2020-01-22}} {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=March 2022}}</ref> was probably titled by the Latin name for the species: ''[[Lucanus Cervus (film)|Lucanus Cervus]]'' (Жук-олень, 1910, considered lost). 
[[File:1912. Прекрасная Люканида, или война рогачей и усачей.webm|thumb|Starewicz' ''The Beautiful Leukanida'' (1912)]]
After moving to Moscow, Starevich continued animating dead insects, but now as characters in imaginative stories with much dramatic complexity. He garnered much attention and international acclaim with these short films, including the 10-minute ''[[The Beautiful Leukanida]]'' (Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами) (March 1912), the two-minute ''Happy Scenes from Animal Life'' (Веселые сценки из жизни животных), the 12-minute ''[[The Cameraman's Revenge]]'' (Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами, October 1912) and the 5-minute ''[[The Grasshopper and the Ant (1913 film)|The Grasshopper and the Ant]]'' (Стрекоза и муравей, 1913). Reportedly many viewers were impressed with how much could be achieved with trained insects, or at least wondered what tricks could have been used, since few people were familiar with the secrets of stop-motion animation. ''The Insects' Christmas'' (Рождество обитателей леса, 1913) featured other animated puppets, including Father Christmas and a frog. Starevich made several other stop-motion films in the next two years, but mainly went on to direct live-action short and feature films before he fled from Russia in 1918.

====Willis O'Brien's early films====
[[File:The Dinosaur and the Missing Link.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=3|''The Dinosaur and the Missing Link'' (1915)]] 
[[File:Agathaumas.ogv|thumb|Excerpt from ''The Lost World'' (1925); animation by Willis O'Brien]]
[[Willis O' Brien]]'s first stop-motion film was ''[[The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy]]'' (1915). Apart from the titular dinosaur and "[[missing link (human evolution)|missing link]]" ape, it featured several cavemen and an ostrich-like "desert quail", all relatively lifelike models made with clay.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/00694020/|title=The dinosaur and the missing link, a prehistoric tragedy|website=Library of Congress|access-date=2020-02-17}}</ref> This led to a series of short animated comedies with a prehistoric theme for Edison Company, including ''Prehistoric Poultry'' (1916), ''R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.'' (1917), ''The Birth of a Flivver'' (1917) and ''Curious Pets of Our Ancestors'' (1917). O'Brien was then hired by producer Herbert M. Dawley to direct, create effects, co-write and co-star with him for ''[[The Ghost of Slumber Mountain]]'' (1918). The collaborative film combined live-action with animated dinosaur models in a 45-minute film, but after the premiere it was cut down to approximately 12 minutes. Dawley did not give O'Brien credits for the visual effects, and instead claimed the animation process as his own invention and even applied for patents.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Webber|first=Roy P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=le9QoR0JyEYC&q=%22The%20Dinosaur%20and%20the%20Missing%20Link%22%20clay&pg=PA10|title=The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-1666-0|language=en}}</ref> O'Brien's stop-motion work was recognized as a technique to create lifelike creatures for adventure films. O' Brien further pioneered the technique with animated dinosaur sequences for the live-action feature ''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1925).

====Helena Smith Dayton====
[[File:Stills from Helena Smith-Dayton films (1917-02 Popular Science Monthly V 90 p. 257).jpg|thumb|[[Film still|Stills]] from ''Battle of the Suds'' and other Helena Smith-Dayton films (1917)]]
New York artist [[Helena Smith Dayton]], possibly the first female animator, had much success with her "Caricatypes" clay statuettes before she began experimenting with clay animation. Some of her first resulting short films were screened on 25 March 1917. She released an adaptation of [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' approximately half a year later. Although the films and her technique received much attention of the press, it seems she did not continue making films after she returned to New York from managing a YMCA in Paris around 1918. None of her films have yet surfaced, but the extant magazine articles have provided several stills and approximately 20 poorly printed frames from two film strips.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://journal.animationstudies.org/jason-douglass-artist-author-and-pioneering-motion-picture-animator-the-career-of-helena-smith-dayton-runner-up/|title=Jason Douglass – Artist, Author, and Pioneering Motion Picture Animator: The Career of Helena Smith Dayton (runner-up) – Animation Studies|date=29 December 0201 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-25}}</ref>

====Starewicz in Paris====
By 1920 Starewicz had settled in Paris, and started making new stop-motion films. ''Dans les Griffes de L'araignée'' (finished 1920, released 1924) featured detailed hand-made insect puppets that could convey facial expressions with moving lips and eyelids.

====Other silent stop-motion====

One of the earliest clay animation films was ''Modelling Extraordinary'', which impressed audiences in 1912.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}

The early Italian feature film ''[[Cabiria]]'' (1914) featured some stop-motion techniques.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}