F. Percy Smith

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Frank Percy Smith (born January 12, 1880 in London ; died March 24, 1945 there ) was a British naturalist , photographer and early nature film pioneer . He worked for the film producer Charles Urban , where he pioneered the field of time-lapse and microscopic films.

biography

Percy Smith's parents were Francis David Smith (1854-1918) and Ada Smith (nee Blaker; born 1856). Percy Smith married Kate Louise Ustonson (1881-1959) in 1907. He became an employee of the British Board of Education and began to photograph the nature around him. Smith developed a passion for pushing the limits of filming. His close-up of the tongue of a blowfly caught the attention of film producer Charles Urban. Smith then created To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909) and The Acrobatic Fly (1910) before joining the Charles Urban Trading Company full-time . He was a director of more than 50 nature films of the series Urban Sciences , including the groundbreaking stop-motion film The Birth of a Flower (1910) before the First World War broke out.

During World War I, Smith served in the Royal Navy as a marine photographer from 1916 to 1918 . He made aerial photography of battlefields for the British Armed Forces and made a series of films depicting the battles with animated maps, including Fight for the Dardanelles (1915).

After the war he worked from 1922 for British Instructional Films on the series Secrets of Nature and made the comedy The Bedtime Stories of Archie the Ant (1925). He continued his work for BIF into the 1930s on the series renamed Secrets of Life . He handed over directing work on films such as Magic Myxies and The World in a Wine-Glass (1931) to his colleagues Agnes Mary Field (1896-1968) and Humphrey Robert Hewer (1903-1974), while he concentrated on the image recordings.

He died March 24, 1945 at his home in Southgate, London. His death was recorded as a suicide by coal gas poisoning and made the front pages of British newspapers. In his will he bequeathed 3,203 pounds 2 shillings 6 pence (about 138,449 EUR).

A selection of his films have been released on DVD by the British Film Institute .

A BBC documentary from 2013 describes Smith's work and tries to understand how his film The Acrobatic Fly was made.

Filmography

  • To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly (1909)
  • The Acrobatic Fly (1910)
  • The Birth of a Flower (1910)
  • The Strength and Agility of Insects (1911)
  • Fight for the Dardanelles (1915)
  • The Bedtime Stories of Archie the Ant (1925)
  • Life Cycle of the Maize (1942)
  • Life Cycle of the Newt (1942)
  • Life Cycle of the Pin Mold (1943)
  • Life History of the Onion (1943)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bryony Dixon: Smith, Percy (1880-1945) ( en ) In: BFI Screenonline . Retrieved April 24, 2011.
  2. ↑ Wild Movie History - Percy Smith. In: wildfilmhistory.org. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008 ; accessed on May 4, 2020 (English).
  3. ^ The Life Cycle of the Maize. In: film.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
  4. ^ The Life Cycle of The Newt. In: film.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
  5. ^ The Life Cycle of the Pin Mold. In: film.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
  6. ^ The Life History of the Onion. In: film.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Smith, F. Percy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Frank Percy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British naturalist, photographer and early nature film pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1945
Place of death London