The world's oldest surviving movie is only 2.11 seconds long.

Louis Le Prince recorded the Roundhay Garden Scene on October 14, 1888. He used a single-lens camera he designed himself. The footage shows his son, his parents-in-law, and a friend walking and laughing. The movie is made of 20 individual pictures called frames. Le Prince shot the film at a speed of 12 frames per second. This creates the short 2.11-second clip we see today. He used paper film for the recording. This was a very early version of film before plastic-like celluloid became common. Most movies later used celluloid because it was stronger and clearer. Le Prince disappeared on a train to Paris in 1890. This happened right before he was going to show his invention to the public in New York. Because he vanished, other inventors like the Lumière brothers became more famous for early movies. The original paper film strips are kept at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. In 1930, experts made copies of the frames so the movie could be played safely. It remains the earliest known example of moving images captured on a single-lens camera.