Originally Posted by
dynodonn
I wouldn't take this video as real life in 1905, I can see too many people panning for the camera. It would have been more accurate if the cameraman had filmed the street from an obscure window overlooking onto the street, and I suspect that the street would have less traffic than was shown.
It's real all right, this is a technique called the "Phantom Ride" which was putting a camera on the front of a vehicle and taking a ride. This was popular back then. And it was cheap and fast to make. Obviously some people are mugging for the camera, but San Francisco was a bustling city back then. They aren't paid extras.
Everyone appears to be moving slowly because of a poor transfer to youtube video. The frame rates are different between the film and the video. There was little standardization of the frame rates, how many frames of film were shot per second, back then, and they don't necessarily correlate to modern 24 frames per second for films. And then this was transferred to youtube video for more time error. Look at how slow the legs move when the people are running across the street. Think of how fast your legs move if you run across the street.
The cars are slow though. The boys running in the streets have no problem in catching up to them.
I enjoyed it, though I turned the sound off because it didn't fit with the time period.