Tracking Shots
Close Ups on NZ Film History
Moving Pictures Hit New Zealand
"Everything moved as though in life; in fact, it was life reproduced. So natural was it that the moving figures on the screen were cheered." NZ Herald, 14 October 1896.
Motion pictures took New Zealand by storm. On 13 October 1896, using an Edison Kinematograph, "Professors" Hausman and Gow introduced New Zealand’s first film show. Short films were slotted in alongside musical and variety acts at Charles Godfrey’s vaudeville show. The single shot films were a medley of full-on action. Audiences were astounded by a train in motion, a merry-go-round, London streets, dancing girls. And they were willing to pay big money to see this new wonder.
Tickets were 4s, 2s 6d and 1s at a time when painters earned 8s a day.
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