Cineanalyst
This is an old brief news film, or "actuality", of the launch of the battleship HMS Albion on 21 June 1898 at London into the river Thames. As the battleship slid into the river, it caused a stage crammed with spectators to collapse and throw them into the water—killing 34 or so people (sources vary on the precise death toll). The tragedy wasn't captured in this film, though. What we do see here is a very good view from an altitude of 150 feet of the launch of the massive ship, but the tragedy happened just outside of the camera's view.There were, however, two other cameramen filming the event. One of them was Birt Acres, who may've captured the stage collapse, but who didn't release his film (or films), which is now lost. Acres wrote about how he found it unseemly to distribute such a disaster film, and he was very critical of R.W. Paul, the other filmmaker at the event and who did release his pictures of the tragedy. Acres's attacks seem to have had more to due with the acrimonious end to Acres and Paul's professional relationship, though. Together, they had been England's first native filmmakers and producers—making such pictures as the popular "Rough Sea at Dover" (1895).It's interesting to have seen both Paul's and E.P. Prestwich's films of the launch. Paul's film, unlike Prestwich's single-shot scene (this one) of just the launch of the battleship, includes four shots of before the launch and of rescue efforts afterwards, but neither cameraman captured the stage collapse. Nevertheless, Paul's film was quite a controversial scoop, and its four shots make it noteworthy in the history of motion picture technique. (For more on Paul's film, see my comments on the IMDb pages for "The Launch of the H.M.S. Albion".) Without the backstory, however, Prestwich's film is a seemingly ordinary primitive news picture—albeit from a good camera position and a clear print perhaps enhanced by the fact that it was photographed on 60mm film.The Prestwich Manufacturing Company was a small player in the early cinema of England. Paul, on the other hand, is one of the most important figures of the period, and he's responsible for many developments in film technique and narrative. The Prestwich Manufacturing Company was mainly concerned with producing cinematographic equipment. They only produced about 20 films in 1898—although they also sold other producers' pictures. (Main Source: John Barnes's "Pioneers of the British Film", the third volume of the informative book series "The Beginnings of the Cinema in England 1894-1901".)
