The World’s First Color Film Discovered in a Film Can in England [Video]

One of the most important finds in the history of film was recently discovered in the National Media Museum in England - the world's first ever film shot in color.

The film was found in a forgotten film canister. One of the museum's employees thought he might know what it was, but had no idea the importance of what he had found - the first color movie ever shot on film in 1902, which predates what they thought was the first.

Prior to this discovery, it was thought the first color film was done in 1909 using what they called the Kinemacolour process, but it turns out there was an earlier process that was considered a failure.

The new discovery was shot around 1902 by Edward Raymond Turner, a film pioneer who patented his color process back in 1899. Turner's process involved shooting images through a red, green and blue filter, and he tested the process in his own backyard using his own children, the family goldfish and macaw parrot.

When Turner put the film on the projector, the colors could not be seen because the projector was unable to show the colors. Incidentally, Turner thought his work was a failure, but he was wrong, because the colors were recorded by the camera. Turner died of a heart attack less than a year later at the age of 29 and his work abruptly came to an end.

When the discovered film was put on a projector in an editing room, all were stunned to see some of the most brilliant colors ever captured on film. The find is being called one of the biggest breakthroughs in film history because the film is over 110 years old. The images are a little grainy, but incredible nonetheless as you can see for yourself below along with a more in depth explanation of the process. Incredible.