Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894) FULL VIDEO

 

Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894)

Director: William K.L. Dickson

Cast: Fred Ott

Release Date: January 9, 1894

Country of Origin: USA

A man (the assistant to Thomas Edison) sneezes after taking a pinch of snuff. One of Thomas Edison's first motion pictures, it was the second in the US to receive a copyright.

Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, also called Fred Ott's Sneeze, is a brief silent black-and-white film from 1894 that was directed by William K.L. Dickson and starred Fred Ott. Although it is currently in the public domain, the Library of Congress claims that it is the second oldest copyrighted motion picture still in existence in the United States.

Fred Ott's Sneeze, also called Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze, is a brief silent black-and-white film from 1894 that was directed by William K.L. Dickson and starred Fred Ott. Although it is currently in the public domain, the Library of Congress claims that it is the second oldest copyrighted U.S. motion picture still in existence.

Filmed in January 1894, the roughly five-second clip shows Fred Ott, one of Thomas Edison's aides, taking a pinch of snuff and sneezing. The video was "made for publicity purposes, as a series of still photographs to accompany an article in Harper's Weekly," according to the Library of Congress. The published Harper's Weekly version shows a second sneeze and is marginally longer than what is currently preserved on film.

The Edison Manufacturing Company, led by Dickson, one of the first film pioneers, started producing movies in 1890. It was shot in the first American film studio, Black Maria, located in West Orange, New Jersey. Filmed between January 2, 1894, and January 7, 1894, it was shown on a kinetoscope at the time.

The movie was chosen by the US Library of Congress in 2015 to be preserved in the National Film Registry because it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Since the movie was released in the US before 1978 and more than 95 years ago, its copyright has expired and it is now in the country's public domain. The movie's copyright lapsed in 2006 in nations where it expires 70 years after the author's passing. For copyright reasons, the movie was first submitted to the Library of Congress as a "paper print"—a photographic record of every frame in the movie. The Library of Congress currently maintains a digital copy that is accessible on their American Memory website. This short video was part of the TV documentary The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies and was shown at the 30th Annual Academy Awards. The sneeze was captured on audio, but it has since been lost. 

The 1894 film Fred Ott’s Sneeze (formally titled Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze) is a foundational artifact in cinema history, best known for the following pioneering achievements: 

Earliest Surviving Copyrighted Film: It is widely recognized as the earliest surviving motion picture to be registered for copyright in the United States. It was submitted to the Library of Congress as a series of 45 still photographs on January 9, 1894, because no legal provision for "moving pictures" existed at the time.

First Medium Close-Up: It is cited as the first film to use a medium close-up shot, a technique that would later become a standard in narrative filmmaking and television.

National Film Registry Induction: Due to its cultural and historical significance, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2015.

Early Public Relations Tool: Unlike many early experiments, it was specifically commissioned for publicity purposes to accompany a series of still photographs for an article in Harper's Weekly about the new Edison Kinetoscope. 

At a run time of five seconds, this is the shortest film to be preserved in the National Film Registry.

While long considered the first motion picture ever copyrighted, 2022 research by the Library of Congress identified a slightly earlier registration for Edison's The Blacksmith Shop, though Fred Ott's Sneeze remains the most famous surviving early copyright deposit.