Stuart Blackton (left,)
was a young English-born adventurer who pioneered American films as
one of the founders of Vitagraph in 1899. In 1906 he issued a short
film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. A sensation
with audiences, the illusion was created by a very simple method.
Comical faces were drawn on a blackboard, then erased. The camera was
stopped after each face was photographed. The 'stop-motion' provided a
startling effect as the facial expressions changed before the audience's
eyes. Blackton also experimented with animation in The Haunted Hotel
(1906), The Magic Fountain Pen (1907), and other films.
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