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Daily · The Illusion of Motion

360° scene from Burning the Castle Set of Ran121 BC – 1984 AD

From ancient shadow plays and early glasshouse studios to massive cameras hauled into deserts and jungles, today's rounds capture the mechanical and creative milestones that gave us the movies.

HistoryGuesser Daily5 locations49 plays121 BC – 1984 AD
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  1. Round 1 · 1984 AD

    Casual

    Burning the Castle Set of Ran

    Director Akira Kurosawa had a massive, historically accurate wooden samurai castle constructed on the slopes of Mount Aso, only to burn it to the ground in a single, unrepeatable take.

  2. Round 2 · 1953 AD

    Tricky

    Filming the Seven Samurai Final Battle

    For the climax of 'Seven Samurai', Akira Kurosawa waited for freezing temperatures and used fire engines to create a torrential rainstorm, filming the muddy battle with multiple synchronized cameras.

  3. Round 3 · 1958 AD

    Tricky

    Filming the North by Northwest Crop Duster

    Alfred Hitchcock's legendary 'North by Northwest' sequence involved Cary Grant being hunted by a Boeing Stearman crop duster across the flat, dusty expanses of California's San Joaquin Valley.

  4. Round 4 · 1895 AD

    Tricky

    Filming the Arrival of a Train

    The Lumière brothers' 50-second silent film of a train arriving at La Ciotat station became legendary for supposedly terrifying early audiences who thought the locomotive would burst through the screen.

  5. Round 5 · 121 BC

    Expert

    Emperor Wu's Shadow Play Demonstration

    Devastated by the death of his favorite concubine, Han Emperor Wu was consoled by a court magician who used a rear-illuminated screen and a carved figure to project her 'spirit', an early precursor to cinema.

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