F. Percy Smith
Directing
Born 1880-01-12
Died 1945-03-24
London, England
56 credits
Read biography
A distinguished pioneer of scientific filmmaking, Percy Smith was born in London in 1880. Working as a clerk at the Board of Education, Percy began to photograph the natural world around him, nursing a lifelong fascination with all manner of plant and animal life. His close-up photograph of a bluebottle's tongue caught the attention of film entrepreneur Charles Urban, who quickly began to exhibit Percy's work in London theatres. After the considerable success of sequences such as The Balancing Bluebottle, where he recorded flies juggling, Percy finally joined Urban as a full-time filmmaker in 1910. Before the outbreak of the First World War, Percy completed over fifty nature films for the Urban Sciences series including, in 1910, the famous piece,
The Birth of a Flower. An early example of stop-motion photography, the film was hugely popular. Meticulously researching his subjects, Percy devised ingenious ways to film slow-growing plant life - modifying his equipment with gramophone needles, candle wicks and other assorted objects, allowing him to continue filming plant movement even as he slept. In 1911 his study,
The Strength and Agility of Insects sparked a huge press debate - detailing a range of insects as they lift tiny dumbbells, twirl matchsticks and juggle objects much heavier than themselves he had to dispel rumours of trickery and cruelty by revealing his innovative filming techniques. Percy went on to serve as a naval photographer during the War and, upon his return, began work for British Instructional Films (BIF). Contributing to the company's widely acclaimed
Secrets of Nature series he worked on numerous films, including An Aquarium in a Wineglass (1926), The Home Wrecker (1929) and Magic Myxies (1931). He continued to work on the project in the 1930s when it became known as Secrets of Life and in 1939 published Secrets of Nature, a review of the filming techniques used throughout the series. (via wildfilmhistory.org)
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Filmography
Directing
26 credits
Down Under
Magic Myxies
The Birth of a Flower
Gathering Moss
The Strangler
The Frog
Brewster's Magic
Romance in a Pond
Peas and Cues
Fight for the Dardanelles
The World in a Wine-Glass
The Phantom
To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly
Varieties of Sweet Peas
The Plants of the Pantry
The Strength and Agility of Insects
Scarlet Runner & Co
Tale of a Tendril
Floral Co-operative Societies
Bertie's Cave
Nature's Handiwork
Story of the Silk Moth
Etude de fleurs
The Acrobatic Fly
The Battle of the Plants
Wisdom of the Wild
Other credits
42 credits
Plant Magic
Mixed Bathing
Overlooked
Lupins
Amazing Maize
The Birth of a Flower
Gathering Moss
Cabbage
Roots
Thistledown
The Strangler
White Flies and Tomatoes
The Life History of the Onion
A Queer Diet
Seed Time
Nature's Double Lifters
The Story of a Glass of Water
Kew and Me
Brewster's Magic
The Catch of the Season
Romance in a Pond
The Life Cycle of the Maize
Far and Wide
Peas and Cues
The Life Cycle of the Newt
The World in a Wine-Glass
To Demonstrate How Spiders Fly
The Plants of the Pantry
Scarlet Runner & Co
The Wonders of Harmonic Designing
Tale of a Tendril
Floral Co-operative Societies
The Battle of the Plants
Life in the Balance
Memories
The Life Cycle of the Pin Mould
The Tough 'un
Safety First
He Would a-Wooing Go
Fresh As a Daisy
Singing While They Work
New Generation
Acting
2 credits
Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith
Fight for the Dardanelles
Writing
1 credit
Fight for the Dardanelles
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