Motion Picture Camera

Hello. My name is Movie Camera. I am a very special kind of camera. A regular camera takes a picture, and the picture stays still, like when you say 'cheese.'. But I can make pictures move. My creator was a kind man named Louis Le Prince. He had a wonderful idea. He wanted to make pictures dance and play and run, just like you do. He thought it would be magical to see a horse gallop or a friend wave hello in a picture that wasn't frozen. I was his big idea, and I was so excited to help him make magic happen for the whole world to see and enjoy.

Louis worked very hard to bring me to life. He used shiny gears that turned and a special glass eye called a lens to see the world. He worked day after day in his workshop. Then, on a very special sunny day, it happened. It was October 14th, 1888. I filmed my very first moving picture. I looked out at a beautiful garden and saw people walking around and laughing. They were my very first movie stars. Do you want to know how I did it? It’s my special secret. I take pictures super, super fast. Click, click, click, one right after another. When you play them all back really fast, it looks like the people are really walking. They were not stuck anymore. They were moving. It was a happy little miracle.

Before me, nobody had ever seen a moving picture. It was a brand new way to tell stories and share fun moments. I felt so proud. Soon, other smart people made new camera friends for me. Together, we all got better at telling stories on big screens. Now, my great-great-grandchildren are everywhere. They are the little cameras in phones that capture your smiles and the big cameras that make your favorite cartoons and movies. They help everyone share their own happy, silly, and amazing stories with the whole world. And it all started with a dream to make pictures dance.