1898: A Story to Continue

Come along, Do!
P and R: Robert W. Paul. UK 1898

Two sets, two shots, one story: How the narrative cinema was beginning

“Originally one of the first films to feature more than one shot, R.W.Paul‘s Come Along Do! sadly only survives as a fragment today. In the first shot, a couple sit outside an art gallery, idly eating their lunch. Noticing that others appear to be flocking to the exhibition advertised outside, they decide to follow suit. Apparently, the second shot featured the man showing a keen interest in a nude statue, until his reverie was interrupted by his wife pulling him away, presumably uttering the film’s title in the process. A still from this second sequence survives, and is reproduced above”.
Michael Brooke, British Film Institute
BFI Screenonline

About Robert W. Paul:
Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema

TRAUM UND EXZESS, S. 170 f.

Another example, one shot:

Kiss me
P: American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. USA 1904

“A high board fence is shown covered with theatrical posters. The one in the center shows the head and shoulders of a pretty girl. An old farmer and his wife are strolling along, the old gentleman being a little ahead. He looks at the picture of the girl and fancies he sees the eyes winking at him. He puts on his glasses to make sure that he is not dreaming, when the girl leans forward with an expression as if inviting him to have a kiss. The old man is about to take advantage of his delusion when his wife appears on the scene, and taking him by the ears rushes him away.”
Biograph Catalog
American Memory