A wonderful short film directed by illusionist-turned-filmmaker Walter R. Booth and produced by Robert W. Paul - one of the earliest examples of trickery in the editing room enabling an artist's creation to come to life on screen, a popular motif in early film. The film features a "lightning sketch" artist drawing a picture of a woman which comes to life piece by piece - first the head, then torso, arms, and finally legs. As the artist gets to work on his next creation, what turns out to be a baby, the woman scarpers leaving the man alone holding the baby and finally offering it to the camera, and therefore us the audience. Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, considers the story "a metaphorical cautionary tale about the responsibilities that should be borne by both creative artists and indeed the male sex in general."

Gesture

Slient Film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (and in particular, no audible dialogue). In silent films for entertainment, the plot may be conveyed by the use of title cards, written indications of the plot and key dialogue lines. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the advent of the Vitaphone system.