W.K.L. Dickson films another "performer". This unnamed "athlete" steps left, right, and towards the camera, while moving a "wand" in basic movements.Not sure what to make of this strange presentation from Dickson and Edison. The guys movements are not what one would call athletic. For examples of athletes around the turn-of-the-century, watch Dickson's "Sandow" and "Hadj Cheriff", both from 1894. Those performers show real physical aptitude, while the "athlete" from this film is upstaged by the dog in the lower right. Why the dog is there, no one knows. Such were the crazy days in cinema's first year.

Another very early short by William Dickson, in his mid-30s at this point, shows an athlete wearing a white skirt and long pants showing us a couple tricks with his wand. If this was a Méliès film, the wand would have spat out a couple rabbits or stars or something else magical. But this is really just a sports presentation, one of the earliest sports documentaries ever. It's not particularly engaging and I wouldn't recommend it. Even at 45 seconds, it almost feels a bit repetitive. Worst thing about it is the poor fella didn't even get his name in the title like many other athletes or dancers from these Dickson showcase films from the late 19th century.

The athlete shows some great flexibility here! ...Seriously what is this guy doing? It looks ridicules. He is simply flexing his arms and legs in different positions while constantly holding a wand in his both hands. Of course they simply wanted to test as many movements as possible to see what the possibilities were, the do's and don't's and how it all looked on film.Interestinly there is also a dog lying in the corner, presumably also as part of the experiment to see how secondary objects, persons, other things or in this case a dog would look on the corner of the camera field. The dog also looked as if he/she was trying to figure out what this athlete was exactly doing, but he/she mostly didn't bothered with him and simply choose to relax a bit. I sympathize for him/her.For an early Edison Manufacturing Company film it's quite long. It's over 30 seconds long. And all shows that Edison and Co. were all making progress at the point.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This brief footage provides a glimpse into a developmental stage of early cinema, in that it preserves what was understood to be a practice feature made by the Edison Company, in preparation for filming some popular acts in their 'Black Maria' studio. The material itself is largely bland, but it contains a dash of ironic humor, whether it was intentional or not.The focus here is on a gymnast who does a brief, very simple routine using a wand or short staff, which he holds as he takes up various positions using his arms and legs. The point of the movie was not the gymnastic routine, which in itself is neither difficult or interesting. Rather, this footage allowed W.K.L Dickson and the other Edison film-makers to gain experience in the studio before filming the strongman Sandow (which they did shortly after making this) and other popular acts. Filming a moving performer helped them in judging how much movement the subject could make without leaving the camera field, and also with other such considerations that did not apply to still photography.Besides its main purpose, it has one humorous detail, in the dog lounging in the corner of the foreground. It's quite possible that the dog was placed there solely as a practical measure, to see how well the camera captured movements at the edges of the camera field. But it's also rather amusing to watch the dog and to see its reaction to the activities of the gymnast and the camera crew. Whether intentional or not, it adds a touch of humor to a movie that already holds some historical interest.