Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is a 1906 short silent animated cartoon directed by James Stuart Blackton and generally regarded by film historians as the first animated film recorded on standard picture film.^[1][2]

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces
Directed by	J. Stuart Blackton
Produced by	J. Stuart Blackton
Starring	J. Stuart Blackton
Distributed by	Vitagraph Company of America
Release date	April 6, 1906 (1906-04-06)
Running time	3 minutes
Country	United States
Language	silent

Content

In the cartoon, animated hand-drawn scenes appear on a chalkboard, including a clown playing with a hat and a dog jumping through a hoop. In the beginning, though, the cartoonist's hands are included, too, as he draws the first several lines on the chalkboard in standard live action. From there, the stop-motion technique is used to show what appears to be drawings completing—and then moving—by themselves with no artist on screen.

Techniques

A single frame from the animation, showing the use of cut-out technique

Stop-motion as well as cutout animation are used, just as Edwin Porter moved his letters in How Jones Lost His Roll, and The Whole Dam Family and the Dam Dog. However, there is a very short section of the film where things are made to appear to move by altering the drawings themselves from frame to frame.

The film moves at 20 frames per second.

See also

• Fantasmagorie
• The Enchanted Drawing
• History of animation