Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

45°44′42.6″N 4°52′10.6″E

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon
Screencap from Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon
Directed by	Louis Lumière
Produced by	Louis Lumière
Cinematography	Louis Lumière
Distributed by	Lumière
Release date	22 March 1895 (1895-03-22)
Running time	46 seconds
Country	France
Language	Silent

A version of the film

Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon (French: La Sortie de l'Usine Lumière à Lyon), also known as Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory, is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. It is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made,^[1] although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by six and a half years.

Content

Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways-‌‌‌‌‌‌the clothing style changes demonstrating the different seasons in which they were filmed. They are often referred to as the "one horse", "two horses", and "no horse" versions, in reference to a horse-drawn carriage that appears in the first two versions (pulled by one horse in the original and two horses in the first remake).^[2] Another film with the same theme was made in 1896, that features another factory (or another entrance to the same factory) with different people.^[3]

Production

This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.^[4]

Current status

Given its age, this short film is available to freely download from the Internet. It has also featured in a number of film collections including Landmarks of Early Film volume 1, The Movies Begin - A Treasury of Early Cinema, 1894 - 1913 and The Lumière Brothers' First Films.

The film has been known by a large number of alternative titles in France and the United States over the years since its production including La Sortie des Usines Lumière à Lyon-Montplaisir, Sortie de l'Usine Lumière, La Sortie des Usines, Les ouvriers et ouvrières sortant de l'Usine Lumière, Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory, Leaving the Factory, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, Lunch Hour at the Lumière Factory, Dinner Hour at the Factory Gate of M. Lumière at Lyon, Exiting the Factory, La Sortie des ouvriers de l'Usine Lumière.^[5][6]

The entrance to the Institut Lumière in 2014, with a glass projection displaying a frame from the film where factory workers were captured on film leaving the factory

See also

• France portal
• Film portal

• List of films in the public domain in the United States
• Roundhay Garden Scene, 1888 film