''Fun in a Bakery Shop'' is a 1902 American short film by Edwin S. Porter. Porter used

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

to depict clay loaves being sculpted into faces.Dobson (2010), p. xxiv The film was released on April 3, 1902, by the Edison Manufacturing Company. The film's plot was only the pretext of showcasing the skills of a fast sculptor. Niver (1985), p. 113

Plot

The film is set in a bakery's interior. A man dressed as a

baker A baker is a tradesperson who bakes and sometimes sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient history Since grains ha ...

kneads dough on a table, which is located next to an

oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been us ...

. He notices a

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

crawling up a

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

, and throws dough at the rat. When the rat is completely covered in dough, the baker pummels that dough with his hands. The baker's back is turned towards the camera, obscuring the manipulation of the dough. When he finishes, the dough has turned into a sculptured mask. The baker proceeds to create another mask. Two other bakers then arrive, and notice what he is doing. They grab him, and stick his head into a barrel of

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

. The film ends. Niver (1985), p. 113

Production

In 1897, plasticine was invented in the United Kingdom. The inventor William Harbutt published a book called ''Harbutt's Method and Use of Plasticine in the Arts of Writing, Drawing and Modelling in Educational Work'', with the intention of providing methods for using plasticine in educational contexts. The book also provided the methods which were used in the animation of clay, claymation. The first use of clay in proto-animation emerged in trick films. Wells (1985), p. 57-58 Several early trick films used the concept of the "lightning

cartoonists A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...

", while ''Fun in a Bakery Shop'' introduced the concept of the "lightning sculptor". While not seen as an actual example of claymation, it paved the way for the use of clay animation in two 1908 film adaptations of the works of Winsor McCay (''A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream'' and ''The Sculptor's Nightmare'').Wells (1985), p. 57-58

References

Sources

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External links

* {{Edwin S. Porter 1902 films 1902 short films 1900s American films Edison Manufacturing Company films Films about mice and rats Films directed by Edwin S. Porter Films using stop-motion animation Surviving American silent films