I was at the house of a woman who had bought an old painting. A second woman however, who lived in another room of the house, had taken the painting to her room so she could appraise it. Since I wanted to see the painting, the first woman took me to the room of the second woman so I could see the painting. When I walked into the room, I saw that the second woman had stuck the painting into the back of a device which looked like a television, but was actually a projector. On the other side of the room was a second apparatus which also looked like a television; it was on the second apparatus that a projection of the painting could be seen. Knobs could be turned on the second apparatus, and small parts of the painting would be projected onto its screen.

As I started looking at the painting on the screen, at first I was most interested in the projection apparatus. I had never seen a device like that for looking at different parts of a painting. Gradually I became interested in the painting itself, which seemed to depict a colorful medieval scene. At the same time, I began to realize that the characters depicted in the painting were moving; I didn't understand how that was possible. Finally I realized there was actually a series of paintings, and that the paintings had been an early attempt at making movies. I was amazed. Apparently the second woman who was conducting the appraisal didn't think the paintings would be worth much; but I thought they would be invaluable.

I walked over to the first television apparatus, hoping to see what the paintings actually looked like. But when the woman pulled it out of the television apparatus, I saw that she didn't have a painting at all, but a film. Only then did I realized she didn't have the original painting, but a reproduction of the early film technique. Nevertheless I was still interested in the film; I thought I might be able to buy it. I asked the second woman how much she thought the film was worth, but she wouldn't answer me.

The second woman (perhaps 40 years old) was thin and had black hair. She wasn't very friendly.

At any rate, now that I realized the film was only a reproduction, I knew it would be worth only a fraction of what the original would have been worth. Nevertheless I was still interested in this concept of early film-making.

I asked the second woman when she thought the original paintings had been made. She said it had been made around 1528. I found it very difficult to believe that anything dealing with film had been made as early as 1528. Obviously there was a large gap in my knowledge of film history.

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